Dear TAN: Can this White Guy Rap?

Send your questions/letters to theassimilatednegro [at] gmail [dot] com.

In this edition: The 3/5 Compromise for White Rappers

Dear TAN,

I think your site is clever...uh, yeah I rap and I'm white. You think you could give me a listen and tell me to keep going or pack it up? Please!? I'm also a visual artist and I'd be willing to make you something for help? I make a living off my visual art so I have more confidence in it. I can't even get people to listen and I don't want to talk shit to get them too....
thanks for your time and sorry to bother you
daniel
www.pinupforpeace.com
www.imeem.com/rockface

~~

Dear Daniel (Face),

I think I'm going to blog your request, more specifically: I'm going to grasp your hand and help you in the White Rapper struggle. So often I see well-intentioned caucasian emcees struggling with their esteem and identity and I think, well shoot, no one knows the plight of the oppressed, the ignored, the written off like a white rapper. You have your Martin & Malcolm, but still so many suffer in silence. Makes me feel like those white peeps you see in old Civil Rights footage, they didn't have to get hosed down and attacked by dogs with the rest of the negroes. But the sight, smell, sounds of injustice were too much to bear. So it is for TAN! You are not 3/5 of a rapper! You are an individual emcee who should be counted!

So heretoforward, since I get these white rapper demos somewhat often for some reason, i will post them occasionally, and maybe you will be praised, maybe you will be mocked, maybe the comments will remain at zero. But let it not be said that TAN didn't reach his hand out during the White Rapper Civil Rights movement of the 2000s.

As for you specifically, Daniel, err "Face"... i think the toughest hurdle for you is the voice. most good rappers have a distinctive, often commanding vocal presence. Guru said it long ago, it remains a truism, it's mostly tha voice. someone like kanye has a lot of clever jokes/lines, but often sounds like, well, like a white rapper. he's had to overcome his voice. in contrast, someone like asher roth, maybe he doesn't sound black, but he sounds well trained in how to sound black-er.

so in general, as i'd advise most rappers, i think you should just stay grinding. if you love it, do it. rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live. or somesuch. rapping doesn't have a lot of room for commercial viability these days, so i don't think you should give up the computer/design work to take on a career of open mics. but you're not the worst black or white rapper i've heard. if that's encouraging at all.

good luck,

-TAN