>wrote my first rhyme before she was born, most likely got
>into hip-hop virtually the same exact way she did (just well
>before she existed), both of us genuine, i have a difficult
>time hearing her say she created hip-hop and I'm just
>appropriating it from her.
>
>When people talk about culture, do cats even have an accurate
>concept of what culture is and how it works?
>
>Culture is what's around you, what you're exposed to, what you
>engage in. The reason why cheesemaking is tied to French or
>Italian people is that they are known to partake in it. But an
>Italian person born tomorrow doesn't get to tell some Asian
>cat from Vermont they are stealing cheese. Culture is not
>determined in anybody's genetics or DNA. Its about what's in
>your life. Any of you who have long loved eating lo mein, lo
>mein is part of your culture. You're not Chinese, but one day
>when ppl look back, lo mein is going to also be associated
>with your corner.
>
>If you want to lament too many white artists winning Grammy's,
>well first of all the Grammys suck. They never actually pick
>the best (fill in blank). There's no expectation among serious
>ppl that they do. They are shit and don't mean shit and
>certainly don't represent music, the general audience and
>definitely not hip hop heads. Second, there's a shitload of
>white ppl who grew up on hip-hop or some portion of it, like
>rap music. So its inevitable due to natural expansion of
>cultural components.
>
>Part of being relevant is casting a larger net. The more
>people who have been exposed and affected by hip-hop, the more
>people there are for whom aspects of hip-hop is a real part of
>their culture. That's not culture smudging, culture vulturing,
>its a culture expanding and diffusing. Welcome to planet
>Earth. Every cultural thing that doesn't die quick will travel
>and bind itself into the cultures of new people in new ways.
>And it begins to morph and branch and become at some point so
>splintered and different from the "root source" (which is
>never itself really a root source) that various branches are
>unrecognizable. At certain points along the flow and exchange
>of human activity and taste we call "culture" names are given
>to said moment/shape that help to speak on it, but also codify
>it in an artificial way.
>
>I dont get to claim the achievement and cultural impact of the
>Wright brothers. When Azaelia flies to a concert, she isn't
>jacking avionics from me, and Macklemore isn't jacking hip-hop
>from her. She didn't invent anything.
>
>Does a hypothetical black 20-year-old rapper from Illinois
>really get to tell one of those early white graf writers and
>breakers who used to frequent Kool Herc's old parties that
>"you're appropriateling my culture?" Please
>


You're trivializing the argument.

It doesn't matter if someone is born tomorrow or is 40. Black Music is Black Music. This is our culture.

This doesn't erase the fact that Macklemore and Iggy rap in a black accent.

Sure no one takes the Grammy's seriously, but the problem is this isn't even about the Grammy's at all. It's about the industry. And this doesn't just happen in Hip Hop, it happens in Rock and Roll, Jazz, R&B, etc.