According to Yahoo News, white rapper Jack Harlow claims that the race protests have made the rap scene less diverse. Harlow apparently had a discussion with fellow Kentucky rapper Nemo Achida about Caucasian rappers entering the Black genre.
The “What’s Poppin’” rapper made comments that teetered on white fragility when he noted the rap scene was turning away from white rappers after recent race protests. Harlow said that there was a time when white rappers were accepted in the Black rap scene, but times have changed.
“All of this stuff was coming into the fold and it had this energy surrounding it of, ‘We’re letting the white kids come to the party. We’re all in this together,” said Harlow. “He (Nemo Achida) feels like the country going into these new civil rights moments almost shifted away from, ‘Let’s have the white boy at the party.’ It became less about let’s all be diverse together and turned back into hip-hop being, ‘It needs to be a Black genre.’ That’s just been the natural transformation of things, I think.
The 23-year-old did concede that he was a white guy in an all-Black genre created by and for Black people.
Harlow said that he wanted to give back and let other white folks know how to fight racism because he was accepted into the community. Harlow marched in the Breonna Taylor protests after she was murdered by Louisville police in 2020 in his hometown.
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“This was a travesty that was outrageous and made no sense, and it was one along a string of many. It was a no-brainer for me in terms of where I stood on the topic,” Harlow said. “There was a moment last summer when we were all marching through the city and there was this feeling that this is historic. This isn’t a viral moment, this is going to be in textbooks and is something I’m going to be able to tell my grandkids about. There was a gravity to what was going on where you felt like you had a responsibility. Where are you going to fall? You can’t be on the fence for this.”
“The things I was doing last summer, any fans who didn’t feel like criticizing the police or were on the other side of things, I was going to weed them out. That could have been a moment for them to no longer be fans,” Harlow said. “But what is important is that I lead by example for all the white kids looking at me. This is what you do. You don’t just enjoy Black culture. You stand up next to Black people in a time of need.”
Harlow also donated $500,000 to Kentucky State University and Simmons College after winning a celebrity basketball game.
I’ll be donating $500k to Kentucky State University and Simmons College of Kentucky ???? https://t.co/YV7c8p2Y6f
— Jack Harlow (@jackharlow) March 7, 2021
Despite fewer white folks entering the rap scene, Harlow has been cosigned by several rap artists in the game, including Snoop Dogg, Big Sean and Lil Baby. So far, it appears that Harlow’s place within the rap genre is secure.
