M
y relatives like to joke
that
Asians
and
Asian-
Americans
shouldn’t
do
hip-hop because we haven’t faced the
same tribulations as other races. They
especially
ridicule
certain
rappers
from their native Japan, who never
suffered from racism, abject poverty,
street violence or drug dealing but don
expensive sneakers and talk about swag.
I wonder what they would think of
Rich Chigga.
“And you don’t wanna f--k with a
chigga like me / When I pull up in that
Maserati / Better duck ’fore ya brain
splatter on the concrete / I’ma hit you
with that .45, bullet hit yo neck round the
bow tie”
In 2016, hip-hop artist Rich Brian (born
Brian Imanuel) became a sensation online
after his viral hit, “Dat $tick” racked up
tens of millions of views on YouTube and
scored approval by established rappers
like Desiigner and Ghostface Killah, the
latter of which recorded an official remix
of the song with him.
The song also became a target for
heavy criticism for the supposed sin of
cultural appropriation.
That’s
because
Rich
Chigga,
as
Imanuel
was
known
professionally
before
2018,
was
a
homeschooled
Chinese-Indonesian
teenager
whose
father was a lawyer. And though for sure
he saw plenty of ugly things growing up
in a middle-to-low class neighborhood
in West Jakarta, it was questionable
whether it was appropriate for him to
borrow the language and style of Black
street culture.
Even his stage name was controversial.
“Chigga,” a portmanteau of “Chinese”
and a racial slur, was a ploy to attract
attention by naming himself “the most
controversial s--t ever,” hardly a good
reason to offend numerous people.
Musicians like Rich Brian (as he now
prefers to go by) become a flashpoint
around cultural appropriation, or the
adoption of elements of a minority culture
by a member of the dominant culture.
A blatant example would be fetishizing
a minority culture by wearing an Arab
thawb or a fake Fu Manchu for Halloween.
But, the common counter-argument
goes, every present-day culture is the
result of appropriations other cultures
have developed by adopting aspects of
other cultures. Indeed, most of the time
it’s difficult to determine whether a
song or dance is cultural appropriation,
appreciation or exchange.
“Hip-hop is for everyone,” they say. “It
transcends race.”
I believe cultural appropriation no
doubt exists; weeaboos, for instance,
offend my Japanese heritage when they
reduce my culture to cute anime girls.
But the question is where the limit is, and
in cases like Rich Chigga, the line is so
hard to draw.
The debate about non-Black people
doing hip-hop reminds me of another
form of Black music picked up by another
race: Rock ‘n’ roll. When Elvis Presley
shocked white America in the 50s, it
wasn’t because rock ‘n’ roll was an
inherently “degenerate” genre for young
people; it was because Presley’s singing
style and hip gyrations reminded parents
of African-American musicians.
So were The Rolling Stones, lifelong
adherents and promoters of Black R&B
music, Jack Hamilton writes in “How
Rock and Roll Became White.” “The
world’s greatest rock-and-roll band” (to
some) truly respected and focused on
covers of blues and R&B musicians like
Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and Bo
Diddley, and were annoyed that their
fans were more obsessed with them than
the American originals.
When the group first arrived on U.S.
soil, the press vilified them with attacks
against their physical appearance and
dehumanizing comparisons to animals.
It was a dog-whistle tactic to convince
white adults that Mick Jagger, Keith
Richards and the rest of these Englishmen
were subversive beings who adored Black
music; the press even played on the fear of
miscegenation when they asked, “Would
you let your sister go out with a Rolling
Stone?” But the Stones didn’t counter
these claims; in fact, they adopted it as
part of their dangerous image.
I see a similar phenomenon happening
in hip-hop. Hip-hop, which developed in
New York City as the music of African-
Americans, immigrants and children of
immigrants from the Caribbean, contains
lyrics borne out of that community’s
culture and struggles. “The Message”
by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious
Five, the first prominent hip-hop song
to provide social commentary, talks of
difficulties of living in inner cities, which
is a common theme in hip-hop today.
The problem with non-Black musicians
rapping these days is that hip-hop has
become a cheap shortcut to evoke a
thuggish and criminal cool that doesn’t
belong in a white or Asian middle-class
suburb. It fetishizes the real struggles
some of these artists have gone through
on a daily basis.
Hamilton writes that the Stones were
guilty of this too; “Brown Sugar” is an
upbeat song that casually talks about
slave rape as part of Jagger’s discussion
on interracial sex.
We shouldn’t pretend, especially in
Asian hip-hop, there is absolutely no
power dynamic between Asians and
African-Americans in the U.S. Asians on
a whole definitely yield more privilege,
so “hip-hop is for everyone” rings hollow
when the phrase equates Black struggles
with Asian struggles.
Rich Brian is then indeed guilty of
appropriating aspects of Black culture.
And though in “Dat $tick” he provides
insights from the streets of Jakarta, I
believe there is a way to do that without
so overtly featuring cliché hip-hop tropes.
That isn’t to say non-Black people
shouldn’t listen, appreciate or perform
hip-hop on their own. With due respect
to the original and staying within
one’s boundaries, non-Black rappers
like Eminem can create an art that is
rightfully their own.
We
also
shouldn’t
cast
cultural
appropriation in popular music as
some capitalist and colonialist scheme
to dominate minority cultures. The
irony of genres like hip-hop and rock is
they’re rebellious in content, yet at the
same time they line the pockets of rich
executives in record companies that
promote these tracks to mass audiences;
this irony is what makes hip-hop and
rock reach mass audiences.
In the end, sometimes whether
culture is appropriated or appreciated
is determined by whether a work is
tasteful and artistic. As Rivka Galchen
points out, nobody accuses the Wu-Tang
Clan of appropriating Chinese culture;
we as a culture bestowed the rap group
artistic license because they gave back
with good music that goes beyond
the inspiration borrowed from their
Chinese neighbors.
2B
Managing Statement Editor:
Brian Kuang
Deputy Editors:
Colin Beresford
Jennifer Meer
Rebecca Tarnopol
Photo Editor:
Amelia Cacchione
Editor in Chief:
Alexa St. John
Managing Editor:
Dayton Hare
Copy Editors:
Elise Laarman
Finntan Storer
Wednesday, February 21, 2018// The Statement
Critical Questions: Cultural appropriation
statement
THE MICHIGAN DAILY | FEBRUARY 21, 2018
BY ISHI MORI, COLUMNIST
Hip-hop artist Rich Brian