Offset Wants People To Remember That ‘Hip-Hop Is Black Culture’

As the conversation surrounding cultural “ownership” of hip-hop kicked into high gear over the weekend, a voice that some might consider unlikely chimed in to share its two cents. That voice belonged to Offset, who may have caught wind of the backlash against Noname through his good friend and Noname collaborator Chance The Rapper, or just may be continuing a dinner table discussion from Thanksgiving. Whatever the impetus, he expressed his opinion clearly with tweet Monday night: “Sorry but hip hop is black culture don’t speak or give game if u don’t have black culture duh,” he wrote.

Naturally, because Twitter is Twitter, some of the responses directly challenged the sentiment the same way Noname’s tweets drew fire from people who felt entitled to their place within the culture. “Hip hop is an art form, it isnt subjective to a single race,” responded one user, who accompanied their comment with a now-customary clown emoji.

https://twitter.com/Daniyal_raza7/status/1201745532366004224

Another jumped into the discussion with an accusation that Offset was “tryna segregate” hip-hop, offering the view that “Eminem raps better than u and he’s white.”

Of course, for every tweet missing the point like those, there were also defenders who understood exactly what Offset was getting at. “The replies under this post are hilarious,” observed one commenter. “It’s honestly confusing how many white people are confused that hip hop is inherently black culture.” They also went on to describe other Black American musical genres that were eventually subsumed by white artists over the years, such as jazz and rock.

Offset further explained his point in a separate tweet, writing: “Don’t make rules on what goes in hip hop when u don’t know the history. It’s pain music, story music. We the biggest genre in the world off our struggle and hustle. Yesssir, proud of my people, that’s all. If u mad, then sorry but no sorry. Took a lot for us to get here but we here!” On that celebratory note, he signed off with a hashtag: #BlackExcellence.

Offset, whose album Father Of 4 is out now via Quality Control Music and Motown Records, recently confirmed that new Migos music is on the way during an appearance on WWE Smackdown.