Vince Staples and Mac Miller Discuss "White Rappers"

Race and hip-hop have always been a controversial but highly-visited topic — people from different backgrounds will have different takes on topic. Recently, The FADER invited Vince Staples and Mac Miller for a conversation of what they think of white rappers. Throughout the conversation, they bring up prominent examples like Vanilla Ice, Eminem, RiFF RAFF, Atmosphere, Paul Wall, Iggy Azalea, Macklemore and more. They also spoke on the differences between a white person who raps and a “white rapper,” which they claim is a genre in itself. Read some highlights from the convo below and check the entire feature here.

STAPLES: When it comes to giving credit and showing appreciation, that’s a different conversation. If we’re talking about origins of music, if you’re talking about rock & roll, you have to give credit to Chuck Berry. He invented it; Elvis stole some sh*t; it’s fine. When you talk about rap, you have to give credit to the South Bronx and that whole community and Afrika Bambaataa. You have to give credit to where it’s due. If we talking about basketball, you gotta give credit to Dr. Naismith. There are people that created things, and who made things, but if we’re talking about someone’s ability to participate in something, then the color of a person should not be in the conversation, period.

MILLER: Good and bad music, it has so much less to do with what race people are. Maybe because dude’s white, the experiences life have given him, that’s why his music is that bad.
“Good and bad music, it has so much less to do with what race people are. Maybe because dude’s white, the experiences life have given him, that’s why his music is that bad.”—Mac Miller

STAPLES: Without the Beastie Boys, there’s no Vince Staples music. So I don’t care about some white rapper sh*t. My music don’t sound like traditional rap music in that sense. It’s not all black people where I live at; it’s not all white people where I live at. Color has nothing to do with the socio-economic background. That’s a different conversation. Being in a certain social situation and being of a certain kind of class has nothing to do with what color you are. They couldn’t understand Kreayshawn because they never been to Oakland. Anybody that got something to say about the Kreayshawn sh*t, I suggest you run up on V-Nasty.

MILLER: Hell no. V-Nasty is with the sh*ts.

STAPLES: I want them to try Vanessa. I really do.

MILLER: Vanessa: great human being, kind person, with the sh*ts. 100 percent.