Landon Schabes
Dr. Rippeon
Voice, Noise, Sound, Sense
24 March 2019
Hip-hop music has a storied origin; it has been a vehicle used to draw attention to injustices perpetrated on African-Americans for as long as it has existed. The Sonic Color Line and the Listening Ear, by Jennifer Lynn Stoever, outlines some of those injustices with a particular focus on the contrasts in sonic expectations between Americans with differing racial backgrounds. Stoever opens a dialogue on the differences in listening spaces and vocal habits of black and white Americans. These sonic expectations often intersect with hip-hop culture, as hip-hop music is often dubbed raucous and disruptive by many white Americans. The Sonic Color Line has altered hip-hop culture since its beginnings in the Bronx in the late ‘70s. Due to the fact that the Sonic Color Line has affected African-American music and artists since the advent of hip-hop, cultural appropriation is a particularly sensitive and heinous crime within the hip-hop community, yet the term cultural appropriation is poorly drawn out and defined; some artists prompt the accusation more than others. Despite the fact that they are both white, Iggy Azalea incites more accusations of cultural appropriation than Mac Miller, primarily because she uses other artists’ voices in ways that change the way their voice is interpreted, and she manipulates her voice in an attempt to copy African-American sound. She encroaches upon African-American sound and culture more than Mac Miller because of her careless use of vocal appropriation, or embezzlement of African-American vocal quotations and properties. While the term cultural appropriation is beneficial in calling out artists with little to no respect for the culture they are borrowing from, such as Azalea, it does little else to help the hip-hop music industry. Indeed, the definition is so loosely agreed upon that artists can dodge the accusation simply by donning an apologetic public persona. Additionally, the term does not apply in both directions. There is no uproar, for example, when African-American artists appropriate a comparable minority culture.
Iggy Azalea’s “Kream” is an example of a song that expresses no respect for African-American culture; it stands as an egregious example of cultural appropriation because of the ways that she alters other artists’ voices and her own voice in it. Specifically, Azalea samples the vocals of Method Man, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, in the song “C.R.E.A.M.” and uses his voice in her song in a way that robs the original meaning behind his vocals. It is important to recognize each song’s context when considering the ways in which Azalea used the sample. The Wu-Tang song, just like so much hip-hop music from the early 1990s, centers around the inequalities that black citizens face in America. In particular, Inspectah Deck speaks on the troubles he faced in his experiences with the justice system as a young black man.
“The court played me short, now I face incarceration
Pacin’, goin’ upstate’s my destination
Handcuffed in the back of a bus, forty of us
Life as a shorty shouldn’t be so rough” (genius.com).
Deck’s lyrics communicate a strong message; black men are at a much greater risk of facing prison time in their lives. According to the NAACP’s website, African-Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of white Americans (naacp.org). Iggy Azalea samples this song, with its societal critique and racially significant context, and inserts it into a song with a fraction of the meaning. The song “Kream”, which clearly takes inspiration from the song it sampled with its title, is a meaningless flex piece in which Azalea talks about nothing but her copious amounts of money, sex, and power. The sample in particular is the all-famous line from Method Man, “Cash rules everything around me C.R.E.A.M., get the money, dollar dollar bill, y’all” (genius.com). This fact is significant, as the sample is not just of the beat but the voice of a performer. The fact that Method Man’s voice is being used, rather than just the drum loop or the piano loop, makes the sample a less acceptable instance of cultural appropriation. Voice is often thought of as a part of one’s identity. Azalea’s use of Method Man’s voice affects the way those lyrics are viewed in pop and hip-hop culture. She robs Method Man of his individuality and expression by using his voice in her new, comparatively meaningless song. Thus, the controversiality of Azalea’s appropriation is only heightened by the fact Method Man’s voice is viewed differently in her sample. Vocal appropriation, whether the majority of people realize it or not, makes instances of cultural appropriation less acceptable.
Azalea’s appropriation is also inherently more offensive due to the blaccent she dons every time she raps. Azalea hails from Australia, but when she appears in her songs, she abandons her Australian accent and adopts an unmistakable southern African-American accent. She attempts to sound as black as possible in her songs and sell her gangster personality. Maeve Eberhardt and Kara Freeman, in their essay on Iggy Azalea’s hip-hop persona and linguistic appropriation, discuss white artists and what they do to appropriate African-American voice. “Linguistic minstrelsy is a form of ‘figurative blackface’, in which white users of African American English (AAE) do not literally darken their skin with make‐up as in turn‐of‐the‐century minstrel shows (Lott 2013), but in essence perform in blackface, drawing on linguistic and other symbolic elements that signify racialized ideologies to a wide U.S. audience” (Eberhardt and Freeman). The linguistic elements they mention, in particular, are put to use by Azalea. She sonically barges into the space that many African-American artists occupy in the hip-hop industry by copying their accent. Since voice is often considered proprietary, Azalea’s encroachment on the southern African-American accent is extremely offensive and forces her music into a less acceptable sphere of cultural appropriation.
While Iggy Azalea is the poster child for egregious cultural appropriation, Mac Miller is white artist that has earned the respect of the rap community due to his ability to avoid flagrant embezzlement. His song “Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza” is a much more tolerable example of cultural appropriation because he avoids vocal manipulation and appropriation. The song that Miller samples in it, “Hip 2 Da Game” by Lord Finesse, is an old hip-hop classic, but not one that gained mainstream success. As such, it was a sample that caught the attention of many hip-hop artists at the time that Miller released his album titled “K.I.D.S”. Though Miller avoided outrage because he does not alter Lord Finesse’s message or voice or his own voice. “Hip 2 Da Game” stands as a hip-hop classic, and Miller successfully borrows from the song without changing anything Finesse originally said. In a Rolling Stone article commemorating some of Miller’s greatest work after his death, Tirhakah Love and Brendan Klinkenberg comment on “Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza” in the same manner, “Flipping Lord Finesse’s seminal ‘Hip 2 Da Game’ without regurgitating the latter’s flow or topicality at the age of 18, Miller paid tribute to the genre while staying squarely in his own lane” (rollingstone.com). Importantly, the sample does not consist of any vocals from Lord Finesse. Miller simply borrows the beat of the song. The fact that he avoids sampling any of Finesse’s vocals makes his borrowing of African-American music more acceptable. Miller also avoids using a blaccent or altering his voice in any way to identify with a different persona. In fact, that is one of the trademarks of his character. Miller garnered sustained success over his career because he was never anyone or anything but emphatically his own self. Miller mastered the ability to borrow only the elements of hip-hop music and culture that he could make his own. His lack of vocal appropriation and alteration with this song and much of the rest of his work allows for his music to be placed into a more acceptable sector of cultural appropriation.
The term cultural appropriation is weakly defined, as evidenced by the fact that Mac Miller receives comparatively few accusations of appropriation when set side by side with Iggy Azalea. The term cultural appropriation has long been used in the hip-hop music industry (and in countless other areas of art and expression) as a way to discourage white artists from barging in and profiting from or reaping the benefits of a minority culture. Though its definition, or lack thereof, creates problems as artists can avoid the accusation with simple tweaks to their public persona and style of music. An article published in 2018 from The Economist verbalizes this fact, “… what is cultural appropriation? There is no agreed definition. Generally speaking, it’s the idea that a ‘dominant culture’ wearing or using things from a ‘minority culture’ … is inherently disrespectful because the objects are taken out of their native context” (economist.com). The solution to this issue is not to use the term more liberally, so as to flesh out its definition better. Rather, it should be to remove it from popular vocabulary and pick up the well-defined terms that already exist in order to describe people or artists who lack respect for minority cultures. The term also falls short in its equality of applicability. Artists who are already part of minority cultures never receive accusations of appropriation; 2 Chainz, an artist known for his rashness and unapologetic musical style, receives no accusations of cultural appropriation when he pilfers other cultures in his music. For example, in his song “Here We Go Again” Chainz uses a beat clearly inspired from an East Asian style of music.
The song holds absolutely no cultural significance, as Genius tells us, “On this song, the rapper talks about his riches and his extravagant lifestyle which includes wearing fancy clothes and jewelry” (genius.com). Yet 2 Chainz does not receive any pushback for such an affront. The term cultural appropriation fails to be applied to any demographic other than white people. This, along with its unclear definition, are reasons to eradicate the term, not cultivate it.
As evidenced by Iggy Azalea’s use of vocal appropriation and Mac Miller’s lack thereof, Azalea exhibits little to no respect for African-American culture, while Mac Miller shows a substantial sense of respec for the culture from which he borrows. The action of appropriating another artist’s vocals or altering one’s own voice is much more offensive than borrowing from the instrumental styles of a minority culture. As a result, Azalea receives more accusations of cultural appropriation than Miller even though both steal from African-American culture in their music. This fact lends to the idea that the term cultural appropriation is poorly defined. Jennifer Lynn Stoever’s The Sonic Color Line and the Listening Ear describes the audial inequalities that African-Americans encounter in their lives. In the hip-hop industry, the social stigma against cultural appropriation is a manifestation of the Sonic Color Line and the inequalities Stoever delves into in her dissertation. The term cultural appropriation and its strength seem to be bolstered by Stoever’s thesis, but the term breaks down when its effect on artists of all styles and demographics is examined. Thus, the term cultural appropriation is less useful than its commonality suggests and should be done away with.
Works Cited
“2 Chainz – Here We Go Again.” Genius, 28 Oct. 2016, https://genius.com/2-chainz-here-we-go-again-lyrics.
Anonymous. “When Respect for Diversity Is Taken to Crazy Extremes.” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 15 May 2018, www.economist.com/open-future/2018/05/15/when-respect-for-diversity-is-taken-to-crazy-extremes.
Azalea, Iggy. “Iggy Azalea – Kream Ft. Tyga (Official Music Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 6 July 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7lM7Bn16Zg.
Chainz, 2. “2 Chainz – Here We Go Again (Audio).” YouTube, YouTube, 27 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEA4XtsYB2A.
Clan, Wu-Tang. “Wu-Tang Clan – C.R.E.A.M. (Official Music Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Jan. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBwAxmrE194.
“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet.” Naacp.org, NAACP, www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/.
Eberhardt, Maeve, and Kara Freeman. “‘First things first, I’m the realest’: Linguistic appropriation, white privilege, and the hip‐hop persona of Iggy Azalea.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 19.3 (2015): 303-327.
Klinkenberg, Brendan, and Tirhakah Love. “10 Essential Mac Miller Songs.” Rolling Stone, 9 Sept. 2018, www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/10-essential-mac-miller-songs-721709/.
Miller, Mac. “Mac Miller – Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza.” YouTube, YouTube, 26 July 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnAbszcy3bs.
TheVisiting, and Lord Finesse. “Lord Finesse – Hip 2 Da Game 1995 HQ.” YouTube, YouTube, 24 Jan. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oQeg460wos.
“Wu-Tang Clan – C.R.E.A.M.” Genius, 31 Jan. 1994, https://genius.com/Wu-tang-clan-cream-lyrics.
