White Rappers

A Field Guide.

I listen to a lot of rap music. According to Spotify it’s one of my most listened-to genres. My favorite rap artists are Kanye, Lil Wayne, and Odd Future. Kanye is probably my favorite music artist of all time. It’s amazing that his new releases have continued to be good despite all his problems. I hope he is able to find a safe refuge in his mind. I listen to white rappers, too. I’ve noticed that white rappers tend to splinter off into subcultures outside of mainstream rap music. The lyrics are different, the beats are different, the samples are different.

A lot of rappers start off doing something completely different before they become rappers. The Beastie Boys started out as a punk rock band. Odd Future was originally supposed to be a streetwear/skate magazine. The Lonely Island came out of SNL. They stumbled in from another world. I find that these odd beginnings make for great musicians. There’s a veil of irony and unseriousness to their music. They have fun with it. They create an unusual mix of sounds. I will write about some of these styles here.

Degenerates

The Beastie Boys were three Jewish kids from Manhattan. They were the sons of art dealers, playwrights, and interior designers. One went to St. Ann’s, and another went to Murrow. The three of them met as high school students while at punk shows on the Lower East Side. They initially started as a hardcore punk band. Their first EP had one rap song that used a recording of a prank call they made to a Carvel Ice Cream store. The song became unexpectedly popular on college radio stations and among New York DJs. The Beastie Boys pivoted to rap following its success. They rapped about New York, parties, girls, and kept the punk spirit in their music. This is my favorite song of theirs.

A similar restless creative crew, Odd Future was a revolving door of LA-based rappers, photographers, and skaters. They were active from 2007 to around 2016. The group’s lead, Tyler, the Creator, originally wanted Odd Future to be a magazine. He designed t-shirts and brand logos. Terry Richardson photographed them. Their music developed a cult following and became their primary focus, while they continued to release merch. The group released three albums before Tyler broke off to start his own music career. Their music was gothic and very LA. They were active on Tumblr and spent a lot of time at skate parks. They did sketch comedy and had a lot of fun with their music videos.

College

Mac Miller released K.I.D.S. in 2010. The album was inspired by the Larry Clark film of the same name. The album cover has the same typeface and coloring as the movie’s DVD cover, and samples audio clips from the movie. Two of my favorite Mac Miller songs are back-to-back on this album. The Spins sampled Half Mast by Empire of the Sun. Wiz Khalifa sampled Walking on a Dream by the same group in The Thrill. Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa were played at college parties across the U.S. at this time, and the two of them did dozens of campus shows. Mac Miller had some one-hit imitators like Asher Roth and Wes Walker. I wish Mac Miller was still with us, and I pray he is at peace.

Donald Glover’s music was also popular among college students in the 2010s, at least in New York. He went by the stage name Childish Gambino and released his album Camp in 2011, and Because the Internet in 2013. I went to high school near NYU’s campus at the time and would hear someone playing 3005 every time I went to Washington Square Park. Bonfire is my favorite song of his.

Brockhampton was another one of these. They were really popular at my liberal arts college in 2018. I never cared for them.

Sleaze

3OH!3 was an electronic music duo composed of Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte. The two met at local hip-hop shows while attending UC Boulder. They made really fun electronic/pop/hip-hop music. They yelled a lot in their songs. They released the album WANT in 2008, and re-released a deluxe version of the album in 2009 with remixes featuring Katy Perry and Kid Cudi. All of the song titles are in all-caps, and most of them are about girls. I was too young to fully appreciate their music at its peak, and got jealous when my older siblings listened to them while getting ready to go out. This is my favorite song by them.

Mickey Avalon was a gross, sweaty rapper who made music with Simon Rex, the handsome man from 8 Mile at the header of this essay. I actually had no idea that Simon Rex made rap music when I started writing this. Neat. Mickey Avalon’s music was too vulgar for my tastes, but I liked his song from The Hangover.

“Sleaze” was a really fun flashpoint in music. I consider it to be a mid-recession, faster-paced outgrowth of the sleepy, stoned college rap. Ke$ha was popular. Jersey Shore was on-air. People were migrating from MySpace to Facebook, before Instagram was around. The artists didn’t stick around for long. Far East Movement released Like a G6 and disappeared. I remember Gucci Gucci by Kreayshawn. Hyperpop was pretty close in orbit to 2010 sleaze. 3OH!3 and Linkin Park did collaborations with 100gecs in 2020 and 2021. It seems this kind of music arises in times of uncertainty.