Still leading the people: Race should not dictate interests
Moses Warren
"When we performed it's just coffee shops, chicks and white dudes." - Common
Race is a determining factor in music. Rap is essentially "black music" and anything else is thought of as "white music."
Music is a universal language that reaches over many barriers.
Because my friend has more R&B CDs than me, does that make her more black than me? Or will I be more black because I've expanded my horizons into different genres?
My friend can't be more black than me because she's Irish American. She can only "try to be black," as the popular phrase goes. I bring this up because it appears music makes up your color or the color you're trying to be.
So is rap music "black music?" I have to say no because it's not black people doing most of the rapping and the people buying it.
Sales have shown that more than 70 percent of "black music" is bought by whites. Chuck D said, "White people buy rap because it's their view into the ghetto. They can go into the ghetto and yet still be safe at home."
I have to agree with some of that. One white friend told me, "The only white rapper I accepted was Vanilla Ice."
I remember returning to my Chicago job, and I bought a lap-top to listen to music. I was told by my fellow co-workers that I had "too much white music," that I "must attend a white school," that I have "changed because of it" and that "I must like white women."
All of those came because I played Staind, Remo Zero, Moby, Red Hot Chili Peppers and music they had never heard before. I bring new and different things for people to listen to, so I become the poster child for "Uncle Toms," "house slaves" and "Oreos" in less than one hour.
Maybe they're right. Maybe I am turning white because of my musical selections. Or perhaps I'm maturing, which is even better.
As I told one co-worker, "The world is changing. You can't just listen to one type of music anymore. You have to expand what you know and what you like. You just might like a new rock song, but you tell yourself, 'I can't. What will people think of me?'"
One person listening to me went home and watched the Britney Spears' concert on HBO the next night.
Because many people who aren't black are listening to "black" music, what does that make the people who listen to other genres?
Are they in the same boat as me, or do we comprise an entirely new category?
Write to Moses at moses_41@hotmail.com
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