This post is dedicated to the most entertaining combination of social media and pop culture that exists: Black Twitter + Any award show. This is the time when all the blackest funniest rachetest amateur twitter comedians come out to entertain the masses. It also happens to be one of my favorite hobbies. While watching the VMAs I noticed that Macklemore caught some serious (and hilarious) hate from followers. ie one of my followers tweeted "Macklemore is the white guy you date when you realize that you only date black guys" I was trying to figure out why Black People hate Macklemore so much and I think I figured it out.Lets start this by saying black people are THE HARDEST race to please. You ever seen Showtime at the Apollo? You better entertain us quick or we will sandman your ass off stage so fast you will wish you never saw a stage in your life. We are HARSH. Not only do we want our cake, we want to eat it obviously BUT it better be our favorite cake with a cold glass of milk. Oh and dont let us find out that another race got a better cake cuz we'll want that one too. With that said we are very protective over our music. We have no problem with other races participating in music we create but you better damn sure make it some music that we like. A couple years back I wrote a post called 10 White People that Black People Love. Some notable musicians on the list included Justin Timberlake, Robin Thicke, Eminem, Michael McDonald (lol) I explained why black people love them and the points ring so true to this post that I felt compelled to bring them to the attention of the readers.
So here is a list of the reasons I came up with.
Why Black People Hate Macklemore.
1. He's white (and rich)
this is sad but true. If your a rapper and white and rich, you've already got some ground to cover before your getting the black vote.
2. He has no Black cosigners.
If you notice all the white musicians we love have respected Black friends JT got Jay Z. Eminem has Dre , Robin Thicke has the envy of every Man on his arm in Paula Patton. We respect that and that brings me to the next point.
3. Macklemore dates a white woman.
Now you might be thinking, well he IS White, BUT I guarantee if he showed up to the VMAs with a black woman or at least acknowledged he like Black Chicks he would get more love.
4. He's got corny music.
Now this should be at the top of the list since we are discussing music but unfortunately its clear that we Black peopel don't give a shit whether your music sucks...if your Black (2 chains, lil Wayne, Trinidad, etc...) 5. His only black friends look like some really humble fat nigga
formally of the Harlem Boys Choir all grown up (Ray Dalton) and that nigga with dreads that hangs out in front the coffee shop reciting original poetry at 12 noon who you're still not sure is homeless or not. (his trumpet player)
Long story short. We dont understand Macklemore. He's "weird" black people dont do weird, and we really dont like different (so sad). We dont know how to pronounce his name and we hope he'll be forgotten before we actually figure out how to say it right. I'm sorry Macklemore. We're not jumping on your bandwagon anytime soon.
Pretty much destroyed my poker face in class. Almost lost it about 3 times reading this. Hilarious!
ReplyDeleteI would say listen to Macklemore's whole album before you make the generalizations. I understand your logic, and he's very capable of making corny music (so is Childish Gambino...) but has some pretty damn serious content too...obviously he gives the radio crowd what they want to hear but that's not really what he's about.
ReplyDeleteThat also wasn't supposed to sound defensive at all. Truth is, I never liked him until fairly recently. In fact, the first song I ever heard by these fellows was And We Danced....and if you want corny, hoooooly shit...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhf5cuXiLTA
What you're missing is that there's two sides to dude. He has silly and serious. Thrift Shop IS NOT a serious song, and obviously neither is And We Danced. They're both subtly making fun of the people that eat it up.
Regardless, I listened to one of his older, more serious efforts, and dude has some strong opinions. White, black, or blue, who are we to discredit them? I think we can hear them in the same way we hear someone on the street that talks to us about anything we don't care about and either listen and become part of the conversation or just move on.
I don't read much into possible topical exploitation but I truly believe the shit he's saying is merely his opinion on issues he feels strongly enough to discuss and that's it. We can do what we want with it, but it's just an opinion. And it's pretty damn harmless, too. He's not attacking, he's commenting. And he just apparently is a poet that realized that a successful medium for having his voice heard is through music.
Damn right I support it.
If you like Macklemore and his corny music thats fine...I find him to be a decent artist as I said before. But he is CORNY. I wont take it back. I could care less about his opinions. I'm just telling you black people dont like his ass and if you disagree follow us on twitter and see how many people favorited and Retweeted...lol @5ivebruhs...also click the Facebook like button...Im not wrong on this. I'm just not.
ReplyDeleteSo here's an interesting conversation....
ReplyDeletePerson 1: i literally have ZERO respect for people hating on macklemore. it is the dumbest shit I've ever heard. the article is laughable. as is the hate. and your cavalier attitude. fuck off. i have no tolerance for it
Person 2:Lol ok. I don't care about your level of tolerance
Person 1: you're so ignorant. enjoy it
Person 2:He respects his white priv? Lol He attempts to exploit for his fame. Doing his thing? Ha
You know nothing about hip hop
Person 1: http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.25160/title.macklemore-says-he-benefits-from-white-privilege-explains-eminem-s-influence
Learn something before you speak. What are you some kind of hipster? Hip Hop is for black people only? jump off it. Seriously. I'm over this conversation. I have nothing more to say to you and I won't listen to your ignorance. Educate yourself and welcome to the real world.
Person 2: You're insinuating im racist? And what do you know about the real world? You're a funny funny girl. He's not a good rapper
And he's far far far from Eminem and his talents. Please don't attempt to school me on hip hop and race. I promise you you will not win
Tim Graham,
ReplyDeleteif you read the article you'll see that I am not dissing Macklemore based on my personal opionions...I am going off of how other people responded at the VMAs on twitter. (how base level can you get?) clearly I'm not trying to have an intelellectual discussion about Macklemore or I would have written the entire article differently. Its meant to be funny and ridiculous because there is no logic associate with how Black People (and the general public) decide to hate people. You might need to lighten up a bit?
Lighten up? No.
ReplyDeleteRead more carefully or learn about y'all's styles as bloggers? Definitely.
I look forward to engaging in discussions if the forum is ever open!
Honestly we'd be happy to have you back Tim. No disrepect.
ReplyDeleteits Ryan Lewis I cant stand lol
ReplyDeleteI'd also say that black people can't relate to Macklemore and his style of "rap". His supporters are those who look like him and like that style of music, and for the most part they aren't black.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you up in arms about black people not loving Macklemore? Ya'll think he's the second comming of Eminem? He's not. I liked Bubba Sparxxx music better because he was a country white boy who liked to rap. and he did it without trying to score pre-points by pointing out its hard to be a white rapper.
Black, white, purple or polka dot to be considered a good rapper you need to be good at rap. This dude isn't. Race only has to do with it in that he is running a race in which he's starting behind all the black rappers BECAUSE he's white. Yea that sucks, but the thing about an unfair race is that you can't win unless you run. I think he's trying to set the bar level by talking about his "white privilege" Just a few points from me.
I just think he's not a good rapper and alot of black people agree. There is no argument there. Are the reasons fair? Thats another topic.
Really, just way too many words...
DeleteThe answer is simple: black ppl are prejudice. Black ppl are the most prejudiced haters on the planet. & that is, very simply, at the crux of the issue for why black ppl hate Macklemore..
Which is why it's a joke that they are the loudest about equality.
Black ppl aren't for equality. Black ppl are for black ppl like German Nazi were for Germans. Which is fine to be for your own clique, but it def ain't equality.
The fact that he's white only makes him easier to hate.... But it's inconsequential... The black community HATES gay ppl. Period. Point blank. Exceptions to the rule ain't the rule. When he put the black community in their place with their own medium, they had nothing else to do but hate - or admit hypocrisy. His music isn't any more corny than what these sellout niggas are makin these days, ever since the 90's.
They have to hate. Not difficult.
I think this article is hilarious AND true. Black people don't like Macklemore because he is white... And numbers 1,2,3 and 5 are solely based on race. If you're white in the black man's world then you're facing an uphill battle everyday. I'd argue that this article is a bit of a testament to reverse racism, but I'll steer away from that topic.
ReplyDeleteI think some commenters have veered away from the point of the article. I respect Macklemore and I respect his voice. I agree with his opinions and think it is awesome that he is standing up to the hate that still exists in our world. I like his music because of his words, I bought the album to support, and I don't think he's THAT bad of a rapper... but then again I'm not into hardcore rap, so to me this style of "rap" is just fine.
As much as I support and like what Macklemore stands for, he IS corny. So are a lot of other rappers and artists. Macklemore just catches more flack for it because he is white. End of story.
I'm in no way qualified to enter into this discussion as I'm neither black nor very well up to date on hip hop, but I'd just like to say that Macklemore irritates me, and I have a hard time even putting my finger on a clear reason why, except that I do find his music corny and pandering to this sort of cheesy/false sympathetic crap.
ReplyDeleteI mean, "Thrift Shop" seems like a joke, but then you realize it's incredibly dumb because it's not, he's gets into honestly lecturing about how it's better to shop thrift than to shop at Gucci. Thanks for the cheesy life lesson. Also I'm pretty sure he can't answer a question without the word "hella," which seems like a forced, annoying attempt to make everything more casual. As others have pointed out, too, he's far from the first to discuss social issues, etc. with hip-hop. Seems to me that's an integral part of the genre to begin with, so it shouldn't be big news.
I see it as the same situation with blues/jazz, etc. in the past, where the original masters of those genres were black and got no recognition until white people started picking it up. Then again, I think there are legitimate crossovers and I would hope that at some point, the racial origin of musicians won't matter. But they already don't, I guess the origins in a culture are the real thing at stake -- I mean, seems like Eminem is more legitimately rooted in hip-hop, whereas Macklemore has come at it from the side and suddenly gets taken as this sort of "well-spoken, socially conscious hip-hop" position, as if it didn't exist before. Basically discredits black artists who have been doing the same thing unnoticed by the wider white mainstream for a long time.
I ended up on the NPR "Tiny Desk" concerts too, where Macklemore was featured, and it struck me that they haven't (and don't seem to have any intention to) featured black hip-hop/rap artists on NPR, so the only reason they're featuring him is because they're "appreciating" hip-hop, and he seems like a safe, non-threatening/non-challenging version of it. I seriously dug through that series of NPR videos, and the only black people they've ever had are "world music" acts from Africa (so cultural, right? Not to knock them, they were fine, but seriously, the lack of black AMERICAN artists is stupid. NPR is trying so hard to be "culturally diverse," but actually they just ignore any aspects of American culture that don't fit their opinion of what "culture" is. They can do what they want, but I think they're actually close-minded.) Anyway, I found that annoying, especially when I don't find Macklemore to be all that interesting. With my limited knowledge of Hip Hop, I have to say that if NPR really wanted to be supportive of the emergence of creative hip hop & rap, they missed the boat 25-30 years ago when it started, since it's always been creative and about social issues, but white people weren't really paying attention, I think. They just heard it as black noise. I say this as a white person who wasn't really paying attention, in retrospect.
Anyway, I'm glad I'm not alone in finding him irritating. The part about the guy reciting original poetry at noon is hilarious... know a few of those.
Interesting read and I definitely see reason behind some of the points being made in the original post.
ReplyDeleteI think people who listened to M & RL before "Thrift Shop," circa mid-2000s when they were mostly still in the Seattle scene will say their music is not corny.
True that "Thrift Shop" and "Can't Hold Us Down" appeals to the masses and is very commercial, but I'm glad M & RL brought in other artists that support independent hip hop like Talib Kweli and Res on tour with them.
I guess you can also say Macklemore sort of has Sir Mix-a-lot since they're both Seattleites lol.
At any rate, I'm glad to see independent artists doing so well and I hope they win big at the Grammys.
Wow! Most ignorant post I've ever read in my life. ~Offended black person
ReplyDeletewow, seems like this guy knows black peoples minds like a psychic....nah, black peeps don't like him cus hes a parody, a wannabe hyped up like eminem. there's a 100 white rappers better, Diabolic for one. nobody hates gim for being rich, it's more to do with getting rich off the back of an originally black artform (as has happened forever, since y`all m.f.s put your faces on our records to sell them) and being so obviously a bandwagon rider.
ReplyDeleteyeah, it's a racial inferiority complex, that's why they all want to be rappers/esses tan up, inject those lips, implant those buttocks, speak with a twang and slang, do any black dance style, wear those hair extensions. btw, there is a difference between black and nigga, bit like the difference between white and redneck. just understand e`erybody wanna be a nigga!!
ReplyDeletelol, im just glad hes described as a rapper and the term hip-hop wasnt used. ahhh let em have them have their glory with their POP acts. We start the trend, enjoy the trend then take that trend to it's boundaries until it morphs into the new trend while 10-15 yrs later they manage to break in and make it sound contrived. Do I care, nope, but niggas need to stop selling out the culture cus real brothers never would. White rappers? no probs. White wannabe niggas, saboteur chameleon muthafukas need to go.
ReplyDeleteAll your reasons are immature, sophomoric and a little bit racist bro..
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of brothas don't like him because he doesn't front. He's just himself. Most brothas put up a huge front. They rap about fake ass bullshit. They grab the mic, talk shit and lie about themselves.
Rap and hip-hop culture is about ego a lot of the time. Macklemore, which I don't really like, is humble and full of joy. Brothas often are just worried about being a bad-ass when it comes to music.
I also think it's jealousy. He can flow way better than so many other rappers I've heard.
Yeah, I don't think its just blacks that don't like him. I'm white and there is something grubby about Mackelmore, I think he is hiding some quite extreme views and he appeals to entitled little brats.
ReplyDeletelisten you dumb ass bitch you cant just go around saying nigga that is very offensive and all of you saying all black people hate him not everyone does so yall rasist ass bitches can shut the fuck and stop putting my people in you dirty dumb ass mouth and if anyone has something to say i will gladly clap back at yo ass STOP TALKIN BOUT MY PEOPLE BEFORE WE TALK ABOUT YOU and for the people who are going to say but i wasnt talking about your people i dont see you at any protest or any rallies do i NO thx for your time
ReplyDelete