Whatever happened to White Rappers?

Rock and roll was once the domain of black musicians, until Elvis came along and made it safe for white acts. Before long, the Beatles and Rolling Stones were selling more albums than Chuck Berry, and nowadays most rock musicians are Caucasian. Most people probably assumed the same thing would happen with rap. After the Beastie Boys, Third Bass and Vanilla Ice made lots of money off this black art form in the ‘80s and ‘90s, it seemed like the writing was on the wall.

But despite Eminem and Paul Wall’s best efforts, white rappers haven’t taken over. In fact, hip hop is blacker than ever. Pretty much every top-selling emcee is a black guy, and – following Relapse’s release and yet another Eminem retirement – it will probably stay that way.
One could even argue that pale spitters are less relevant than ever. I’m not talking about the ribbing they have taken on Ego Trip’s (White) Rapper Show and Malibu’s Most Wanted (which is totally underrated, by the way). I’m talking about the fact that the few Caucasian rappers out there have become sideshows, with almost no commercial viability.
Take nerdcore, the white-dominated subgenre characterized by rhymes about laptops and Star Trek.

It seemed to be gathering momentum a few years ago, with MC Frontalot (great name) leading the way with hilarious self-deprecation rhymes. mc chris, meanwhile, was making a name for himself as Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s MC Pee Pants, even before MF Doom and Danger Mouse got involved with Adult Swim. Last year a documentary on the subject emerged, called Nerdcore Rising.
But the halcyon days are over. Even genre trailblazer MC Lars admits as much. “I saw nerdcore come/ I saw nerdcore go,” he raps on his new album This Giant Robot Kills. He’s probably right. It’s hard to imagine any of these guys crossing over. In fact, the problem with nerdcore is the problem with most white emcees generally. Though sometimes hyper-literate and great storytellers (see MC Paul Barman and the Anticon crew) they often don’t possess the skills most people associate with hip hop.
Contrary to what a lot of white rappers think, rap is not about dropping big words or crafting elegant poetry. It’s about flow, dexterity, style, pizzazz and spontaneity. In a word, it’s about craft. Too many Caucasian emcees, however, see it as a term paper. (Guilty as charged.)
The best cracka rappers – Eminem, RA The Rugged Man and Mac Lethal, in my opinion – articulate interesting ideas, but their appeal goes far beyond that. They each carry a certain bravado and seek to entertain their listeners, rather than trying to impress them with how clever they are. They employ humor, but they’re not about gimmicks. Each has had to battle rap to prove themselves. Through the process I’ll bet they learned that no one in hip hop cares about your skin color, so long as you’ve got skills.