Bomani Jones is one of the most outspoken and forthright ESPN Analyst. Co-host of the show Highly Questionable and a regular guest on Around the Horn is also an unapologetic fan of hip hop. Before emerging on the ESPN scene he was a music columnist for numerous magazines and sites. He went back into music writing with his recent editorial in Playboy properly titled "The Tragedy Of Whitewashing Hip Hop."
This article comes in the wake of the MTV’s Video Music Awards show this past weekend. Jones opens the piece discussing the respective VMA performances of female rappers Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea.
Jones questions why some award shows have been reluctant to give performing duties to Black rappers without having a white counterpart on stage with them.
An example can be seen with Nicki being allowed to open the VMAs, but she was included in a medley with pop singers Jesse J and Ariana Grande. Iggy was tapped to perform her own hit single “Black Widow” featuring Rita Ora.
Jones also points out that the Black rappers slated to perform at this year’s Grammy Awards (except Jay Z hitting the stage with wife Beyoncé) were “backed” by a white artist – Juicy J/Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamar/Imagine Dragons. In contrast, Macklemore had his own set.
The editorial piece also speaks about the cultural appropriation of music forms such as Hip Hop, Rock, and Jazz as it gains mainstream notoriety:
"There are few dignified things that America has demonstrated it would rather see a white person do than a black one, if any white person anywhere would be up to the task.
The tragedy stands out, though. Rap, so often decried by so many critics, now only seems as legitimate in the mainstream with white faces in front. For all our talk of how hip hop bridged cultural gaps and helped foster racial reconciliation, it has now begun to look like art from eras we swore we’d moved beyond. What was so new and fresh and had so much potential now looks like everything else, and in the worst ways.
As music critic Stereo Williams has noted, rock never had black, worldwide stars before it became a sensation. There were great artists, but the world wasn’t on a first-name basis with any of them. There was no Run DMC or Public Enemy who introduced the world to the form. Their work was so easily co-opted—and, in some cases, stolen—because they were largely anonymous. Muddy Waters was no legend to most until Mick Jagger said so.
But we’ve had lots of black superstars in rap. We’ve lived long enough to see Jay-Z on the cover of Time, and colleges near and far where professors have found the work of Tupac Shakur to be worthy of academic inquiry. They did not have to wait for the reverence white artists who were influenced by them to give them historical relevance."
This topic of white artists embracing and incorporating Hip Hop imagery and content to capitalize their brand has been brought up from both sides of the coin from numerous artist.
For example, Odd Future artist Earl Sweatshirt expressed that Taylor Swift "shake it off" video was damaging and perpetuates black stereotypes to whites.
On the other hand, there has been members of the hip hop community who embrace artist like Iggy, Macklemore, and countless others.
In a interview with Talib Kweli mentioned that he felt Macklemore has paid his dues to the culture, but said you must acknowledge "White Privilege".
Hip Hop has become an multi-cultural phenomenon having various races and backgrounds part of it, but we can't let cultural vultures do to Hip Hop what they did to other cultures and music forms conceived by Blacks.
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