Opinion of Iggy Azalea

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

I have many thoughts about Iggy Azalea and cultural appropriation, here are some of them:

Iggy Azalea is terrible. Her rapping is derivative, the beats she uses are derivative etc. She's popular because of her image rather than her music. There's no shortage of female rappers in hip-hop. There's a shortage of marketable female rappers in hip-hop. It's not a coincidence that there are very few black female rappers in the mainstream. It's a reflection of racism and sexism.

That being said, I don't dislike Iggy Azalea because of this. I dislike her because she's a gibbering idiot who insulted Q-Tip, made moronic statements about Aborigines in Australia and doesn't care about hip-hop as a cultural force. It would be one thing if she was another generic music figure marketed by a label but she's also an idiot.

The fact this thread was focused on cultural appropriation is embarrassing. Cultural appropriation is certainly a phenomenon but it's not necessarily problematic. Cultural appropriation is problematic when an advantaged class takes the raw cultural materials of an oppressed class and markets these materials in a slightly different package in order to profit. I think it's a problem when labels hire attractive/capable performers, hire writers/producers to create a musical aesthetic that is highly plagiarized and profits off the aesthetic. I don't think this is a Maoist or a Third Worldist perspective. It's simply a recognition of the consequences of power differentials in society. Does Iggy Azalea embody this form of cultural appropriation? Yes, absolutely. Does this mean that white "artists" can't or shouldn't create forms of art influenced by cultural others? No, absolutely not.

There is no immediate solution to the problematic aspects of cultural appropriation because this feature of cultural production is inherent to the racialist economic structure of American society. My only prescription is that white artists should be humble and give credit to those that influenced them. This isn't a difficult task and it's not too much to ask. I don't like Macklemore's music but I give him credit for recognizing that his success stands on the shoulders of the Black community. I disdain Iggy Azalea because she hasn't done this. Instead, she's denigrated the historic origins of hip-hop by insulting key figures like Q-Tip, she's implicitly asserted that society is "post-racial" and she's implicitly asserted that hip-hop has nothing to do with race. Even if this stance is to be expected, it's still deserves condemnation.  Iggy Azalea has no authority to make claims about hip-hop but she's done it anyway.

All in all, this isn't very important. Nevertheless, it saddens me. After all, Iggy Azalea is the only white rapper millions of people will ever hear about, with the obvious exclusion of Eminem and Macklemore. There are many good white rappers who make innovative music that are overlooked and they'll be instantly labeled as "less authentic" or "cultural appropriators" because of Iggy Azalea.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Cultural appropriation is bullsh#t and anyone legitimately engaging that kind of pseudo-Maoist nonsense is terrible and should be ashamed of themselves.

I... agree?

"Cultural appropriation" is how cultures form to begin with.

No one with a brain would dispute this. Nevertheless, it's worth considering that cultural appropriation doesn't necessarily have ameliorative effects on discrimination faced by racialized and/or exoticized others. African-Americans laid the foundation for the vast majority of contemporary music but they haven't received much credit for this. Picasso was influenced by African tribal art but most people are not aware of this. Gitanos in Spain are arguably responsible for Andalusian music but they still face discrimination.

Cultural appropriation leads to great, awesome, powerful art but it certainly could take place in a different manner.