You Can Stop the Whitewashing of Hip-Hop if you want to.

The talk has died down, but I know that’s because Trump’s got the world in a frenzy over other things. It also helps that no white rappers have run away with the hip-hop game this year, no matter what Post Malone stats say. I want to speak to the fear of the “Whitewashing of Hip-Hop.” Let me be the first to say; I don’t even believe in that shit. I don’t think it’s real. I don’t think it’s realistic and that hip-hop cultures integrity will remain intact, and no other race on this planet can take it away from the black and brown people who created, cultivated and made it cool to the world we live in today. But I’m going to help you scared folks out. Pay attention, because this is how you can eliminate the whitewashing of hip-hop if you genuinely believe in it.

A few months ago, this year, I decided to leave Apple Music and switch to TIDAL. Why? Because it truly hit me that I wasn’t supporting a piece of great black business and hip-hop culture at the same time. I look like a hypocrite if I’m advocating for both ideas and not taking the small step of supporting them versus the corporately white-owned version of the same product. How can I call myself a fan of Jay-Z and listen to the 4:44 album, love it and be on Apple Music? That makes no sense. One of if not the greatest rapper ever has a music and content streaming platform that is of high quality. How can I “support hip-hop” and not have $10 for that? To be real, I can’t. So I made the switch. TIDAL’s app icon is now in the space where my Apple Music icon is, and I feel better for that. You could say I stopped two forms of whitewashing with one move right there.

I’ve been blessed with an opportunity to work in and work my way up in a company known as the number 1 concert promoter in the world. What am I doing, even on my level? I’m making sure real fans of hip-hop know about shows and sometimes also providing tickets for them to go to a show. Why, because the live show is critical for hip-hop. We need to be in the beautiful venues for full and sellout crowds, with no violence and witness great memories, so these corporations and venue owners know we are coming together with appreciation and gratitude for letting hip-hop shine for one night in our respective cities. All the people I helped to see a show this year, happened to be of color.

What else am I personally doing? I’m showing love, posting and sharing the content from the great people of color in the game I like. The elders and the youth. The males and females. My favorite expression that I came up with is “Support What You Love, Instead of Bashing What You Hate.” I don’t have time to talk about wack shit. That’s wasted passion and energy. If I come across some wack shit, I acknowledge it is wack and move forward. Nothing more to see here. Bring on that hot shit though.

“Support What You Love,

Instead of Bashing What You Hate.”

Don’t let these machines fool you. These white hip-hop artists are corporate money grabs. These machines know that the United States is predominantly white. And ever since Vanilla Ice sold 15 million worldwide rapping, they’ve been doing nothing more than trying to recreate that magic with a new European face whenever they can. That’s not saying zero white rappers care and are of the fabric of hip-hop culture. That’s just telling the universal color to corporations is green, not black or white, just GREEN. Corporations don’t care about the culture; this is just a business to them. That’s why it’s essential for our black and brown brothers and sisters to become heartthrobs, media darlings and executive office holders. You want the culture repped right; you got to make sure the culture infiltrates the system. Representing real hip-hop is not “telling you what’s wack,” it’s, “supporting the authentic.” If we all did that every single day, who could whitewash this culture of ours?

Hit the comments up with your fears of whitewashing in hip-hop. I enjoy humor on the Internet.