There’s been a lot of talk about race in the rap/hip-hop culture lately thanks to Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks’ feud, and white rapper Macklemore has jumped in.
Banks has accused the “Fancy” rapper of trying to impede on the African American culture, urging her to categorize her music somewhere else other than rap or hip-hop.
In a radio interview she even involved Macklemore, saying his winning Best Rap Album for The Heist at the Grammys was undeserved.” She said it “wasn’t better than the Drake record.”
E! Online reports the “Thrift Shop” rapper stopped by Ebro in the Morning on Hot 97 and said, "You need to know your place in the culture,” calling hip-hop a “culture that came from pain and oppression.”
“Just because there's been more successful white rappers, you cannot disregard where this culture came from and our place in it as white people,” he said. “This is not my culture to begin with. As much as I have honed my craft...I do believe that I need to know my place."
He went on to talk about the ways he’s “safe” where African American rappers are not.
"Why can I cuss on a record, have a parental advisory sticker on the cover of my album, yet parents are still like, ‘You're the only rap I let my kids listen to,'" he said. "Why can I wear a hoodie and not be labeled a thug?...The privilege that exists in the music industry is just a greater symptom of the privilege that exists in America. There's no difference."
Macklemore made it clear he only wants to contribute to the culture and the hip-hop and rap movement that started decades ago.
He asked other white rappers to ponder, “Are you contributing or are you taking? Are you using it for your own advantage or are you contributing?”
image via Famous/ACE/INFphoto.com