Macklemore Hip Hop Analysis

Hip-hop is a historically black genre of music, with different iterations almost everywhere in the world now. If you turn on your car radio on the way to work it’s likely that you’ll hear a popular hip-hop song. You may even come across street performers having a rap battle. Either way, it’s one of the most common genres today. Hip-hop is a genre dedicated to telling stories of hardship in a poetic form. Music has always been a form of expression, but hip-hop brought a new level of storytelling to the music world. It allows artists to tell entire to tell long and detailed stories in the context of a song. Despite the growing presence of white artists, we associate hip-hop music with African Americans. Some say that African Americans own the …show more content…
With this song he uses his personal history to let his listeners know that he is using his music to express his views rather than using his status to make money off of the genre. Macklemore is conscious of the fact that he enjoys white privilege, however he shows that he appreciates and respects the roots of the hip-hop genre. That being said, there are some white artists who grew up in the exact same situations as some of the African American artists. These artists tell similar stories of gangs, political oppression, and financial hardship. Macklemore is just one example of a handful of white hip-hop artists who understand that they are the minority in this style of music. They are using the genre for the same reasons that African American artists do; to tell the stories of problems that they face, even though those problems may not be the …show more content…
However, there is a growing number of successful white hip-hop artists who are just as creative and just as visionary as the black artists who popularized the genre. It is becoming more widespread opinion that hip-hop music is evolving to incorporate all types of people. Dr. Dre, a very distinguished rap artist, responded to a question regarding the race of Eminem, an extremely successful white rap artist. He said “I don’t care if he’s purple, as long as he can rap.” (Hahn, The Politics of Race in Rap) This is an example of how rap music is blurring the lines of race and background. More and more rappers are being accepted into the culture based on the skill rather than race. I’ve always believed that music is colorblind. The evolution of rap music is a perfect example of how music accepts based on ability rather than background. In its young stages, the majority of artists were African American. Now they still hold the majority, but are embracing others into the culture. When rap music was born artists told the stories of their daily lives in an attempt to show the world what they went through each and every day. Since then the stories have changed to include those of all artists, regardless of race or