Don’t get me wrong white people rapping can certainly be an issue, but in my opinion, it is not THE issue. Black youth culture has long since been the cultural capital of America and hip-hop is its language.
by Xan West
What do you get when you cross a Bay Area cultural tendency to confuse overcoming past racial injustice by ignoring its painful effects in the present, a musical genre where young people can rise to superstarmegawealth before they’ve had many complicated thoughts, and a nation with a penchant for producing stereotypical renditions of oppressed communities while rendering them helpless and/or completely decimated. You get Oakland’s overnight viral white rap star Kreayshawn.
Kreayshawn, in her own words, is no cultural appropriator and not just an image. In fact, she claims East Oakland’s “Murder Dubs” and says she grew up so hard she got a bonafide ghetto pass. And while she did apparently grow up in the flatland and go to Oakland Public Schools, if that’s the measure of street cred, well, Tom Hanks is gangsta (He went to Skyline).
But to me, who Kreayshawn really is, matters much less than how she is who she is (or wants to be). It’s not a question of is it ok for white people to rap, as much as why is white America so obsessed with black-people-love-me white people who are unaware of their white privilege on every level?
Don’t get me wrong white people rapping can certainly be an issue, but in my opinion, it is not THE issue. Black youth culture has long since been the cultural capital of America and hip-hop is its language. However, most true hip-hop heads aren’t still having the argument can white people contribute to the rap game. Not since Brass Monkey. Not since MC Serch produced Illmatic. Not since Eminem hog-tied the alphabet. The real problem: Kreayshawn ain’t any of the above. Kreayshawn chooses to use the platform she has been given as white-girl rapper to further perpetuate white supremacy. What’s that saying: It’s better to be thought of as invested in white privilege than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. When I had the opportunity to talk with the hipster-hopper; she removed all doubt.
Perhaps the most insidious manifestation of white privilege its sheer lack of self- acknowledgement; and Kreayshawn is no exception. When I asked her if she thought being white has helped or hurt her career, she quickly said, “Honestly, I think it’s hurt it”. While half my block is more talented than Kreayshawn, she insists upon imagining herself a “rap beast” who has hustled her way to the top, seemingly entirely unaware that it is tiny white girl hip-pop swagger that she’s selling. In fact, of all the pro arguments I’ve heard for her, lyricism has never come up. Let’s keep it one hunnit: she garbage on the mic and the only thing less complex than Kreayshawn’s 1-2, A-B flow style is her thought process.
While selling bootlegged hood swag, she plays by the boys rules of misogyny and sexualization of women in hip-hop. Sadly, in this case she’s pimpin’ her own self: vacillating between ghetto misogynist with bad bitches and “no raging lesbian”. She’s doubled-down for a sexualized misogynist, how ya like me now? As a femme myself, I find this identification of a mythological “raging lesbian” stereotypical, simplistic, revolting and a product of her own internalized homophobia.
Further evidence that Kreayshawn is deeply immersed in her white privilege is her wielding the Bay Area white supremacist tendency to assume an engagement in a deeper race conversation, through the usage of “post-racial” rhetoric. She exploits the image of the flower-child Bay Area to justify her own bad behavior. A couple of weeks back, while visiting New York, Kreayshawn tweeted : “I’m from somewhere race in music don’t matter”. She continued this thought when we chopped it up: “I’m an artist above all. When I put out music it’s not Black music; it’s just art to me”. Kreayshawn is completely unaware of the legacy of people like Elvis, Pete Seeger, the Rolling Stones and Amy Winehouse; who have made millions off making black music more white palatable for the masses.
But contrast that with someone like Eminem, who has many faults, yet on this particular topic has been known to say things like “you do the math/ if Shady was Black/ he wouldn’t sell half”. While Slim Shady gets that his blue-eyed soul got him into Middle America, Kreayshawn’s lack of understanding for how she arrived at her own prominence is beyond tired.
“People are ignorant. It makes me sad because I don’t think there should be such a thing as acting a race. Any race and any person in this world no matter what gender or color or sexuality should be able to do whatever you want,” she says. “Just like Obama’s president. No one is sayin’ Obama’s actin’ white for bein’ President. It makes me sad to hear people say things like that because you can’t put people’s actions into a gender or a race because it’s like stereotyping”.
This statement is so outta pocket it shouldn’t need a breakdown, but here’s a humble attempt. Rapper is not an elected office. President is not a cultural expression. Stereotyping isn’t a benign omnidirectional act; it is something people with power do to overlook, group and ultimately exclude those with less power. Many people of oppressed races, genders and sexualities are in fact not able to “do whatever they want”: hip-hop is actually an expression of this oppression as much her corny kumbaya is an expression of her white privilege. Once again, she uses her privilege as a cover for white supremacy, dreaming of a world where everyone has the access she does, instead of acknowledging the world as it is for all her alleged hood posse.
Perhaps most controversially she has given several interviews in which she claims she doesn’t use the n-word, yet YouTube and her own website are full of videos of her and her friends using the word. Perhaps the most offensive is a video clip, apparently filmed and edited by her, which portrays White Girl Mob bandmate V-Nasty shouting down a Black man on Telegraph yelling, “Aye, nigga… Nigga what? … On my mama, nigga!” According to Kreayshawn, this is the Oakland she grew up in where “black people call white people nigga, white people call black people nigga… and it’s all good,” she told Complex Magazine. As if this wasn’t enough, Kreayshawn has found Black males on the paperchase to support her claim, including her manager and Oakland rapper (and labelmate), Mistah FAB. While I am never one to argue authenticity or that people ain’t keepn it one hunnit, am I the only one that is starting to believe she is from Oakland, Mars? I’m jus sayin’, in my 23 years in Oakland I ain’t never seen it go down like that and if she bring it to my neighborhood in Oakland, well, I’ll just say, I won’t be able to protect her.
Sadly, in some ways Kreayshawn’s lack of understanding of her white privilege does represent an Oakland I’ve seen. An Oakland where people of color’s most accessible hustle is through white coat tails and therefore, making white supremacy legit. But an Oakland where white people is callin niggas, niggas! You trippin’, Kreay Kreay.
Xan West is currently the senior producer of Childhood Matters and Nuestros Niños (Spanish language), two parenting radio programs that air throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. A proud Oakland native, Xan has lived in the Foster-Hoover area (more familiarly referred to as “Ghost Town”) of West Oakland for the past six years. She has worked in community organizing in West Oakland with organizations such as Critical Resistance and People’s Grocery.
Xan, your analysis of Kreayshawn is so right. She is ignorant, racist and homophobic. I believe that she has exploited race and sexuality for her own personal gain. The good thing is that she lacks of talent and because of it people are not taking her seriously. Great article! Have you heard that Smith college cancelled her concert because Kreayshawn’s cultural appropriation was offensive to them.
The amazing thing is how Kreayshawn and her family, her mother Elka never supported Oscar Grant. According, to a friend of mine who is Elka Zolot’s friend on Facebook. She was blaming Oscar Grant for his death and supported the Oakland police. He send me her FB post. It’s disgusting how suddenly they switch their position for financial gain. It seems that Kreayshawn grew up around red necks. it’s a shame that kreayshawn will back up Occupy Oakland! Get her out. It’s not her place to be. What a hypocrites!
@ Darcy, I remember Zolot’s post about Oscar Grant . I just want to add that I used to be a friend of Elka Zolot on Facebook ( I dropped her) and in one occasion I confronted her about her racist comments. She got mad. She also used to post things like “single mothers on welfare should not be allowed to have children” crazy things like this. What a contradiction with what Kreayshawn says about her mother and upbringing. Kreayshawn grew up mostly in Alameda, a white middle class town next to Oakland.
Kreayshawn does not represent Oakland, I hope that Kreayshawn and her mother will not join Occupy Oakland because it’s not their place. The only reason they will do it is for publicity and fame. Let’s do like they did at Smith College. kick their asses off Oakland!
People who like Kreayshawn? Here’s an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc2RagJmUCo
Thanks so much for your comments! Didn’t know about mom and hadn’t heard about her supporting OO! But, as actually talented Oakland artist Ise Lyfe says, “It’s not about the one wack rapper, it’s about the million people that buy the wack rappers album”…
Thanks so much for the article, your breakdown is awesome. I wish I’d read it earlier. I’ve linked to your article in the footnotes of this, which isn’t specifically about Kreayshawn, but more generally about cultural appropriation
http://harshbrowns.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/the-kreayshawn-complex-cultural-appropriation-as-counter-cultural-expression/
how is she homophobic? you know she’s gay, right?
First she says she is Bi. If she was gay or bi where are the women she dated? Who knows maybe she dated someone for a night or two and she brags that she is gay. She just appropriates homosexuality like she appropriates black culture for her own financial gain and desire to stardom. People needs to get an education!!! College? Do you think that academia never discuss these issues?
If you look at the picture above. Doesn’t look gay to me. Ahah! It seems that she is having sex with a male not a female. LOL! What a loser!
She doesn’t “look gay”? Idiot.
Also, Elka is a wonderful person, and there are plenty of people who don’t support Oscar Grant in Oakland. Not supporting him does not make someone racist-AND, OPD didn’t even shoot him, BART police did, so straighten your story out. Every single one of you could be called an “ist” of some sort if you were being scrutinized and everything you said analyzed and broken down.
OPD, BART, whats the real difference? and if you’re white and don’t support Oscar Grant you are a racist. and if you’re white and engaged in Black cultural expression (which rap is, no matter her particular un-definition) and you dont support Oscar Grant you are actually in a beyond-racist category. period. no more discussion necessary.
Stop blaming white people for a culture that celebrates consumption and apathy. Why don’t we talk about lack of turnout in the midterm elections that led to the tea party obstructing a president trying to help poor and working class. People turned out to vote in a black man but sat on their asses when his party was up for election on 2010. Kreayshawn seems and sounds just as ignorant about social and racial justice as 99 percent of the rappers and their fans out there. Take a look at yourself and your community before pointing fingers
Blame mid term elections more than white people? Blame hip hop as imposing apathy? That’s all laughably stupid but with real serious consequences particularly for Black people. We do look at our communities and conclude that they exist and exist as they do because of white people and then appropriately blame them. If white people ever fixed themselves instead of always blaming others for their problems those others would have no problems with white people. But whites continuously prove incapable of self-improvement that doesn’t first require destroying another, so they do and should continue to receive the blame.
Here’s a link of an Interview of Kreayshawn for a Men magazine. She is NOT gay like she pretends to be! What a fake. She is appropriating African American cultures and Gay culture in order to gain fame and money!
http://www.askmen.com/celebs/interview_600/662b_kreayshawn-interview.html
This ideas in this article are exhausted.
It reminds me of Jessie Jackson saying that he wants to cut off Obama’s balls…a prime example that if you aren’t willing to let go, move on, and change, you will get left behind. The whole Kreyshawn thing represents that. She (and her generation) isn’t acting how you expect them, not because she is a white supremist but because your worldview is tired and beat.
Let’s face it: younger white kids aren’t nearly as straightjacketed by white guilt as prior generations — which to the author of this article is interpreted as terrible proof that these younger kids must be exercising white privilege.
Move on, wake up, grow up! It is 2012. And you are still using Elvis as an example of what is wrong with the world today. You are intellectually exhausted and beating a dead horse.
Murder Doves lol I ain’t never heard of her she got 2 state some background history on where she kicked it at in DUBS.IF your really from the Dubs you’ll know that it’s also called 20′s Murder DoveS I’ve been 20′s bound since 79 blood I know that something fishy bout this chick All I know iz she aint from the real MURDER DOVE$ playa YEEEEEYEEEE $he a fan of u$ the real under catz from da MURDER$ breh breh plus the Dubbs iz big, u got BEEDA WEEDA on the top side on 2eight u knoW I’m $orry 2 many sets 2 name she can easily jump on the bandwagon and say shes from the MURDERS Why aint BeedA F%!ked with her then? IDK sounds like she Imposter
*clap,clap, clap*!! I am standing up and applauding! I definitely co-sign everything-she’s garbage on the mic, and her White Girl Mob exudes racism and white privilege to the fullest. I am disgusted she gets any shine!