Honestly, PD's position on this issue continues to shock me. The people that are overly sensitive to this issue and are offended are definitely coming from a silly overly emotional position, however the many criticisms thrown towards Iggy and Macklemore are legitimate. When you use the word nicca as freely as Iggy does, you should expect to be lashed at. Just because you cannot change this, as Esch said, does not mean that you shouldn't bring it up as it reflects a very stated ideal of what the average consumer thinks and wants. I'm not going to be mad at anyone for being cognizant to the double standards regarding the entertainment industry when it comes to race, and I frankly don't find PD's "I'm above this" attitude to be helpful towards either party, especially considering many criticisms fired at both are not without merit.
Iggy doesn't use the n word freely. She has used it once in a tweet from what I understand, which doesn't constitute free use. That being said I think Iggy isn't talented, clearly doesn't know much of anything about rap, etc. But tbh you could say the same about a variety of black rappers today.
Macklemore has acknowledged his white privilege many times, constantly takes political stances that favor black people, and is a good dude.
I'm not mad at him. He's not stealing anything, he legit loves hip hop music, and basically makes backpack rap with pop sensibilities. Meh, I don't fuck with his music but I respect him.
As I said on GAF, my beef is with media and (white) fans who hail white artists as new or innovative despite black artists doing it first (or better). I understand why white people identify more with white artists - you can say the same of other races too. However it's amazing to me that someone can be willfully ignorant to the point of dismissing an entire genre outside of one white savior (Eminem for instance).
We live in a melting pot, culturally. Various arts, foods, music, etc have been mixed along cultural lines for decades. Even hip hop, which is hailed as "black culture," features stuff from different cultures. Especially west coast rap: low riders were popularized by Chicanos first. Did black people "culturally appropriate"/steal that, or was it simply a case of blacks and Hispanics living in similar areas and influencing each other? Likewise a white girl who sees a black girl with a cute hairstyle and adopts it should be viewed positively. Especially in light of "black hair is beautiful" movements. Shouldn't other cultures adopting black hairstyles be seen as validation of that?
