Crews 
Following Azealia Banks‘ appearance on Hot 97 Morning Show earlier this month where she and the hosts addressed cultural appropriation in hip hop as well as her issues with Iggy Azalea the conversation continues as today rapper Macklemore has added his perspective to the current hot topic.
During his hour interview, the rapper touched on White artists in hip hop culture, the deaths of Eric Garner, Mike Brown and the controversy behind him winning ‘Best Rap Album’ over Kendrick Lamar at the Grammy’s earlier this year.
On Winning Best Album Over Kendrick:
“I thought Kendrick had a better album…The mistake came from Instagramming the text message and betraying my homie’s trust. That’s wack…The language that I used was a bad call. “Robbed” was a bad choice of word. White people have been robbing black people for a long time. Of culture. Of music. Of freedom. Of their lives. That was a mistake.”
On White Artists In Hip Hop Culture:
“You need to know your place in the culture. Are you contributing or are you taking? Are you using it for your own advantage or are you contributing? I saw a tweet that said, “Hip hop was birthed out of the civil rights movement.” This is a culture that came from pain and oppression. It was the byproduct [of white oppression]. We can say we’ve come a long way since the late Seventies and early Eighties, but we haven’t. Just because there’s been more successful white rappers, you cannot disregard where this culture came from and our place in it as white people. This is not my culture to begin with.”
Check out his thoughts on the Eric Garner and Mike Brown situations and so much more below.
