About Kreayshawn and all this toxic, White Girl Mob nonsense. Also how White Girl Mob are kinda like the Tea Party.
Rule number one for white rappers, and shit, man, white people in general: Don’t say the n-word! Just don’t. Not exactly sure where this white-rapper compulsion to utter “nigga” comes from, but the latest violator of what should be a pretty obvious rule is V-Nasty. She’s a member of the White Girl Mob — a group that revolves around Oakland MC Kreayshawn, who’s responsible for the viral hit “Gucci Gucci,” which is nearing nine million views on YouTube.
Kreayshawn has stated that she doesn’t use the n-word in her raps (although she did tweet it), and according to a rant on her Tumblr, intends to separate herself from V-Nasty: “[V-Nasty's use of the n-word] has taken a huge toll on what I been trying to do and what I been trying to push. I hope soon people will see the difference between us even though we are still close friends doesn’t mean I use it too or defend it in anyway.”
A video from a few months before, though, finds Kreayshawn drumming up a dumb-assed defense of her n-bomb-spouting friend: “[V-Nasty] says it all the time and that’s just because she grew up all different. Like she goes in and out of jail for armed robbery all the time and like, you know, her mom calls her that.” This hedged stance might wash, except for the fact that the only reason any of us are even privy to V-Nasty’s raps is because Kreayshawn has given her something like a co-sign. She becomes responsible for V-Nasty, whether she wants to be or not…
Are You A Serious Comic Book Reader?
Said this over at spin already but I think it’s just gonna get lost in the hate over there so uh…
This article smacks of a degree of arrogance and ignorance. There are indeed neighborhoods where the line between who can and can’t say “nigga” is completely blurred, complicated, and individual. V-Nasty’s may very well have grown up in a situation much like that, and her use of the word before her emergence on the internet rap scene may have long since stopped being questioned, but rather, accepted by those around her (including her black counter parts).
You state
“But there’s a big difference between some weird community anomaly and an untested rapper whose white figurehead is signed to a major label. The White Girl Mob takes on a different context when they’re pushed to the public at-large.”
To me, this implies that because she now has an internet presence, she watch her tongue more carefully and forget the forgiveness of her “weird community anomaly.” Yet it seems so often that some of the most celebrated black artists are successful for the fact that they bring those weird anomalies to areas that have little or no exposure to them. But when it comes to this one rule, everything is black and white, clear cut, and what she is doing is emphatically wrong. All the while black artists as hustlas selling drugs as a means of community economic growth is parsed and critiqued with care.
As for he “divisiveness” that she inspires, the same differentiation is seen all around the rap world with black artists. “Black Hippy” is an easy example. In the case of white girl mob, the explanation may be as simple as “we were a minority in a neighborhood of black kids and we hung out”. It could have just been a nickname for their group growing up, but now that they have attention you expect them to apologize for a meaningless name. When I walked into my first class in college, I sat with the black kids cause they were familiar in a very white setting. We could have called ourselves “black nerds” as a joke. If we all ended up famous rappers, I hope we wouldn’t have to explain ourselves.
I guess what I’m saying is, as trite as it may sound, you really DON’T know her, or her neighborhood, or her environment. Dismissing her explanation as a bad snl skit is just dismissive when that really just may be her personality. Her question “is Obama acting white” actually holds weight. Cultural and class identity are much more significant markers of common ground that race is. She may just be a girl in a primarily black poor urban environment and that may say a lot more about her than her race does.
Also…
Kreayshawn being friends with V-Nasty, liking her, making music with her, and being seen in public with her, does not make her RESPONSIBLE for her words or actions. You are making it that way. In fact the only link you brought between Kreayshawn and the n-word was her explanation of why she thinks V-Nasty uses it. How does that in anyway make her responsible?
TheBlackFrankWhite
5 Aug 11 at 7:37 pm
Co-sign TheBlackFrankWhite 100 percent. Love your posts normally, hate this reductionist straw-man hit job completely.
DefendTiller
6 Aug 11 at 1:49 am
I’ll answer BFW over at Spin.
lol at “straw-man hit job”
brandonsoderberg
6 Aug 11 at 4:32 am
I wasnt even worried about TBFW, but ill address that since we’re here.
Kreayshawns real fucking name is Natassia Zolot. Shes a Russian girl who was brought up in Berkeley, nowhere near the Oakland she claims so hard. Do some fucking research into the people you defend before you start defending. Shes used the word before from what Ive heard. Shes fake to the core of her soul. And just because she rolls with some crew of wanna be robbers (who brags about that?) doesnt make her official, hip hop, or give her some pass to be an ABSOLUTELY SHITTY RAPPER, PEOPLE. Google the video of her bombing on MTV. She just fucking sucks. No Talent at ALL.
Also, if youre going to be a part of a White Girl Mob, the use of the Nigger should automatically be rubbed out for you. By default and for your safety. Also, claiming “White Girl Mob” negates any “Blackness” VNasty may or may not have.
Bottom line; the misappropriation of Hip Hop culture is disgusting. If you asked her some real shit about hip hop, its history, who the founding fathers were, who are her influences… Shes prolly stand around looking fucking stupid. For anyone of any race to say Nigger in this day in age, in any form, is just sad. If you had any respect for life or intelligence, youd just find another word to use. The shit isnt that hard.
And another thing. No, everyone does not use that damn word. Shut up with that generalizing shit. Please.
Anyways, wonderful piece Brandon; I had to track you down on the internets and thank you personally. This needed to be written and I just didnt give too much of a fuck to write it. Happy that you did. Yay for fucking common sense.
Keep it up.
Ericka Simone
7 Aug 11 at 2:21 am
Well now that we’re cursing at each other…
Ms. Simone,
Berkeley and Oakland fucking border each other and on the east coast they’d just be different towns in the same city. Their cultures meld and mix and even if she lived in berkeley growing up she could have spent a bunch of time in oakland. Also, she fucking went to high school in oakland. Anyway, unless she hired a fucking biographer I’m pretty sure it’s hard for Ericka Simone to divine the exact circumstances of how she grew up and which bay area town she spent the most time in. Also, what the fuck does her russian heritage have to do with anything?
Also, how does one promote the idea of “fucking research” and then in the next sentence claim she uses the n-word “from what i’ve heard”? What the hell does that even mean? Like, you heard her say it, or you heard from a friend who’s friend said that their friend knew some one who said she used the n-word?
Also, once again, Kreayshawn is made responsible for everything V-Nasty does. You’ve made them fucking synonymous in this conversation. They are two different people. But thanks for the biography on the upbringing of the person completely in the periphery of the conversation.
Why the hell is it ok for like every black rapper in the world to fabricate everything about their persona and now this white rapper needs to be fucking researched to the point where we’re nitpicking about whether she grew up in Oakland or Berkeley. Officer Ricky has how many hit records? Kanye West grew up middle class as shit and has some gun raps. No one is crying about that.
MOST rappers have no idea about hip hop history and that’s because it doesnt fucking matter. People put all these fucking responsibilities on rappers like if you are going to fuck around with making music you need an encyclopedia and a history book. How does one misappropriate hip-hop? Who does it fucking belong to? She’s not claiming to be a fucking purist or any of that shit. She doesn’t owe any one a fucking thing. Pretty much all the music ever made in the history of the world was an appropriation of other music. Who the fuck are you to be the judge of if she’s doing it in a way approved by the Committee of Acceptable Hip-Hop Uses? Also what does her quality of music have to do with anything about the N-Word? Would it be O.K. if she rapped like Nas? Also are we talking about Kreayshawn or V-Nasty? They’re the same person right?
I grew up saying nigga because it was a word used in by every one in my poor urban neighborhood. Us black kids used it and so did the asian girl down the street. No one cared. To us it fucking meant “dude”. It’s ridiculously insulting for you to claim that my or my friends’ use of it implies a lack of respect for life or intelligence because of the meanings that YOU place on the word. I know what I mean when I say it, so do my friends. So shut up with that generalizing shit please. Thanks.
Also, please point out where I said every one says the word nigger. Did you also hear that from your friend who told you Kreayshawn says nigger during sex? Is your friend hot?
What was I saying? Oh yea.
If you had some respect for intelligent conversation maybe you’d find some fucking modifiers that more aptly describe how you fucking feel and are more fucking creative than the fucking word fuck.
FUCK!!
TheBlackFrankWhite
7 Aug 11 at 8:19 pm
TheBlackFrankWhite -
Dude, just drop it. You look like a straight clown here. Hilarious that you’re defending some goofy white girls for saying “nigga” while pretending to be really offended that someone said “fuck.”
Brandon
8 Aug 11 at 4:36 pm
Ericka’s post got a little KRS-ish with the whole ‘but is she hip hop’ thing.
Anyway, I don’t want to agree with TBFW’s hot-headed argument, but I kinda do agree. I think we’re underestimating the authenticity argument a bit. Its useless to do so on the internet, but I can only draw on my own experience. And like TBFW, ‘nigga’ really did mean ‘dude’ where I was from. Most of the black kids in my neighborhood said it, the spanish kids too (myself included). The few white kids we knew would drop it with no problem. It was pretty much a word most kids where I’m from soaked up and tossed at each other without trying to be malicious. So V Nasty simply using the word isn’t really a problem.
V Nasty’s problem is she comes off as super-obnoxious and just really dumb. She makes herself easy to hate by telling people to fuck off and not being mindful of anyone who is actually offended by the word. Kinda kills any goodwill she has by standing awkwardly into a camera and dismissing everyone as a hater.
milkman
15 Aug 11 at 9:18 pm
Co-sign milkman 100 percent. Seems like TBFW and ES might have both been literary constructs created by the author to advance a narrative and deflect legitimate criticism. Can’t believe everything you read, even on music blog message boards.
DefendTiller
19 Aug 11 at 6:13 am
Yeah, because one would need to create people to make Kreayshawn defenders looks like idiots? You’re all clowns. Done with this argument. I’ve addressed all your points in my piece.
Brandon
19 Aug 11 at 6:23 am
You’re all clowns. Argument of the decade. Lazy fuck. Wrote a whole piece on Kraeyshawn’s friend and did a one sentence bait and switch to make it seem like it was about Kraeyshawn. Guess every web blogger eventually becomes a pageview whore. And you used to be fucking awesome. Anyway, go preach to more people about how they should live their life while having 0 cultural context.
TheBlackFrankWhite
20 Aug 11 at 4:41 pm
lolz dude, I don’t imagine how you could actually be a fan of my writing and be mad/upset/confused that I don’t like Kreayshawn. I provided plenty of culture context which I don’t think justifies an this/these artist(s) getting real mainstream coverage (V-Nasty was in Complex last week) even if in “the Bay”, where I’ve been, where I have friends, is an area full of dopey-ass white kids saying “nigga,” which by the way it isn’t exactly. It’s an element of the culture sure but plenty of communities have stupid-ass mores. Doesn’t make it acceptable. Also Berkeley isn’t “hood” or anything. That’s absurd too. And Oakland has plenty of nice parts too. Areas of Baltimore, where I’m from, and where all the poor “hood” white kids never say “nigga,” by the way, is similarly constructed. Some areas are “bad” or whatever and right next to them are pretty nice areas. Of course kids from certain places like to pretend they’re hood or just say “I’m from Baltimore” to gain some authenticity but it isn’t that simple. ALSO NONE OF THAT MAKES YOU COOLER OR SCARIER OR MORE ABLE TO SAY “NIGGA.” Also: Pretty sure there’s more than one sentence about Kreayshawn in my piece. There’s a discussion here but it’s not going to happen if you just troll the comments and continue this dumb-assed argument that “you don’t know how we live” or whatever.
brandonsoderberg
20 Aug 11 at 4:55 pm
from the Voice blog’s review of her show:
“Andy Kaufman or rap? You give this act (and our current pop culture standards) too much credit. I don’t know if “Kreayshawn” is being sincere, and honestly, I don’t care. She’s a white girl who has decided to mimic/mock some of the more standard tropes of regional hip hop for a quick buck. The idea of a young, white kid who is also “hood” and from Oakland- the mythological hood capital of America- is the kind of quirky/ironic gimmick needed to break into the mainstream (although her and her girl’s unapologetic use of the n-word won’t help her. If she were black, she’d be just another act from the Bay who would get a few spins on local station KMEL at best. As a native Oaklander, the whole thing makes me cringe.”
I mean again, it’s clear that this use of the n-word and just WGM in general isn’t some community-wide accepted thing.
Brandon
20 Aug 11 at 8:10 pm
For the record, my last post was clearly–I thought–facetious. Calling all of your commenters “clowns” did seem a little overkill. Still kind of disagree with you on this, but whatever. I mean, nobody disputes that V-Nasty is a terrible rapper. I’m certainly not going to waste a lot of digital ink defending her. But it does seem like cultural boundary pushers–whether we’re talking Larry Flynt or Luke–are historically untalented and marginal actors. You sort of have to be *dumb* enough to think you can get away with certain things to even try. It’s just hard for me to believe that in five-ten-whatever years the n-word won’t be even more ubiquitous and less “racial” than it already is. How many white middle school girls are singing along to Super Bass right now? How many are self-editing out the N-word? And maybe that has nothing to do with V-Nasty… but it sort of seems like it does. Anyway… enjoy the posts. Go AraabMuzik! (Although Lex Luger lapped him with the Round of Applause beat.)
DefendTiller
21 Aug 11 at 5:23 am
Honestly, this conversation’s gotten so out of hand, that I read you as serious, ha, my bad. Dunno, when a dude on a Spin board is referring to jew-y-ness, you start losing perspective.
I think the “Super Bass” example is an interesting one but again, I think community anomalies are different and some white girls in their room or at a school dance saying it is a little different. I also think there’s something a bit twisted about putting the onus of how “nigga” plays out in culture on here, black rappers and not the white people who aren’t mindful, but I do see your point. It’s a knotty issue. Thanks for reading, for real.
brandonsoderberg
21 Aug 11 at 5:29 am