I Got a Natural Skill…: Hip-Hop, Authenticity, and Whiteness

Abstract

While hip hop remains forever tied to its African American roots, it is now undeniably evident in all aspects of popular culture. Eminem, a White MC, has achieved a level of success unmatched in the world of hip-hop. Conscious of his race, Eminem stresses that he is not to be placed in the White rapper category but should be respected for his skills. Despite this yearning, his emergence in a musical genre linked to Black culture furnishes a point of entry to outline strategies White MC's use to negotiate and rearticulate Whiteness as they strive for authenticity. Popular culture and media are implicated in the social construction of race by providing texts reinforcing and maintaining essentialized notions of Blackness and Whiteness, and hip hop is central to this process. The power and privilege of Whiteness resides in its non-naming and in response, hip-hop clearly marks Whiteness and provides a space to critically interrogate and question its normalcy. With relatively few discussions pertaining to White participation in rap music, this article links the struggle for authenticity in the hip-hop world to the social constructions of race and, specifically, these problematic essentialized notions that deny the complexities and fluidity of race.

KEYTERMS:

• authenticity
• hip hop
• MC
• social construction of race
• whiteness

I thank Dwight Brooks, Dan Buffington, Derrick Alridge, Alisa Fraley, and both reviewers for their constructive comments on previous versions of this article.

Notes

This article offers an analysis of White MCs in mainstream hip hop but understands that underground hip hop offers more examples of White participation.

Although this article does not elaborate on how mainstream media presents White participation in hip hop, the existence of shows/films such as Rap School, The White Rapper Show, White Boys in the Hood, and Malibu's Most Wanted are worthy of further discussion as they raise serious questions concerning racial identity and performance.