@GOOD GRIEF I think there is a lot of merit in your point, but I disagree with the phrasing “black culture”.

Anime is “Japanese culture”, but that’s different because, by and large, Japanese people live in the same place (Japan) and there aren’t significant other populations that they cohabit the same space with (Japan’s indigenous minorities live in the far north and south). Japanese people also all share a common genealogical, social and cultural history. “Black” people are different, because that classification was essentially made up by white people to justify colonisation and slavery. There is more genetic diversity in Africa than the rest of the world put together, and the idea that a “black race” exists or has a shared culture has no real historical basis. Rap has roots in historic West African traditions, but that doesn’t mean African Americans with heritage from other parts of Africa have any more to do with it than European, Asian or Hispanic people.

Modern hip-hop evolved in predominantly African-American neighbourhoods of New York, but why does that mean that African Americans from the West Coast have more of a claim to it than urban New Yorkers of other racial groups? The problem with claiming something as black or African American culture is that African American people are geographically spread out among several other groups. To say that the culture is less tied to people of other groups living in the same place where it originated, and were involved in it from its beginning, isn’t something I can agree with.

DJ Kool Herc is typically credited as the father of hip-hop, and he was Jamaican. Does that make hip hop Jamaican culture? No. Hip hop isn’t black culture, or white culture, or Jamaican culture, or urban culture, or New York culture. Hop hop is hip hop culture; that’s why we call it “the culture”. Someone’s connection to hip-hop isn’t defined by race or place, it’s defined by what kind of connection they have to hip hop culture. That’s why Eminem is not a guest in the culture (I think there’s actually a stronger argument to make that Kanye is, but that would be total rubbish as well). People that pick up hip hop to commercialise it or to seem cool, not because of their personal connection to it, are guests.

Wow that was way longer than I expected lmao. Soz

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Eminem came up in the hip-hop scene too, battling in the heart of Detroit where he experienced "reverse racism" for being white, so I wouldn't consider him a guest.



I'd consider someone a guest of hip-hop if they're dipping their toe into the genre but mostly a pop artist or whatever.

That was actually a crazy insightful post. A lot of things I'd never considered before. That's a really good point about the cultural diversity in Africa. Like most, I racistly just grouped that together.