I was talkin to a friend (female) who is white the other day. We were talkin and this music video came on with EMinem. You know the one where he is just rappin on stage the whole time and has it done over an old rock and roll beat. This woman turned her attention to the television and said, "Oh...I loooove this song. I haven't heard this in soooo long. Who is this? Eminem? I would buy this record JUST for this song."
My brain works like a computer, and so I instantly started workin on this info. here is a 36 year old white woman. She is not one of these white people who grew up around blacks or in an inner-city. She is not a rap music fan. She likes country music to her core and went through a Hard-rock phase as a teen. But she is willin to go buy this rap album instantly... then it registered what that muthafucka did. That song is the equivalent (in white world) of The Message. It's the same thing Puffy did back in the day when he re-did that song. Only difference is that Puffy raped the song and made real OG's turntheir nose's up for makin "The Message" into a commercial piece of dance-shit. But this young white boy kept the spirit of the song. I admit I know nuthin about the song. I dont even know who its by, but I could take one look in her eye, and then at the audience in that video and see that he is a smart kid. very saavy.
Thing is, he is the ONLY one inthe rap industry who can do that and get away with it. Most rappers aren't knowledgeable enough and in tune enough with white world to do that. The rappers who CAN do it are too busy tryin to be... I wont go there. Run DMC did it. They probably sold more records with that rock song than everything else put together. That shit works, but I dont know anyone that could pull it off.
Second thing: white kids buy rap music, too. Sometimes they even drive this market. I WISH paperTrail had a white rapper who was legit and had the talent to stay true to his experiences.... man, it'd be all gravy. Thing about it is that EMinem doesn't have to "cross-over", he is already there. I'm sure there are about 20 songs he could do that to and most of us wouldn't know the first thing bout the original song.... man.... if he can get my friend to buy a rap record..if he can get black kids lovin his music, and hoards of white audiences rocking to his music the way I love James Brown's "Funky Good Time" ... they haven't made the bank big enough to hold his earnings.
My brain works like a computer, and so I instantly started workin on this info. here is a 36 year old white woman. She is not one of these white people who grew up around blacks or in an inner-city. She is not a rap music fan. She likes country music to her core and went through a Hard-rock phase as a teen. But she is willin to go buy this rap album instantly... then it registered what that muthafucka did. That song is the equivalent (in white world) of The Message. It's the same thing Puffy did back in the day when he re-did that song. Only difference is that Puffy raped the song and made real OG's turntheir nose's up for makin "The Message" into a commercial piece of dance-shit. But this young white boy kept the spirit of the song. I admit I know nuthin about the song. I dont even know who its by, but I could take one look in her eye, and then at the audience in that video and see that he is a smart kid. very saavy.
Thing is, he is the ONLY one inthe rap industry who can do that and get away with it. Most rappers aren't knowledgeable enough and in tune enough with white world to do that. The rappers who CAN do it are too busy tryin to be... I wont go there. Run DMC did it. They probably sold more records with that rock song than everything else put together. That shit works, but I dont know anyone that could pull it off.
Second thing: white kids buy rap music, too. Sometimes they even drive this market. I WISH paperTrail had a white rapper who was legit and had the talent to stay true to his experiences.... man, it'd be all gravy. Thing about it is that EMinem doesn't have to "cross-over", he is already there. I'm sure there are about 20 songs he could do that to and most of us wouldn't know the first thing bout the original song.... man.... if he can get my friend to buy a rap record..if he can get black kids lovin his music, and hoards of white audiences rocking to his music the way I love James Brown's "Funky Good Time" ... they haven't made the bank big enough to hold his earnings.
