Minority Rappers

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(Image via Complex)

Daniela Ortiz, Writer

Rappers nowadays are judged on everything, but the rappers that are part of minorities are the ones who are harshly judged for their music, no matter what is said by them in their music. But sometimes when a rapper who is part of a minority, raps about something that is controversial or is bad many are quick to judge them even if their lyrics aren’t as true as it seems. Some popular rappers that are part of minorities include Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Tyler The Creator, Daddy Yankee, Cardi B, Pitbull, Childish Gambino and many more. 

Why is it that rappers who are part of minorities seem to be judged for anything they put out for their music? This is an actual thing that has been going on because if a certain rapper part of a minority releases a controversial song that has either bad lyrics or has to do with a controversial topic going on in their public or personal life they are dehumanized. Or even when one of their songs is a huge and extremely popular hit, people still go back and pay attention to the things they’ve put out before that to them wasn’t so great.

 The rapper Childish Gambino released “This Is America” in 2018, which was a song that turned out to become very viral and one of his most popular songs. This is America had to do with the many things that African Americans actually have been experiencing in America. This included police brutality and violence against African Americans. This song was a way of Gambino showing the world how much violence and brutality there is in America, especially towards African Americans. But even though a very large amount of people liked the song for opening many people’s eyes about the sad and also scary reality of what is currently happening in America, the song received its share of backlash. Not everyone liked this song. People said that the music video would bring trauma and it wasn’t really a good idea of Gambino to use black death in his music video. Even though this viral song was praised by a very large amount of people, it still got backlash for being a bit “too graphic and traumatizing”. 

Something that should change is how rappers that are part of minorities are seen. For some reason, it seems like society treats them a bit differently. Like if they do something good there’s always gotta be something wrong with it. Or apparently, they are causing controversies, whether they wear something “bad”, say something in an interview or on their social media and songs. Cardi B was judged by a judge because of what she had worn to the courthouse, the judge said “Cardi treats her trips to the courthouse like a runway show”. Also, she was judged because one time she decided not to wear makeup to the courthouse. What she decides to wear shouldn’t be the judge’s concern and instead what should be the focus is the other much more important things and not whether she wears makeup or not or her choice of what she wears. This applies to all the rappers that have to go through such things. People should focus on what is really important and they should focus on their talent and on the hard work they’ve put into becoming successful. Rappers that are part of minorities shouldn’t be treated as any less than others, it should be equal for all. Learning to focus on the brighter side of individuals and the things they do instead of focusing on the negatives would bring a much more positive and joyful environment to many people especially for the ones that part of minorities.