DJ Mix - Authenticity and Black Culture

To be authentic is a huge part of hip-hop as a culture. Everyone is contributing and putting their own twist on words and styles to make what they produce truly their own. Since rap and hip hop was created by a group of people that were largely if not primarily all black can a white rapper be authentic? Take Eminem for example he is basically alone as a white man who has done extremely well in the rap and hip hop world. He has produced many hits and tons that feature black artists. Dr. Dre takes credit for discovering him even. So why does he seem to envelop black culture in terms of rap and hip hop rather than being spit back out for not being “authentic” since he is white? It would seem that it is not what color your skin is but how you have experience similarities in life that really makes one become authentic in hip hop culture. For example the “rapper” Drake got his start from a TV show where Im sure he had the help of money, voice lessons and more. Then there is Eminem, born from the streets in poverty, struggled through it and made a name for himself. Drake made money and then used it to further his career where as Eminem was constantly having to fight to be heard whether it was a rap battle or a shot at getting some sponsorship for a record. This is why I believe that Eminem is much more a part of authentic rap and hip hop culture even though he is not black and someone such as Drake is. You have to work to get respect in this culture and Eminem has shown proof that he has where as Drake has not. Eminem even says it in his song Lose Yourself, “ I’ve been chewed up spit out and booed off stage.” If you haven't experienced struggles than the past would tell us you probably havent experienced hip hop as well.



Aubrey Graham, also known as rapper ‘Drake’ has been targeted many times throughout his career due to the question of ‘authenticity.’ Drake was born and raised in Toronto, Canada in a Jewish home with his mother of the Caucasian decent and father being African-American. Most rappers derive from the inner city, and use music as a way to make it out of the hood. For Drake, this was not the case and he was fortunate enough to reach fame at an early age as an actor on the hit Nickelodeon show Degrassi. The issue many rappers and listeners have is the inconsistent style representation. In one song, he’ll express a softer side about his sensitivity and relationships with women more relative to the R&B genre, and then in his next release you may find him rapping about popping bottles and freeing his ‘niggas.’ Other artists such as Common, and Pusha-T have recorded diss tracks attacking Drake’s inconsistent flow and false-representation. But why is it that other rappers of the Caucasian decent seemed to have not faced many of these identity issues. Why is it that Eminem is so well respected with the black culture and rap game? What is it about Em’s lyrics and lifestyle that may come off as more authentic than Drake?


Hey, so, Geflite Fresh here—I'll be tackling a different yet intimately connected angle for this DJ post, in an attempt to understand the issue of Authenticity in African-American musical traditions: I'll be looking a little at white performers of Blues music.

In his book Blue Chicago, David Grazian discusses a few different strategies by which White blues-men legitimate there performances as artists. Blues is seen as a fundamentally African-American musical style—the narrative often goes is that Blues is born from the very struggle of blackness itself (much like Hip-Hop is seen in terms of the struggle of urban blackness). While some white performers access this by presenting themselves as preservationists (modeling themselves after folklorists like Allen Lomax), or copy  the performance styles of black artists, more interestingly many white Blues musicians look towards white forms of authenticity, styling themselves after rock stars and rebels in attempt to elide the question of blackness in performance. It is interesting to think of the dialogue that this dynamic can have with Hip-Hop culture.



For my example of this, I turn to Stevie Ray Vaughun's performance of Elmore James's “The Sky Is Crying” , which embodies simultaneously the attempt to emulate black performance styles as well as to assert a white style. On one hand, Vaughun's performance is a scrupulous recreation of a classic electrified blues song (James is one of the pioneers of modern Blues music). He goes to great lengths, for example, to recreate the picking style of earlier Black performers, especially Albert King. On the other hand, he also has a distinctly White vibe—his dress and composure suggest more that of a white rock star, and ultimately that is where he derives his sense of “realness”: not by being more black than the black performers, but by accessing identities he is allowed.

What role might white forms of authenticity take in Hip-Hop Culture?