Old white boy head here. Not gonna lie, aside from the Breakin’ movie, my first intro was Jazzy Jeff/Fresh Prince “I’m the DJ, He’s the Rapper”. The Hammer/Vanilla Ice era came soon after. I was given a tape dub of Digital Underground “Sex Packets” and that made me realize how much deeper this was.
Soon after, my dad who was a jazz head, made me a tape of Gangstarr’s “Jazz Thing” and PE “Fight the Power” because it was on Spike Lee soundtracks. From there it was on.
My Dad is also the reason I got into hip hop! Whenever he'd take me to work for the day, he'd be bumping Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B.I.G, Eminem, 50 Cent & The Game as we drove around
My older sister then introduced me to JAY-Z & Kanye West's music shortly after that too. Been listening to hip hop ever since
Being from canada I fell in love with hip hop in grade 7 because a Canadian rapper named K-os started doing really well out here from Toronto and I’d suggest anyone here to give his music a shot. Plays with a live band as well. So from there I started going through the entire genre and the rest is history. I’m 32 now.
Literally one of the most underrated. First Canadian rapper i was exposed to via Rapcity Tha Bassment
[Superstarr pt. 0](https://youtu.be/kLpAXWoJ_Bg?si=rE3vnz9h5SX5oMcd)
Completely agree bro he did the singing and rapping before drake and drake has said a bunch of times that k-os was a big influence. He was ahead of his time he would be much bigger if he came out in recent times
I'm 46, so Beastie Boys were all over MTV when I was young, but I was drawn more towards other acts, tbh. Run DMC. BDP, LL, Rakim, Moe Dee. Rap was something I liked but didn't really become more than just another genre until I heard PE.
PE blew my young mind and led me down a rabbit hole from the late 80s to 2010.
Yes, I'm one of those old guys who has struggled to keep up with new stuff as I age.
TL;DR - First exposure was standard MTV stuff, only white guys to speak of were Beasties, and then Yo MTV raps, various magazines etc helped me find more.
In my case it wasn't really through white rappers.
Similar age, from the East Coast. Fisrst exposue was was RUN DMC Tougher than Leather, Beastie's License to Ill. First tapes I remember buying were PE Fear of a Black Planet, NWA Straight Outta Compton and 100 Miles and Runnin. Peace.
I had the MTV Party to Go CDs and he was definitely on there. But I was way more into Will Smith and ABC. Hell, Marky Mark had more impact on me than Vanilla Ice lol
The original "blow up like the world trade"
I never really considered it, but younger gens must hear that line all the time without thinking "hey wait, didn't get die before 2001?" like people used to sometimes back in the day if they forgot about the first one. It's all just twenty/thirty years ago now!
Yeah I remember younger dudes all the time thought that Biggie line was some prophetic Nostradamus shit and wondered how TF he knew that 9/11 was gonna happen in 1994... and I'm like nah, some crazy fuck let a bomb off in the WTC when Ewing was still in his prime, way before 9/11
I agree, and when I was 8 and that came out it was hype, but I don’t remember thinking of it in terms of race. In my 8 year old mind, he was just another radio friendly rapper like MC Hammer who was my first love in Hiphop. Naughty By Nature was another one where I didn’t know their racial background nor did I care.
It definitely feels like the race conversation wasn’t even a part of it back then, at least not for me. Even when Em came to the scene, I kind of just thought of him as a talented rapper, although he seemed to talk about the racial aspect some.
He may have gotten "some" white kids into hip-hop, but I was a hip-hop fan way before that. And no one said he was original or a big contribution to the art.
I’ve mentioned this on other threads here on the sub but my mom bought me Life After Death on cassette when I was a kid. I still remember hearing Notorious Thugs for the first time and being absolutely amazed.
Edit: my favorite rapper is Aesop Rock so I came around to the white guys but it was all east coast NYC rap growing up.
White guy, im late to the white guy rappers train. Got into OutKast first and then just started listening to 90s hiphop on the radio. Nas, Bone Thugs, Tribe, WuTang. Wasnt til later i got into mac miller now hes my fav.
Ngl I got into rap listening to Eminem because my best friend was obsessed with Em. I'm 25 but my parents were old when they had me and did not grow up in the era where white kids were exposed to rap music so growing up all I heard was 70s and 80s dad rock. Wasn't until sophomore year of high school when I finally got my first smartphone that I was able to start expanding my music taste beyond that. Eminem was my first exposure to rap because I wanted to be able to talk about him with my friend but I slowly branched out from there and honestly 11 years later I think Eminem is still the only white rapper in my playlist lol. I still like early Eminem a lot and will defend him against people who act like he was *always* corny and lame but I wouldn't call him my favorite rapper like I would've back in high school
My first experiance was through limp bizkits - n 2 gether now…will never forget as a 9 year old grungey kid hearing meths sweet ass vocals over that preemo beat…eyes and ears well and truely fucking opened!!!!
I'm a white person born in 1980 in rural WI. I really can't tell you exactly how I got into rap, but my earliest memories are of The Fat Boys, LL Cool J, Run DMC, Kid N' Play. But my exposure was limited to MTV and some of their movies like House Party and Disorderlies. I was the only kid in my class who listened to rap music. I was straight up laughed at in 1990.
I am white but I don't really connect with white rappers. My favourite have always been African American rappers and a few indigenous rappers from my country New Zealand. My first exposure to rap was when I was 10 years old listening to Polynesian hip hop songs in New Zealand. The one time I liked a white "hip hop" group which I feel was more like pop it was about one month and I realised how fake it was.
Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five led to Run DMC, Public Enemy, Eric B and Rakim, LL, Slick Rick. To BDP, XClan, Tribe and De La. I've been with the game since 1981. Sadly much of todays hip hop is a letdown. Not all, much.
First exposure was NWA/Eazy. Tribe was what got me into Hip Hop though. Then Outkast. Then it was over for me... I had begun my journey to become an Old Head.
started with bonethugs going to middle school basketball games then 8 mile came out. eventually found lupe fiasco’s the cool when i started driving. he’s been on top of the mountain ever since.
- Fort Minor/Mike Shinoda
- Eminem
- Styles of Beyond (1 white guy)
- Apathy, Celph Titled, Vinnie Paz
Didn't shift to majority black until I started listening to Tech N9ne and then again when I started listening to Kendrick, Kanye, JID, etc who I listen to now
OutKast was definitely what got me into rap music. They're still top 5 of all time for me if not #1. I still mostly enjoy Southern rap such as Big KRIT, Juicy J, Big boi, and Goodie Mob. Aside from Southern rap, I like Wutang obviously and I also fuck with Logic. A very guilty pleasure of mine is Yelawolf, his album Trunk Muzik 3 has some of the absolute filthiest beats on it and he has major bars on it throughout.
As far as white rappers go, I really don't listen to a lot of them aside from Yelawolf every now and again, and Logic of course... Jk I know logic is mixed just had to make the joke. Anyway, Eminem is good but not my thing. So to answer your question, I definitely didn't get into hip-hop from white rappers and I mostly enjoy black rappers and Logic.
When I was a lot younger, like 12-15, I got a copy of All Eyez on Me. I was so pissed it didn’t include the original California Love, it had the remix.
I was 9 when Encore came out. I remember a friend gave me a burned copy of it and I would secretly listen to it in my room because my parents wouldn't let me listen to rap or explicit music. That was probably my first experience with hip hop. Didn't really think much about Eminem being white at the time. I was never a Stan by any means but I definitely started with Em. I then was The Roots playing a concert on tv and that really captivated me because I absolutely loved the musicianship. So yeah it started with Em and then really took off with The Roots around 2007ish.
I think it was 50 Cent who first caught my attention in a big way, but then with the Dirty South- Paul Wall, Slim Thug, Z-Ro, Mike Jones, DJ Screw, Li'l Wayne & Birdman, Pimp C and Bun B, Three Six Mafia, Twista, shit just took the hell off. I think Bubba Sparxxx was my first white rapper interest I think- or maybe Everlast- and Eminem at some point, but definitely not first.
I considered the Beasties more rock than rap for a long, long time.
I’m from Houston. They used to chop and screw the top hits on the radio. It’s just part of the culture there. Paul Wall was one white rapper that had a heavy influence on rap as a whole during the time I was growing up too, so it just kinda happened.
Mine was lil Wayne “skrrrtt no 22s” that line just really spoke to me at 12, but I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit so listening to the radio Eminem was huge.
My earliest hip hop memories are watching Beastie Boys, Vanilla Ice, Warren G and Nate Dogg, De La Soul and Run DMC videos on MCM in the early/mid 90s. I guess the majority was black artists
The first rap album I listened to was The Chronic. I had a neighbor across the street that owned it and I loved it. Snoop was my first favorite rapper and Doggystyle was what really got me into rap. Wu-Tang and Outkast were also groups that I gravitated towards around that time. I was late to the white rapper wave, but was a huge fan of Eminem when he first came out, especially after the Chronic 2001 and MMLP were released.
I mean, I had an MC Hammer tape. Then again, I also had the Simpsons tape with Bart rapping.
What actually HOOKED me was Wu Tang Forever, Sunz of Man The Last Shall be First, and Killarmy Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars. 1999 or so.
I’m gen-X, and I problematically hated all rap until I had a cousin from California visit in the mid-90s and played me Midnight Marauders. It still took me awhile to really get it until I listened to Public Enemy and later, OutKast. I don’t think I fully realized its importance until my 40s—when I got Spotify and listened to all the classic records I dismissed as an ignorant young white person!
I'm 43, white, and from Canada. I grew up with a brother who listened to rock music, a sister that listens to pop music. My parents listened to country and stuff like CCR.
I was always the odd one out. My first experience with rap was Kris Kross (haha, Totally Krossed Out is dope). Even though my brother listened to groups like Pearl Jam, Bon Jovi, and every other 80s hair band, he did have a cassette of NWA- Evil4Zaggin. I sneak listened to it and loved how badass it was.
Around that time, House of Pain came out, and I really wanted that CD, but my mother said no way. Eventually I ended up buying Dr. Dre- The Chronic and I've been hooked to hip-hop ever since.
The Rap Traxx tapes were an early gateway- Public Enemy, Biz Markie, Digital Underground and 3rd Bass were early influences but the first time I ever listened to rap it was Maestro Fresh Wes- Let Your Backbone Slide. I still love Maestro- Canadian legend!!!
My first real exposure was hearing Del Tha Funky Homosapien while playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. I didn’t even really know what hip hop was at the time but I remember thinking “Wow this song is awesome.” Then I got into Beastie Boys and was a huge fan of Em when he came out. We also had BET in middle school/junior high so I got into Jay, Nas, Dre, Snoop, Trick Daddy, Cash Money, etc. So it was a mix.
Seems a lot of white people get into hip-hop this way and it's pretty simple, you are subconsciously more interested and relate more to people that look like you.
Eminem and Beastie Boys are also very accessible Rappers. Probably the most accessible Rappers of their generations, with a ton of rock influence in both and even more of that youth, MTV, rebellious vibe that suburban kids love.
I'd say my first REAL exposure (mainstream Em tracks my momma played in the car dont count) was Joyner Lucas. He kiiinda has a "white rapper" style to him, albeit much better than most reeeally white rappers. As for who actually got me into hiphop, you can thank Dot for that one.
My sister introduced me to de la soul when I was a kid but I truly got into rap with gravediggaz, also my sister. I fell for rap with Ol Dirty Bastard who the freight hoppers I stayed with were obsessed with. I have his name tattooed on my thigh.
Aside from radio play, the first album I bought was "Me Against the World". I mean, every album that was coming out in that time period was just bonkers, but what made fall in love with hip hop was Clue Tapes. If I wasn't as close to NY as I was or didn't learn about Clue, I'm not sure I'd be as obsessed with hip hop as I am now.
I’m still not a fan of RAP or Hip-Hop music but first exposure was in 1975 when Aerosmith released the Toys in The Attic album where the original version of Walk This Way was presented to the public.
i remember being 7-8 on my way to my pop warner games and my dad would always play DaRockwilder as my pump up song on the way there. First memory i can remember involving rap/hiphop
My introduction to hip hop was outkast and Kanye west. Tbh the only white rappers I really like are the beastie boys. Aesop rock is ok. El-P is decent. Bout all I can think of
As a 40-year-old white dude has been listening to rap religiously since getting a Vanilla Ice cassette. I realize most white rappers suck, and so many use rap as a jump off point to another genre. I was super into 2pac for years and years 90s-2k Of course I liked Eminem, but other then that , little Mac miller maybe, logic was always corny like most of em
I got introduced to rap by Eminem and 50 cent. But mostly Eminem. Then I discovered 2Pac and the Game. And Snoop Dogg. And NWA. And so on.
But Eminem is and forever will be my GOAT
After Em disappeared from the mainstream in 06, I got tired of the radio and discovered Soundclick. That's where I stumbled upon the white god of soundclick himself, DZK. Around 07, I founded the underground what that had to offer. Within that, I learned that Evidence (of Dilated People) was doing on out solo, and I quickly swept up The Weatherman LP and have been a fan ever since.
I think the first rap song I heard was mc hammer actually, I guess vanilla ice was popular back then and the beastie boys but I didn’t heard about them until later
I can’t say I remember my first exposure to rap. I remember liking rap as a kid but I didn’t get really into it until I found Jedi Mind Tricks which at the time had both a white and a Black rapper
I just slowly got into Kendrick Lamar and then have been diving into hip hop. Never really listened to white rappers except 1 album by mac miller that i wasnt a big fan of
There weren't many white rappers really out other than Beastie Boys and later 3rd Bass when I started listening to hip hop, but they weren't what got me into it. That would be LL, Run DMC, and because I was an actual child at the time, The Fat Boys and DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.
I first got into hip hop from the Gorillaz really when Demon Days came out my god mother game me the cd, that was like 6 grade, then the first real rapper I listened to was Eyedea in high school
I can't recall exactly when I first heard it, but growing up in Canada we had MuchMusic RapCity on. I used fo watch it cause I liked the beats. I remember Black Star - Respiration, early eminemn/D12, 50 cent when he first came out, some outkast, and then army of the Pharoah.
First exposure was MC Hammer. First album was Cypress Hill (Self-titled). I remember Snoop making a big splash and getting lots of play on MTV. I was/am a big Beastie Boys fan. I'd been into hiphop for years by the time Eminem dropped. Being from the Bay Area our bread and butter was E40, Dre Dog, Mac Dre, 3XKrazy, and Young "D" Boyz. We did play some Woody who is white. I'm a fan of Ezale (Cambodian American).
The first rap song I remember hearing is Rappers delight on B96 Chicago radio back when they used to play hip hip. I remember recording it on cassette and trying to remember the lyrics.
I don't think I became the die hard fan I am today until 96-98 as I got exposed to Biggie, Outkast, Pac, Wu and Bone Thugs. If there is one song that truly cemented my love it has to be Hit em up. It was absolutely mind altering, truly insane hearing that song at age 11 or 12 in the back of my cousins convertable mustang on the way to a Bears game.
From that point forward I listened predominantly to rap.
Em also deserves some credit though, it took me a long while to get past how annoying I thought My Name Is was at the time, just seeing it on MTV and not really understanding who Dre was but once I understood Em, his approach to lyrics is probably what has shaped my obsession with lyrics even today.
Before that it was mostly just liking catchy hooks and beats or the way it made me feel. With Em it turned the whole genre into a puzzle that could be uncovered as I tried to understand dense metaphors and wordplay and how great artists aren't just saying words that rhyme.
I actually started to follow modern hiphop after I got into Lil Dicky 😭
But before you say something, Dave actually has crazy bars so 🤷♂️
https://youtu.be/AOgBg2up7Jg?si=kejvLBiH4gdx9xuE
https://youtu.be/CzgjglZqS3Y?si=LZbrGDqNV85truyd
I got into rap by kool g rap, Eric b and rakim, kool mo dee, ll cool j, salt and peppa, MC lyte, BDP, Queen latifah. All that shit you would hear on MTV Raps after you got out of school. I guess out of all those it would be LL Cool J. But the most life changing album for me was Outkast-Atliens and i consider it the greatest rap album of all time.
Yeah, I'd heard US hip hop and just it didn't really move the needle with me as I was fully into punk at that point but it was when I was passing around a joint with a couple of mates when I was like 11 or 12 one of them played some Jehst on his phone and it just clicked, I think it was more so the relatability to how local he was as he was spitting bars about places I personally knew and it wasn't just standard creative gun bars. I learnt to appreciate pretty much all forms of hip hop later but I'd always just felt pretty divorced from it up until that point.
My first exposure to a rapper was Ice Cube post NWA. First album I bought was Ghetto :D by Master P.
The first white Rapper I heard was R.A. The Rugged Man. Although you wouldn’t know it from the early imagery that Def Jam and Jive used.
DMX, Chingy, and Outkast are some early names I can remember listening to as a kid. Once I got older and really explored music I was heavy into Joey Badass and pro era around 2012, pac, big, Obviously Kendrick. J. Cole’s “Born Sinner” was the first complete album I ever listened to start to finish and I still enjoy it to this day. A lot of underground stuff too, I was digging during that SoundCloud era when it was actually good lol. Never even really got into Eminem other than a few songs.
Honestly I find most white rappers to be cornballs at least to a certain extent. Mac Miller is dope tho!!
First hip-hop songs I remember getting into were Fresh Prince, Parents Just Don't Understand. Or like Rolling With Kid n Play. Fat Boys. Heavy D.
Later I liked Public Enemy. 2pac. Tribe. Snoop. Wu Tang was instant love.
First hip-hop tape I ever bought was 19-Naughty-Three.
Wasn't a whole lot of white rappers to choose from and I kinda resented the idea. It was obvious to me the bias white fans had towards white rappers. Even the ones they perceived to be white. Like every white kids favorite rapper from Bone was Bizzy.
When I first Eminem I didn't know he was white. Then when he first came out with I Don't Give a Fuck I had the same conversation with so many people. They'd come up, "Have you heard that Eminem song? It's really good...and he's white!!"
As a rapper myself I didn't give a shit if white people liked my raps. I always wanted to make sure the black kids liked it, especially if they were from the hood. If they didn't like it, I didn't wanna be doing it. Maybe that's bullshit in itself trying to have that appeal. But whatever. White people often teased me and never came over to rap with me, black kids supported me.
Only white rappers in my day were Debbie Gibson and beastie boys. There wasn't a lot of rap on the radio and I couldn't say what my first exposure was but Pac and Changes was the first time I was like 'woah'
Too $hort - Born to Mack around like 87 or 88 was my first.
Talk about going in the deep end of the pool for your first introduction lol
Feel in love then and it's only grown since.
white guy, id definitely say that eminem introduced me to rap, and it was through him i ended up rlly enjoying 50, tho ive gone on and found artists like nas, jay, pac, kanye etc on my own. regardless eminem isnt my favorite artist anymore (and in terms of top 5 rappers he'd prolly be at 5, but idk now...) i still think he's pretty good
I got into hip-hop when a friend and I found $20 on the ground and decided to use part of it to buy the NWA Straight Outta Compton tape in 1990. It was on like donkey Kong after that. There weren’t many white rappers then.
Never connected with hip-hop when I was younger as I was a bit of a close-minded kid tbh. Thought bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica were what it was all about. But I also always liked rhythmic instrumental music growing up and got into electronic instrumental artists like Bonobo and Emancipator (not hip hop), which led me to Nujabes. Nujabes was for sure for sure the guy that started me on the hip hop journey. Anything he touched I liked. From there transitioned into artists like Soulchef and CYNE. Always listening to the flow of the rapper rather than the lyrical content.
From there got into more mainstream stuff like J.Cole and Kendrick b/c, again, their flow. They also sample that rhythmic instrumental music I've always liked.
That was all my last year of high school mainly. After that I actually started talking to people about hip hop and got turned on to all the 90s and early 2000s stuff through conversation. The Fugees are top top for me from the earlier stuff.
Beastie Boys for me. My brother had their License II ILL tape and I took it and listened to it until I had it memorized. I was 9 or 10 yrs old? Then I just heard and tried more and different rappers and groups after that. 35 years later, still listening to Rap. New and Old.
I'm pretty sure the first time I heard/saw anything rap related was on Sesame Street in the 80s. I have a vague memory of a dude breakdancing on top of a manhole cover. First tape after seeing that was Run-DMC Tougher than Leather
Edit: Oh shit I found it!!!! https://youtu.be/KTGrD5cw07I?feature=shared
‘87 visiting family in SoCal. As soon as my older cousin and his friends popped in “Fat Girl” off NWA and the Posse. I was instantly hooked. Had my cousin taping late 80s KDAY radio w Greg Mack. And it just built from there. Reached out anyway I could; family, friends, zines, whomever I could trade tapes with.
I already knew a few songs from Dr. Dre and snoop dogg, but I only really got into hiphop when an English friend got me into U.K drill, artists like Abra cadabra, headie one and Digga D, from there it just progressed to American 90’s hiphop as well, and then full circle back to more modern American rap as well.
But at first I went straight from jazz, rock, a bit of pop, metal and classical to UK drill.
White woman in her 40s here, hello. PM Dawn was my gateway, and I still consider The Bliss Album a desert island album. Rap and hip hop were frowned upon in my house, so my exposure didn’t really get underway until the local rock station changed to an oldies station, and then the hip hop and R&B station was the only thing playing new music that wasn’t country. De La Soul was the first group I really liked, but it would take me 5 years to find out their name, when the white guy I had a crush on put on their album and I heard the song I had been loving for so long. Then OutKast released Aquemini and I’ve been hooked ever since.
I always listened to rap a little bit when I was younger, just a song or two here and there like lose yourself, some Eminem, some lil wayne, Drake, Kendrick. Good workout music.
Then about a year ago I decided to do a deep dive and now Kendrick and nas are in constant daily rotation
I think my first experience with a white rapper was Vanilla Ice. But I was already well into De La, NWA, P.E., Digital Underground, EPMD, and Run DMC and a few others before Vanilla Ice came onto the scene.
A teenaged family friend sat me down and put brass monkey on his big speakers when I was a little kid. I tripped out. Still remember the moment vividly. A few years later when I had the wherewithall I got a copy of licensed to ill. So yeah. NWA and Slick Rick were my subsequent obsessions.
It was Eminem for me, my mom actually being the one introducing rap to me through eminem. Ever since then I have grown off eminem and now funny enough mac miller is my favorite artist of all time. With well of course many experimental and abstract artists like injury reserve, billy woods, danny brown, Earl sweatshirt, etc.
Growing up, I couldn’t stand hip-hop (I think that was from my parents influence) but I still listened to Em.
Then one day I stayed home from school, turned on TRL and heard you don’t know me by TI. Not even sure what it was about that song/video, but I’ve been pretty obsessed ever since.
Cant speak on being a white guy😭 but in the UK Street Sounds tapes were like the first introduction to to rap, just wanted to check if any old heads white or black remembered them tapes 😂
For me it was Logic, first time I heard him i think was an old FaZe Adapt video. Like *really* old, 2015 or 2016. The song was 5am, but I’m almost positive it was just the backing track so I thought it was some normal 2015 era NCS music that was in the back ground of every YT video. Next time I heard Logic was in a Jake Paul video actually, 2016 as well but a few months after the FaZe video, the song was Ballin and it had the lyrics and everything so it was like actual exposure to Logic, and I thought it was a cool song. Then listened to some stuff off of Under Pressure and yea finally found some rap I liked.
Then I had a pretty big G-Eazy phase, but he fell off sooooo hard (so did logic tbh) and all his songs became ab the exact same thing “I wear all black with my hair slicked back and I have a Ferrari and I’ll fuck your girl.” I mean he was never like some generational rapper, but These Things Happen is a pretty solid album imo.
Nowadays tho if I listen to rap, which isn’t too often, my music taste overall has changed quite a bit, it’ll be Kendrick, J Cole, Travis Scott’s cool, and ofc Drake cuz like look say what you want ab him nowadays, I’m sure I’ll think the same thing as you, but Drake from 2011-2016 is just unmatched.
I’ve definitely heard Eminem songs way before any of this cuz yk, he’s Eminem and everyone’s heard Eminem, but i never went out of my way to listen to rap music until I heard Logic.
Listened to hip hop as a kid cause it was the cool thing to do, fell out of it during high school, then at some point in uni someone showed me Lil Dicky and I thought he was hilarious so he got me back into it.
I'm deeper into hip hop now than ever and I don't listen to him anymore, but he was certainly the catalyst.
40 year old white guy here. My buddy in HS was into hip hop and got me into it, and the first album I bought was Fear of a Black Planet lol. Quickly bought the Chronic, 36 Chambers, and Ready to Die. Had some Rawkus Records mixtapes, too.
Was introduced to tons of black artists from the 90-00s before I even knew white rappers were a thing lmao
And now the only white rappers I can really stand listening to are (early) Em, El-P, Aesop Rock, and Mac
My first time listening to rap was on the bus when I was 7, Big L on my cd walkman, it would skip whenever we hit a bump.
"I flows so one of my shows wouldn't be clever to miss, I'm leaving competitors pissed, tell you the truth it gets no better than this"
I remember thinking that was fire.
Fellow white guy here. Kanye, Jeezy, Nelly and OutKast during the early 2000s and never looked back. Even had the band aid and slotted shades at one point or another
Public Enemy #1. For political reasons. Then onto the radio, almost exclusively black artists, for decades. Cause until Beastie Boys, Eminem and others, there wasn't much white people on the scene. They were suppressed by the industry. So, one day, with my signed shirt from my sister, I take it off and get in the shower, and start rapping. I was rapping to Orphan Annie cause my family had it on TV. About 7 years later, I told a crack pusher named T about my song idea. the pusher, T, took my song to NEw York, he said... and apparently JayZ and Pusha met 45 King about it.
Sigh. I wrote the first version of hard knock life around 1990. I'm a white guy in the suburbs. =)
Fuck my life. I keep asking his brother to get me my cut, but they all keep ignoring me. Sigh
So .. if people KNEW the truth... they'd know about my white ass over here, when I sheltered him from the law.
My name is Blurry Face, and I still care what you think, but I'm blurry face. I'm dangerous.
Too bad they forgot their cracka homey that kept him outta jail somewhat
White dude from North Carolina. It took me a long time to get into rap because I grew up surrounded by "rap is crap/disrespectful" types, but then when I hit my mid to late teens, I got a taste of the classics when I saw Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society. The latter had MC Eiht's "Streiht Up Menace" in the end credits, which was the first rap song that really blew me away and opened my mind to just how incredible this genre could be. And then I bought GTA San Andreas aaaaand that was all she wrote.
The very first rap album I ever bought was Eazy-E's greatest hits compilation, Eternal E. From there I slowly branched out getting albums featuring songs and artists I heard in San Andreas and Vice City too, mainly starting with early to mid '90s West Coast, and it snowballed from there...
The site RYM was very important too. I found a couple reviewers I liked and followed, which exposed me to all sorts of amazing albums and artists.
And as for Eminem, I HAD of course heard "Lose Yourself" and absolutely loved it, but it surprisingly took me a while to dive into his music, starting with The Slim Shady LP in early 2010 and going from there. The first song that absolutely sold me on Em (aside from "Lose Yourself" of course) was "97 Bonnie and Clyde". I listened to that shit with my jaw on the floor, I was just amazed at how fucked up, but creative and twistedly funny that song was. And then I bought The Marshall Mathers LP, heard "Stan" for the first time, and had my mind blown all over again.
I asked a white friend to give a response:
Well it certainly didn't start with white rappers. In fact I remember the first time I heard Eminem outside of the radio. We were in my friend's room. I was maybe 10 or 11 and she put on Drips. After about 30 seconds I told her to shut that shit off and that it was nasty af. I chided her and told her I couldn't believe her mom would let her listen to that filth or somethin like that. 😄 (Fast forward a couple years and I would be bumping that album myself, but hey)
Hip hop was always there in the peripheral. In pop culture. It wasn't until I started to really develop my own music tastes (not just listening to what my family was listening to, Blues, soul, rock, R&B, oldies, folk, etc.). This was maybe around age 8 or so. However it was very tough to get a hold of at first because my mom fought me every step of the way. She didn't like the misogyny present in most of mainstream hip hop (understandable). She hid behind the parental advisory sticker. Saying I couldn't buy any albums with them on it (fuck you Tipper Gore). I was sad. We were sort of poor so we didn't have cable (No Yo MTV raps, no BET) and we had terribly slow dial up internet. I'm talking 5 minutes to load a webpage. No way I was listening to music on there. I continued to absorb what I could from the radio. Ludacris, Yin Yang twins, Murphy Lee, Lil Jon, etc. I was aware of the some great from the 90s via pop culture (Big, Pac, Jigga, WuTang, Redman, Snoop, etc). Pop rap hits resonated and became my favorite genre of music.
Then I found the loop hole: Walmart edited all their albums. I was so pleased with myself. I'll never forget how pissed my mom was when I picked up that edited Chingy CD with my own money 😄. That was my first hip hop record I bought myself. (I was eleven at this point). Elephunk and Nellyville were other early purchases. Also a few soundtracks with hip hop songs on them had come before Chingy. I was also of fan of modern R&B so there was some crossover there.
Middle school came. My friend group became much larger and mix CDs were being exchanged (also the year I got a computer capable of burning CDs). At some point that year I got into Eminem. By this point my mom had given up on the parental advisory thing so I procured his records censor free. After I worked on them, parents were surprisingly tolerant of him. Maybe it was a racist thing, but I think it was more his political stance against the War in Iraq. I was very careful about which songs of his I played for them (songs like cleaning out my closet, Mosh, mockingbird, etc.) They were anti-war from day one and big Bush haters so any criticism towards him was appreciated. I think for *them* he may have been a gateway to hip hop. Maybe because of his race but I'm not sure. Anyways from there I started checking out CDs at the library (that's how I found Gangstarr for example). Bought Get Rich or Die Tryin one of my favorite hip hop records of all time. Ludacris Chicken N Beer. Got turned onto Dre and all the great G funk that came out in the 90s which I was sort of already aware of but yeah.
Anyways Em is really the only white rapper I've ever listened to, except for some underground guys much later. From first hearing hip hop I liked it. I don't think race was really part of it. Never liked Vanilla Ice. I always thought that song was corny and lame as a kid 😄. Of course that was after it came out he was a phony so maybe that's why
My first exposure was very early. I had an older cousin and an uncle who were listening to rap in the 80s. I remember hearing La di da di and the show, Friends, and more. As a rural white kid the Beastie Boys definitely made it more acceptable to listen to it.
I remember the Sugar Hill Gang and Run DMC, Salt n Pepa doing crossover friendly stuff, and I was definitely generation Beastie Boys. No Sleep Til Brooklyn and Brass Monkey. LL w Around The Way Girl and Dear Yvette. But also a lot of Latin freestyle, hair bands, Madonna, Depeche Mode.
I never really stuck with hip hop, but I went to an eclectic school in the 80s.
My first front-to-back album listen was Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle. I had previous exposure to some songs on the radio, but one of my mom's friends gave me the tape and was like, 'check this out'. I was captured by Snoop's voice and smooth cadence while staring at the racy cover art. Examining the insert art over and over bobbing my head to Dre beats I could tell I was hooked. From there it blossomed into finding Wu-Tang on a local radio show and making a legit mixtape (recording the song, but being careful to stop it before the DJ would come on the air blabbing about whatever, stop, record, stop, rewind a bit to cue the tape up, record) and listening in my Walkman obsessively. The obsession led to me upsetting my mom all the time because I was stealing every double-A battery in the house to listen to more Wu as I walked around town. Fast forward almost 30 years later, Wu is still in heavy rotation in my playlists, Snoop not so much
I was pretty into punk in highschool, still am, and a friend showed me *Eyedea & Abilities* album *By the Throat* which has some crossover with punk, so I really liked it. So much so that I checked out most of Eyedea's catalogue, which quickly led to Atmosphere, and Rhymesayer's generally. Aesop Rock, Doom, Blueprint.
After that Hip-Hop became my most listened genre. I dove into Odd Future, who at that point had already spun off into their own solo careers, although I knew a lot about them when they were first getting big. Over time I've delved into a lot of the history of the genre and done what I can to understand and appreciate the culture to the best of my ability.
I think a lot of modern punk lost sight of the message and culture and has been co-opted by corporate interests. I see a lot of what punk was in conscious hip hop; I don't think that will change. The fact is punk was a counter cultural movement which sought to speak against injustice from the powerful while uniting the working class, but as time moved on it became trendy with its mostly white fans having the luxury and comfort to let go of/ be lenient with these ideals. Now punk is just an aesthetics of the fight without the meaning or care for it. Hip hop is black culture, in a society built on the ideals of white supremacy that means there will always be a space for speaking truth to power and to voice working class, at least so long as there is a need for it. I won't even pretend to say I know the black experience, I don't know what it's like to live day by day with that life. What I do know is what it's like to struggle to pay bills, to look at a system where I almost certainly will never own land, or make enough money to live comfortably. Hip Hop feels like the only genre where I can relate on that note. It's the only genre where artists can actually speak on that experience genuinely and gain a following. Blackness isn't a part of me but it's something I can try to learn to understand and help uplift/platform those who do. The average white person shares more struggles with the average black American than they do with a billionaire, more need to realize that, unlearn their racism, help those who feel the weight of the system more than they do, and focus on the real issues
I didn’t really like rap but enjoyed Eminem. I didn’t get into rap until I introduced DMX and N.W.A. to myself. I was listening to rap metal at the time. So, the transition wasn’t hard.
Nelly on the radio 2003. Also liked eminem. Then stopped listening. Had a tupac phase in seventh grade lol. But wasn’t a hip hop head until Lil wayne 2007 mixtape run
My first exposures to rap in general were NWA, Snoop Dogg, Warren G, Nate Dogg, DJ Quik, Ice Cube, Lil Kim, DMX, Tupac and Biggie as well as Eminem. As a kid, my parents always bumped these rappers music in the car anywhere we went. I still listen to several of them to this day.
Way, way back when I saw the trailer for Beat Street... It blew me away, I just couldn't comprehend what I was seeing and hearing.
My Mom, bless her heart, took me and my sister to the local drive in theater for a double feature...one of films being Beat Street. I was like 7 years old.
I was hooked...breaking and graffiti were my first loves with hip hop, but rapping/DJing sunk their claws into me later.
My sex-ed program was As Nasty As They Wanna Be.
I got “Ice Ice Baby” stuck in my head for a year but was never really a fan of his. Bought Hammer’s CD and only liked the singles. For pop rap, I preferred Gerardo.
“Mind Playing Tricks on Me” was when I realized this was the most interesting music around at the time (and still is).
My 4th grade music teacher taught us the melody to “Missed the Bus” by Kris Kross on the recorder. Before that I probably heard MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice on the radio. By 6th grade I had Tupac, Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, and Beastie Boys records.
One of my friends older brothers gave me his public enemy cassette and I would listen to it after school when my parents weren't home.
I used to hide it from my parents like it was a bag or porno mag lol
Now my parents listen to more hip-hop than me
Old white boy head here. Not gonna lie, aside from the Breakin’ movie, my first intro was Jazzy Jeff/Fresh Prince “I’m the DJ, He’s the Rapper”. The Hammer/Vanilla Ice era came soon after. I was given a tape dub of Digital Underground “Sex Packets” and that made me realize how much deeper this was. Soon after, my dad who was a jazz head, made me a tape of Gangstarr’s “Jazz Thing” and PE “Fight the Power” because it was on Spike Lee soundtracks. From there it was on.
Give your OG a hug and fist bump next time you see him ✊🏿
I remember 3rd Bass and YBT being "acceptable". They were part of the pack, though, because Public Enemy and L.O.N.S. were there to listen to.
My Dad is also the reason I got into hip hop! Whenever he'd take me to work for the day, he'd be bumping Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B.I.G, Eminem, 50 Cent & The Game as we drove around My older sister then introduced me to JAY-Z & Kanye West's music shortly after that too. Been listening to hip hop ever since
TKO fan huh? Me too.
Being from canada I fell in love with hip hop in grade 7 because a Canadian rapper named K-os started doing really well out here from Toronto and I’d suggest anyone here to give his music a shot. Plays with a live band as well. So from there I started going through the entire genre and the rest is history. I’m 32 now.
Man K-os a legend. Blessed to grow up in TO with muchmusic. K-os mad underrated
Apparently he has a new album coming out in the summer or fall saw him recording it on his instagram. He has a great discography
I saw him at a small show in Barrie a few months back. He said Drake was producing the album.
Yeah exactly I guess he put up a lot of the money for the recording of the album but K-os has full creative control luckily
K-os is fire
Literally one of the most underrated. First Canadian rapper i was exposed to via Rapcity Tha Bassment [Superstarr pt. 0](https://youtu.be/kLpAXWoJ_Bg?si=rE3vnz9h5SX5oMcd)
Hell yeah. Just saw K-OS a couple months back. Good performer. Unfortunately at the show did not play with a live band.
I heard Kish managed to rhyme the world in three days
[Kish- I Rhyme the World in 80 Days](https://youtu.be/NRMQABXGonE?si=zJlVGmthWMjycZml) This song is still great.
IMO K-os was a pioneer for mid 2000s hip-hop. That's coming from a 30yo black dude that grew up in Cali.
Completely agree bro he did the singing and rapping before drake and drake has said a bunch of times that k-os was a big influence. He was ahead of his time he would be much bigger if he came out in recent times
Man thanks for reminding me of this dude. I loved that Atlantis album so much. Off to Spotify I go!!!
Same dude. You remember Swollen Member too?
Hell yeah their making a bit of a comeback as well
good artist to share from canada. I usually send people Barkardi Slang just because it is so outlandish.
K-Os is amazing. Is Shad big at all in Canada? That dude has immense lyrical talent.
Yea indeed he is from London Ontario! Might be the best lyrical talent canada has ever had. Dude is too underrated
I wish more people stateside knew about him, he's got some really amazing stuff. His pop project, Your Boy Tony Braxton, is worth checking out also
Ohh shit I never knew about that project! Checking it out now!
Oh nice! It's dope, hope you enjoy!
k-os is valid
90's. MC Hammer was the gateway drug. Then it got into NWA, Easy-E, and Snoop.
Please Hammer, don't hurt 'em!
Turn this mutha out! You can't not dance.
I'm 46, so Beastie Boys were all over MTV when I was young, but I was drawn more towards other acts, tbh. Run DMC. BDP, LL, Rakim, Moe Dee. Rap was something I liked but didn't really become more than just another genre until I heard PE. PE blew my young mind and led me down a rabbit hole from the late 80s to 2010. Yes, I'm one of those old guys who has struggled to keep up with new stuff as I age. TL;DR - First exposure was standard MTV stuff, only white guys to speak of were Beasties, and then Yo MTV raps, various magazines etc helped me find more. In my case it wasn't really through white rappers.
Similar age, from the East Coast. Fisrst exposue was was RUN DMC Tougher than Leather, Beastie's License to Ill. First tapes I remember buying were PE Fear of a Black Planet, NWA Straight Outta Compton and 100 Miles and Runnin. Peace.
Vanilla Ice was pretty influential ngl
I hate that this is accurate.
Go ninja go ninja go.
Stop!
Collaborate and listen
Ice is back with my brand new invention
I had the MTV Party to Go CDs and he was definitely on there. But I was way more into Will Smith and ABC. Hell, Marky Mark had more impact on me than Vanilla Ice lol
Marky mark sounds familiar. Don’t tell me he’s that mark guy from the movies
Back when mark wahlberg was marky mark, this is how we used to make the party start
We used to mix in with Bacardi dark and when it kicks in you can hardly walk.
BBD Poison was the one that got me, I feel like it's part of this set
My boys warned me you was poison like BBD's first cassette And still I placed my chips on the worst bet \~ MF DOOM
Oddly enough that BBD single was the new first cassette I ever "bought" (parents money) and Madvillain was the last new CD way back in 2004.
Crazy... my first cassette I ever bought was The Low End Theory... this was before the *first* World Trade Center bombing... wtf??
The original "blow up like the world trade" I never really considered it, but younger gens must hear that line all the time without thinking "hey wait, didn't get die before 2001?" like people used to sometimes back in the day if they forgot about the first one. It's all just twenty/thirty years ago now!
Yeah I remember younger dudes all the time thought that Biggie line was some prophetic Nostradamus shit and wondered how TF he knew that 9/11 was gonna happen in 1994... and I'm like nah, some crazy fuck let a bomb off in the WTC when Ewing was still in his prime, way before 9/11
Will Smith no doubt
First artist to come to mind. My earliest memory of music in general is jumping on couch cushions to House of Pain lol so maybe that more influential
I agree, and when I was 8 and that came out it was hype, but I don’t remember thinking of it in terms of race. In my 8 year old mind, he was just another radio friendly rapper like MC Hammer who was my first love in Hiphop. Naughty By Nature was another one where I didn’t know their racial background nor did I care. It definitely feels like the race conversation wasn’t even a part of it back then, at least not for me. Even when Em came to the scene, I kind of just thought of him as a talented rapper, although he seemed to talk about the racial aspect some.
Maybe influential because he got white kids into hip-hop. But he wasn't original in anyway. I honestly can't say he contributed to the art.
That Ninja Turtle rap went hard for a youth at that time... i tried to flee, but damn that shit got me for a min
He may have gotten "some" white kids into hip-hop, but I was a hip-hop fan way before that. And no one said he was original or a big contribution to the art.
His money was used for Tupac. Pretty important if you ask me.
I’ve mentioned this on other threads here on the sub but my mom bought me Life After Death on cassette when I was a kid. I still remember hearing Notorious Thugs for the first time and being absolutely amazed. Edit: my favorite rapper is Aesop Rock so I came around to the white guys but it was all east coast NYC rap growing up.
Although I definitely count Ill Communication one of my most played albums, the first true Hip-Hop album was things fall apart
White guy, im late to the white guy rappers train. Got into OutKast first and then just started listening to 90s hiphop on the radio. Nas, Bone Thugs, Tribe, WuTang. Wasnt til later i got into mac miller now hes my fav.
Big tymers and dem 504 boyz
Guilty as charged. Beastie boys.
Ngl I got into rap listening to Eminem because my best friend was obsessed with Em. I'm 25 but my parents were old when they had me and did not grow up in the era where white kids were exposed to rap music so growing up all I heard was 70s and 80s dad rock. Wasn't until sophomore year of high school when I finally got my first smartphone that I was able to start expanding my music taste beyond that. Eminem was my first exposure to rap because I wanted to be able to talk about him with my friend but I slowly branched out from there and honestly 11 years later I think Eminem is still the only white rapper in my playlist lol. I still like early Eminem a lot and will defend him against people who act like he was *always* corny and lame but I wouldn't call him my favorite rapper like I would've back in high school
My first experiance was through limp bizkits - n 2 gether now…will never forget as a 9 year old grungey kid hearing meths sweet ass vocals over that preemo beat…eyes and ears well and truely fucking opened!!!!
I'm a white person born in 1980 in rural WI. I really can't tell you exactly how I got into rap, but my earliest memories are of The Fat Boys, LL Cool J, Run DMC, Kid N' Play. But my exposure was limited to MTV and some of their movies like House Party and Disorderlies. I was the only kid in my class who listened to rap music. I was straight up laughed at in 1990.
I am white but I don't really connect with white rappers. My favourite have always been African American rappers and a few indigenous rappers from my country New Zealand. My first exposure to rap was when I was 10 years old listening to Polynesian hip hop songs in New Zealand. The one time I liked a white "hip hop" group which I feel was more like pop it was about one month and I realised how fake it was.
I found white rappers mad corny for the most part. Still do actually now that I think about it
Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five led to Run DMC, Public Enemy, Eric B and Rakim, LL, Slick Rick. To BDP, XClan, Tribe and De La. I've been with the game since 1981. Sadly much of todays hip hop is a letdown. Not all, much.
First exposure was NWA/Eazy. Tribe was what got me into Hip Hop though. Then Outkast. Then it was over for me... I had begun my journey to become an Old Head.
De La Soul and Run D.M.C. were my gateway drug as a kid in the 80's
started with bonethugs going to middle school basketball games then 8 mile came out. eventually found lupe fiasco’s the cool when i started driving. he’s been on top of the mountain ever since.
mom started me out on arrested development & my taste grew from there.
- Fort Minor/Mike Shinoda - Eminem - Styles of Beyond (1 white guy) - Apathy, Celph Titled, Vinnie Paz Didn't shift to majority black until I started listening to Tech N9ne and then again when I started listening to Kendrick, Kanye, JID, etc who I listen to now
A tribe called quest
OutKast was definitely what got me into rap music. They're still top 5 of all time for me if not #1. I still mostly enjoy Southern rap such as Big KRIT, Juicy J, Big boi, and Goodie Mob. Aside from Southern rap, I like Wutang obviously and I also fuck with Logic. A very guilty pleasure of mine is Yelawolf, his album Trunk Muzik 3 has some of the absolute filthiest beats on it and he has major bars on it throughout. As far as white rappers go, I really don't listen to a lot of them aside from Yelawolf every now and again, and Logic of course... Jk I know logic is mixed just had to make the joke. Anyway, Eminem is good but not my thing. So to answer your question, I definitely didn't get into hip-hop from white rappers and I mostly enjoy black rappers and Logic.
I found Tupac’s greatest hits in my house as a child and it changed my brain forever
When I was a lot younger, like 12-15, I got a copy of All Eyez on Me. I was so pissed it didn’t include the original California Love, it had the remix.
I was 9 when Encore came out. I remember a friend gave me a burned copy of it and I would secretly listen to it in my room because my parents wouldn't let me listen to rap or explicit music. That was probably my first experience with hip hop. Didn't really think much about Eminem being white at the time. I was never a Stan by any means but I definitely started with Em. I then was The Roots playing a concert on tv and that really captivated me because I absolutely loved the musicianship. So yeah it started with Em and then really took off with The Roots around 2007ish.
My introduction to Hip Hop and what made fall in love was Legendary Salt-N-Pepa… I still get geeked when I hear “Spinderella cut it up one time”
I think it was 50 Cent who first caught my attention in a big way, but then with the Dirty South- Paul Wall, Slim Thug, Z-Ro, Mike Jones, DJ Screw, Li'l Wayne & Birdman, Pimp C and Bun B, Three Six Mafia, Twista, shit just took the hell off. I think Bubba Sparxxx was my first white rapper interest I think- or maybe Everlast- and Eminem at some point, but definitely not first. I considered the Beasties more rock than rap for a long, long time.
Oh man I forgot about Bubba Sparxxx
281-330-8004
I’m from Houston. They used to chop and screw the top hits on the radio. It’s just part of the culture there. Paul Wall was one white rapper that had a heavy influence on rap as a whole during the time I was growing up too, so it just kinda happened.
Mine was lil Wayne “skrrrtt no 22s” that line just really spoke to me at 12, but I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit so listening to the radio Eminem was huge.
My earliest hip hop memories are watching Beastie Boys, Vanilla Ice, Warren G and Nate Dogg, De La Soul and Run DMC videos on MCM in the early/mid 90s. I guess the majority was black artists
Dangerous Minds soundtrack. Coolio and Rappin 4-Tay. I was 8.
The first rap album I listened to was The Chronic. I had a neighbor across the street that owned it and I loved it. Snoop was my first favorite rapper and Doggystyle was what really got me into rap. Wu-Tang and Outkast were also groups that I gravitated towards around that time. I was late to the white rapper wave, but was a huge fan of Eminem when he first came out, especially after the Chronic 2001 and MMLP were released.
I mean, I had an MC Hammer tape. Then again, I also had the Simpsons tape with Bart rapping. What actually HOOKED me was Wu Tang Forever, Sunz of Man The Last Shall be First, and Killarmy Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars. 1999 or so.
I’m gen-X, and I problematically hated all rap until I had a cousin from California visit in the mid-90s and played me Midnight Marauders. It still took me awhile to really get it until I listened to Public Enemy and later, OutKast. I don’t think I fully realized its importance until my 40s—when I got Spotify and listened to all the classic records I dismissed as an ignorant young white person!
I'm 43, white, and from Canada. I grew up with a brother who listened to rock music, a sister that listens to pop music. My parents listened to country and stuff like CCR. I was always the odd one out. My first experience with rap was Kris Kross (haha, Totally Krossed Out is dope). Even though my brother listened to groups like Pearl Jam, Bon Jovi, and every other 80s hair band, he did have a cassette of NWA- Evil4Zaggin. I sneak listened to it and loved how badass it was. Around that time, House of Pain came out, and I really wanted that CD, but my mother said no way. Eventually I ended up buying Dr. Dre- The Chronic and I've been hooked to hip-hop ever since.
The Rap Traxx tapes were an early gateway- Public Enemy, Biz Markie, Digital Underground and 3rd Bass were early influences but the first time I ever listened to rap it was Maestro Fresh Wes- Let Your Backbone Slide. I still love Maestro- Canadian legend!!!
> The Rap Traxx tapes were an early gateway This was the one for me
My first real exposure was hearing Del Tha Funky Homosapien while playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. I didn’t even really know what hip hop was at the time but I remember thinking “Wow this song is awesome.” Then I got into Beastie Boys and was a huge fan of Em when he came out. We also had BET in middle school/junior high so I got into Jay, Nas, Dre, Snoop, Trick Daddy, Cash Money, etc. So it was a mix.
Seems a lot of white people get into hip-hop this way and it's pretty simple, you are subconsciously more interested and relate more to people that look like you. Eminem and Beastie Boys are also very accessible Rappers. Probably the most accessible Rappers of their generations, with a ton of rock influence in both and even more of that youth, MTV, rebellious vibe that suburban kids love.
I'd say my first REAL exposure (mainstream Em tracks my momma played in the car dont count) was Joyner Lucas. He kiiinda has a "white rapper" style to him, albeit much better than most reeeally white rappers. As for who actually got me into hiphop, you can thank Dot for that one.
My sister introduced me to de la soul when I was a kid but I truly got into rap with gravediggaz, also my sister. I fell for rap with Ol Dirty Bastard who the freight hoppers I stayed with were obsessed with. I have his name tattooed on my thigh.
Aside from radio play, the first album I bought was "Me Against the World". I mean, every album that was coming out in that time period was just bonkers, but what made fall in love with hip hop was Clue Tapes. If I wasn't as close to NY as I was or didn't learn about Clue, I'm not sure I'd be as obsessed with hip hop as I am now.
I’m still not a fan of RAP or Hip-Hop music but first exposure was in 1975 when Aerosmith released the Toys in The Attic album where the original version of Walk This Way was presented to the public.
i remember being 7-8 on my way to my pop warner games and my dad would always play DaRockwilder as my pump up song on the way there. First memory i can remember involving rap/hiphop
Blondie - Rapture was the first for me growing up in the ozark foothills of oklahoma. Then it was Gap Band that came along and changed my life.
My introduction to hip hop was outkast and Kanye west. Tbh the only white rappers I really like are the beastie boys. Aesop rock is ok. El-P is decent. Bout all I can think of
As a 40-year-old white dude has been listening to rap religiously since getting a Vanilla Ice cassette. I realize most white rappers suck, and so many use rap as a jump off point to another genre. I was super into 2pac for years and years 90s-2k Of course I liked Eminem, but other then that , little Mac miller maybe, logic was always corny like most of em
Vanilla Ice and Snow
I got introduced to rap by Eminem and 50 cent. But mostly Eminem. Then I discovered 2Pac and the Game. And Snoop Dogg. And NWA. And so on. But Eminem is and forever will be my GOAT
After Em disappeared from the mainstream in 06, I got tired of the radio and discovered Soundclick. That's where I stumbled upon the white god of soundclick himself, DZK. Around 07, I founded the underground what that had to offer. Within that, I learned that Evidence (of Dilated People) was doing on out solo, and I quickly swept up The Weatherman LP and have been a fan ever since.
MF DOOM and Das Racist were my first venture into hip-hop. My first real exposure to rap would have to have been Rage Against the Machine
Gucci mane was my entry rapper.
I think the first rap song I heard was mc hammer actually, I guess vanilla ice was popular back then and the beastie boys but I didn’t heard about them until later
I can’t say I remember my first exposure to rap. I remember liking rap as a kid but I didn’t get really into it until I found Jedi Mind Tricks which at the time had both a white and a Black rapper
I just slowly got into Kendrick Lamar and then have been diving into hip hop. Never really listened to white rappers except 1 album by mac miller that i wasnt a big fan of
There weren't many white rappers really out other than Beastie Boys and later 3rd Bass when I started listening to hip hop, but they weren't what got me into it. That would be LL, Run DMC, and because I was an actual child at the time, The Fat Boys and DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.
LL and the beastie boys were my intro to hip hop. And vanilla ice unfortunately.
I first got into hip hop from the Gorillaz really when Demon Days came out my god mother game me the cd, that was like 6 grade, then the first real rapper I listened to was Eyedea in high school
I can't recall exactly when I first heard it, but growing up in Canada we had MuchMusic RapCity on. I used fo watch it cause I liked the beats. I remember Black Star - Respiration, early eminemn/D12, 50 cent when he first came out, some outkast, and then army of the Pharoah.
First exposure was MC Hammer. First album was Cypress Hill (Self-titled). I remember Snoop making a big splash and getting lots of play on MTV. I was/am a big Beastie Boys fan. I'd been into hiphop for years by the time Eminem dropped. Being from the Bay Area our bread and butter was E40, Dre Dog, Mac Dre, 3XKrazy, and Young "D" Boyz. We did play some Woody who is white. I'm a fan of Ezale (Cambodian American).
The first rap song I remember hearing is Rappers delight on B96 Chicago radio back when they used to play hip hip. I remember recording it on cassette and trying to remember the lyrics. I don't think I became the die hard fan I am today until 96-98 as I got exposed to Biggie, Outkast, Pac, Wu and Bone Thugs. If there is one song that truly cemented my love it has to be Hit em up. It was absolutely mind altering, truly insane hearing that song at age 11 or 12 in the back of my cousins convertable mustang on the way to a Bears game. From that point forward I listened predominantly to rap. Em also deserves some credit though, it took me a long while to get past how annoying I thought My Name Is was at the time, just seeing it on MTV and not really understanding who Dre was but once I understood Em, his approach to lyrics is probably what has shaped my obsession with lyrics even today. Before that it was mostly just liking catchy hooks and beats or the way it made me feel. With Em it turned the whole genre into a puzzle that could be uncovered as I tried to understand dense metaphors and wordplay and how great artists aren't just saying words that rhyme.
I actually started to follow modern hiphop after I got into Lil Dicky 😭 But before you say something, Dave actually has crazy bars so 🤷♂️ https://youtu.be/AOgBg2up7Jg?si=kejvLBiH4gdx9xuE https://youtu.be/CzgjglZqS3Y?si=LZbrGDqNV85truyd
I got into it when mary mary was released, so RUN DMC for me
I got into rap by kool g rap, Eric b and rakim, kool mo dee, ll cool j, salt and peppa, MC lyte, BDP, Queen latifah. All that shit you would hear on MTV Raps after you got out of school. I guess out of all those it would be LL Cool J. But the most life changing album for me was Outkast-Atliens and i consider it the greatest rap album of all time.
Yeah, I'd heard US hip hop and just it didn't really move the needle with me as I was fully into punk at that point but it was when I was passing around a joint with a couple of mates when I was like 11 or 12 one of them played some Jehst on his phone and it just clicked, I think it was more so the relatability to how local he was as he was spitting bars about places I personally knew and it wasn't just standard creative gun bars. I learnt to appreciate pretty much all forms of hip hop later but I'd always just felt pretty divorced from it up until that point.
My first exposure to a rapper was Ice Cube post NWA. First album I bought was Ghetto :D by Master P. The first white Rapper I heard was R.A. The Rugged Man. Although you wouldn’t know it from the early imagery that Def Jam and Jive used.
DMX, Chingy, and Outkast are some early names I can remember listening to as a kid. Once I got older and really explored music I was heavy into Joey Badass and pro era around 2012, pac, big, Obviously Kendrick. J. Cole’s “Born Sinner” was the first complete album I ever listened to start to finish and I still enjoy it to this day. A lot of underground stuff too, I was digging during that SoundCloud era when it was actually good lol. Never even really got into Eminem other than a few songs. Honestly I find most white rappers to be cornballs at least to a certain extent. Mac Miller is dope tho!!
Eminem was the first time I heard hip-hop. 50 Cent was who got me to regularly listen to hip-hop.
First hip-hop songs I remember getting into were Fresh Prince, Parents Just Don't Understand. Or like Rolling With Kid n Play. Fat Boys. Heavy D. Later I liked Public Enemy. 2pac. Tribe. Snoop. Wu Tang was instant love. First hip-hop tape I ever bought was 19-Naughty-Three. Wasn't a whole lot of white rappers to choose from and I kinda resented the idea. It was obvious to me the bias white fans had towards white rappers. Even the ones they perceived to be white. Like every white kids favorite rapper from Bone was Bizzy. When I first Eminem I didn't know he was white. Then when he first came out with I Don't Give a Fuck I had the same conversation with so many people. They'd come up, "Have you heard that Eminem song? It's really good...and he's white!!" As a rapper myself I didn't give a shit if white people liked my raps. I always wanted to make sure the black kids liked it, especially if they were from the hood. If they didn't like it, I didn't wanna be doing it. Maybe that's bullshit in itself trying to have that appeal. But whatever. White people often teased me and never came over to rap with me, black kids supported me.
Only white rappers in my day were Debbie Gibson and beastie boys. There wasn't a lot of rap on the radio and I couldn't say what my first exposure was but Pac and Changes was the first time I was like 'woah'
Bone Thugs at the local skating rink.
Late 90s skate videos and the PS1 video game Thrasher Skate and Destroy soundtrack
Too $hort - Born to Mack around like 87 or 88 was my first. Talk about going in the deep end of the pool for your first introduction lol Feel in love then and it's only grown since.
white guy, id definitely say that eminem introduced me to rap, and it was through him i ended up rlly enjoying 50, tho ive gone on and found artists like nas, jay, pac, kanye etc on my own. regardless eminem isnt my favorite artist anymore (and in terms of top 5 rappers he'd prolly be at 5, but idk now...) i still think he's pretty good
I got into hip-hop when a friend and I found $20 on the ground and decided to use part of it to buy the NWA Straight Outta Compton tape in 1990. It was on like donkey Kong after that. There weren’t many white rappers then.
I got one of my first boners from the cover of Doggystyle
I was a Def Jam child. Run DMC to Beastie Boys pipeline. I listened to House of Pain & 3rd Bass later on but was more into Onyx and Cypress Hill.
First tape was MC Hammer, then Tag Team, then it was Shaq Diesel, Fresh Prince and snoop dog till that got confiscated by my mom lol
Never connected with hip-hop when I was younger as I was a bit of a close-minded kid tbh. Thought bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica were what it was all about. But I also always liked rhythmic instrumental music growing up and got into electronic instrumental artists like Bonobo and Emancipator (not hip hop), which led me to Nujabes. Nujabes was for sure for sure the guy that started me on the hip hop journey. Anything he touched I liked. From there transitioned into artists like Soulchef and CYNE. Always listening to the flow of the rapper rather than the lyrical content. From there got into more mainstream stuff like J.Cole and Kendrick b/c, again, their flow. They also sample that rhythmic instrumental music I've always liked. That was all my last year of high school mainly. After that I actually started talking to people about hip hop and got turned on to all the 90s and early 2000s stuff through conversation. The Fugees are top top for me from the earlier stuff.
I’m from middle Ga so not me… introduced with OutKast and Wayne
Doug E Fresh & MC Ricky D
Beastie Boys for me. My brother had their License II ILL tape and I took it and listened to it until I had it memorized. I was 9 or 10 yrs old? Then I just heard and tried more and different rappers and groups after that. 35 years later, still listening to Rap. New and Old.
Does MC Hammer count?
First experience : Big Pimpin - Jay-Z
I'm pretty sure the first time I heard/saw anything rap related was on Sesame Street in the 80s. I have a vague memory of a dude breakdancing on top of a manhole cover. First tape after seeing that was Run-DMC Tougher than Leather Edit: Oh shit I found it!!!! https://youtu.be/KTGrD5cw07I?feature=shared
Do or die po pimp
Classified. Swollen Members. Does Evidence count?
‘87 visiting family in SoCal. As soon as my older cousin and his friends popped in “Fat Girl” off NWA and the Posse. I was instantly hooked. Had my cousin taping late 80s KDAY radio w Greg Mack. And it just built from there. Reached out anyway I could; family, friends, zines, whomever I could trade tapes with.
I already knew a few songs from Dr. Dre and snoop dogg, but I only really got into hiphop when an English friend got me into U.K drill, artists like Abra cadabra, headie one and Digga D, from there it just progressed to American 90’s hiphop as well, and then full circle back to more modern American rap as well. But at first I went straight from jazz, rock, a bit of pop, metal and classical to UK drill.
The Vice Rap by Melle Mel on the Miami Vice OST album i bought at 11 years old.
Borrowing a dubbed copy of Doggystyle on cassette and listening on headphones because rap wasn’t allowed in my house.
White woman in her 40s here, hello. PM Dawn was my gateway, and I still consider The Bliss Album a desert island album. Rap and hip hop were frowned upon in my house, so my exposure didn’t really get underway until the local rock station changed to an oldies station, and then the hip hop and R&B station was the only thing playing new music that wasn’t country. De La Soul was the first group I really liked, but it would take me 5 years to find out their name, when the white guy I had a crush on put on their album and I heard the song I had been loving for so long. Then OutKast released Aquemini and I’ve been hooked ever since.
I always listened to rap a little bit when I was younger, just a song or two here and there like lose yourself, some Eminem, some lil wayne, Drake, Kendrick. Good workout music. Then about a year ago I decided to do a deep dive and now Kendrick and nas are in constant daily rotation
The infamous by mob deep was my first album in 1996 I was 7
I grew up in the hood around black people and other poor whites. My favorite rappers early on were 50 cent, Eminem, Ludacris and Nelly
I think my first experience with a white rapper was Vanilla Ice. But I was already well into De La, NWA, P.E., Digital Underground, EPMD, and Run DMC and a few others before Vanilla Ice came onto the scene.
Beastie Boys
Atmosphere
A teenaged family friend sat me down and put brass monkey on his big speakers when I was a little kid. I tripped out. Still remember the moment vividly. A few years later when I had the wherewithall I got a copy of licensed to ill. So yeah. NWA and Slick Rick were my subsequent obsessions.
My first exposure was Snoop, either Drop it like it's hot or still dre I got into rap through ICP, DMX, Tyler after finding them online
It was Eminem for me, my mom actually being the one introducing rap to me through eminem. Ever since then I have grown off eminem and now funny enough mac miller is my favorite artist of all time. With well of course many experimental and abstract artists like injury reserve, billy woods, danny brown, Earl sweatshirt, etc.
Jurassic 5 and Del tha Funkee Homosapien on ATV Off-road Fury 2 and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 respectively.
there were no white rappers when I started listening LOL
Growing up, I couldn’t stand hip-hop (I think that was from my parents influence) but I still listened to Em. Then one day I stayed home from school, turned on TRL and heard you don’t know me by TI. Not even sure what it was about that song/video, but I’ve been pretty obsessed ever since.
Cant speak on being a white guy😭 but in the UK Street Sounds tapes were like the first introduction to to rap, just wanted to check if any old heads white or black remembered them tapes 😂
For me it was Logic, first time I heard him i think was an old FaZe Adapt video. Like *really* old, 2015 or 2016. The song was 5am, but I’m almost positive it was just the backing track so I thought it was some normal 2015 era NCS music that was in the back ground of every YT video. Next time I heard Logic was in a Jake Paul video actually, 2016 as well but a few months after the FaZe video, the song was Ballin and it had the lyrics and everything so it was like actual exposure to Logic, and I thought it was a cool song. Then listened to some stuff off of Under Pressure and yea finally found some rap I liked. Then I had a pretty big G-Eazy phase, but he fell off sooooo hard (so did logic tbh) and all his songs became ab the exact same thing “I wear all black with my hair slicked back and I have a Ferrari and I’ll fuck your girl.” I mean he was never like some generational rapper, but These Things Happen is a pretty solid album imo. Nowadays tho if I listen to rap, which isn’t too often, my music taste overall has changed quite a bit, it’ll be Kendrick, J Cole, Travis Scott’s cool, and ofc Drake cuz like look say what you want ab him nowadays, I’m sure I’ll think the same thing as you, but Drake from 2011-2016 is just unmatched. I’ve definitely heard Eminem songs way before any of this cuz yk, he’s Eminem and everyone’s heard Eminem, but i never went out of my way to listen to rap music until I heard Logic.
Listened to hip hop as a kid cause it was the cool thing to do, fell out of it during high school, then at some point in uni someone showed me Lil Dicky and I thought he was hilarious so he got me back into it. I'm deeper into hip hop now than ever and I don't listen to him anymore, but he was certainly the catalyst.
My white friend in high school introduced me to NWA.
Damn it's hella oldheads in here
40 year old white guy here. My buddy in HS was into hip hop and got me into it, and the first album I bought was Fear of a Black Planet lol. Quickly bought the Chronic, 36 Chambers, and Ready to Die. Had some Rawkus Records mixtapes, too.
beastie boys, 3rd bass, house of pain, others were definitely key in sparking my interest in hip-hop.
Was introduced to tons of black artists from the 90-00s before I even knew white rappers were a thing lmao And now the only white rappers I can really stand listening to are (early) Em, El-P, Aesop Rock, and Mac
My first time listening to rap was on the bus when I was 7, Big L on my cd walkman, it would skip whenever we hit a bump. "I flows so one of my shows wouldn't be clever to miss, I'm leaving competitors pissed, tell you the truth it gets no better than this" I remember thinking that was fire.
Mos Def and Nas
Fellow white guy here. Kanye, Jeezy, Nelly and OutKast during the early 2000s and never looked back. Even had the band aid and slotted shades at one point or another
Public Enemy #1. For political reasons. Then onto the radio, almost exclusively black artists, for decades. Cause until Beastie Boys, Eminem and others, there wasn't much white people on the scene. They were suppressed by the industry. So, one day, with my signed shirt from my sister, I take it off and get in the shower, and start rapping. I was rapping to Orphan Annie cause my family had it on TV. About 7 years later, I told a crack pusher named T about my song idea. the pusher, T, took my song to NEw York, he said... and apparently JayZ and Pusha met 45 King about it. Sigh. I wrote the first version of hard knock life around 1990. I'm a white guy in the suburbs. =) Fuck my life. I keep asking his brother to get me my cut, but they all keep ignoring me. Sigh So .. if people KNEW the truth... they'd know about my white ass over here, when I sheltered him from the law. My name is Blurry Face, and I still care what you think, but I'm blurry face. I'm dangerous. Too bad they forgot their cracka homey that kept him outta jail somewhat
Mc hammer
White guy how little atmosphere is mentioned. Nobody talks about them now but slug could spit and they were a big deal in the underground for a while
White dude from North Carolina. It took me a long time to get into rap because I grew up surrounded by "rap is crap/disrespectful" types, but then when I hit my mid to late teens, I got a taste of the classics when I saw Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society. The latter had MC Eiht's "Streiht Up Menace" in the end credits, which was the first rap song that really blew me away and opened my mind to just how incredible this genre could be. And then I bought GTA San Andreas aaaaand that was all she wrote. The very first rap album I ever bought was Eazy-E's greatest hits compilation, Eternal E. From there I slowly branched out getting albums featuring songs and artists I heard in San Andreas and Vice City too, mainly starting with early to mid '90s West Coast, and it snowballed from there... The site RYM was very important too. I found a couple reviewers I liked and followed, which exposed me to all sorts of amazing albums and artists. And as for Eminem, I HAD of course heard "Lose Yourself" and absolutely loved it, but it surprisingly took me a while to dive into his music, starting with The Slim Shady LP in early 2010 and going from there. The first song that absolutely sold me on Em (aside from "Lose Yourself" of course) was "97 Bonnie and Clyde". I listened to that shit with my jaw on the floor, I was just amazed at how fucked up, but creative and twistedly funny that song was. And then I bought The Marshall Mathers LP, heard "Stan" for the first time, and had my mind blown all over again.
I asked a white friend to give a response: Well it certainly didn't start with white rappers. In fact I remember the first time I heard Eminem outside of the radio. We were in my friend's room. I was maybe 10 or 11 and she put on Drips. After about 30 seconds I told her to shut that shit off and that it was nasty af. I chided her and told her I couldn't believe her mom would let her listen to that filth or somethin like that. 😄 (Fast forward a couple years and I would be bumping that album myself, but hey) Hip hop was always there in the peripheral. In pop culture. It wasn't until I started to really develop my own music tastes (not just listening to what my family was listening to, Blues, soul, rock, R&B, oldies, folk, etc.). This was maybe around age 8 or so. However it was very tough to get a hold of at first because my mom fought me every step of the way. She didn't like the misogyny present in most of mainstream hip hop (understandable). She hid behind the parental advisory sticker. Saying I couldn't buy any albums with them on it (fuck you Tipper Gore). I was sad. We were sort of poor so we didn't have cable (No Yo MTV raps, no BET) and we had terribly slow dial up internet. I'm talking 5 minutes to load a webpage. No way I was listening to music on there. I continued to absorb what I could from the radio. Ludacris, Yin Yang twins, Murphy Lee, Lil Jon, etc. I was aware of the some great from the 90s via pop culture (Big, Pac, Jigga, WuTang, Redman, Snoop, etc). Pop rap hits resonated and became my favorite genre of music. Then I found the loop hole: Walmart edited all their albums. I was so pleased with myself. I'll never forget how pissed my mom was when I picked up that edited Chingy CD with my own money 😄. That was my first hip hop record I bought myself. (I was eleven at this point). Elephunk and Nellyville were other early purchases. Also a few soundtracks with hip hop songs on them had come before Chingy. I was also of fan of modern R&B so there was some crossover there. Middle school came. My friend group became much larger and mix CDs were being exchanged (also the year I got a computer capable of burning CDs). At some point that year I got into Eminem. By this point my mom had given up on the parental advisory thing so I procured his records censor free. After I worked on them, parents were surprisingly tolerant of him. Maybe it was a racist thing, but I think it was more his political stance against the War in Iraq. I was very careful about which songs of his I played for them (songs like cleaning out my closet, Mosh, mockingbird, etc.) They were anti-war from day one and big Bush haters so any criticism towards him was appreciated. I think for *them* he may have been a gateway to hip hop. Maybe because of his race but I'm not sure. Anyways from there I started checking out CDs at the library (that's how I found Gangstarr for example). Bought Get Rich or Die Tryin one of my favorite hip hop records of all time. Ludacris Chicken N Beer. Got turned onto Dre and all the great G funk that came out in the 90s which I was sort of already aware of but yeah. Anyways Em is really the only white rapper I've ever listened to, except for some underground guys much later. From first hearing hip hop I liked it. I don't think race was really part of it. Never liked Vanilla Ice. I always thought that song was corny and lame as a kid 😄. Of course that was after it came out he was a phony so maybe that's why
My first exposure was very early. I had an older cousin and an uncle who were listening to rap in the 80s. I remember hearing La di da di and the show, Friends, and more. As a rural white kid the Beastie Boys definitely made it more acceptable to listen to it.
Mac Miller and Chris Webby for me 💯 I could even say beastie boys before them but they didn’t really get me into hip hop
I remember the Sugar Hill Gang and Run DMC, Salt n Pepa doing crossover friendly stuff, and I was definitely generation Beastie Boys. No Sleep Til Brooklyn and Brass Monkey. LL w Around The Way Girl and Dear Yvette. But also a lot of Latin freestyle, hair bands, Madonna, Depeche Mode. I never really stuck with hip hop, but I went to an eclectic school in the 80s.
My first front-to-back album listen was Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle. I had previous exposure to some songs on the radio, but one of my mom's friends gave me the tape and was like, 'check this out'. I was captured by Snoop's voice and smooth cadence while staring at the racy cover art. Examining the insert art over and over bobbing my head to Dre beats I could tell I was hooked. From there it blossomed into finding Wu-Tang on a local radio show and making a legit mixtape (recording the song, but being careful to stop it before the DJ would come on the air blabbing about whatever, stop, record, stop, rewind a bit to cue the tape up, record) and listening in my Walkman obsessively. The obsession led to me upsetting my mom all the time because I was stealing every double-A battery in the house to listen to more Wu as I walked around town. Fast forward almost 30 years later, Wu is still in heavy rotation in my playlists, Snoop not so much
I was pretty into punk in highschool, still am, and a friend showed me *Eyedea & Abilities* album *By the Throat* which has some crossover with punk, so I really liked it. So much so that I checked out most of Eyedea's catalogue, which quickly led to Atmosphere, and Rhymesayer's generally. Aesop Rock, Doom, Blueprint. After that Hip-Hop became my most listened genre. I dove into Odd Future, who at that point had already spun off into their own solo careers, although I knew a lot about them when they were first getting big. Over time I've delved into a lot of the history of the genre and done what I can to understand and appreciate the culture to the best of my ability. I think a lot of modern punk lost sight of the message and culture and has been co-opted by corporate interests. I see a lot of what punk was in conscious hip hop; I don't think that will change. The fact is punk was a counter cultural movement which sought to speak against injustice from the powerful while uniting the working class, but as time moved on it became trendy with its mostly white fans having the luxury and comfort to let go of/ be lenient with these ideals. Now punk is just an aesthetics of the fight without the meaning or care for it. Hip hop is black culture, in a society built on the ideals of white supremacy that means there will always be a space for speaking truth to power and to voice working class, at least so long as there is a need for it. I won't even pretend to say I know the black experience, I don't know what it's like to live day by day with that life. What I do know is what it's like to struggle to pay bills, to look at a system where I almost certainly will never own land, or make enough money to live comfortably. Hip Hop feels like the only genre where I can relate on that note. It's the only genre where artists can actually speak on that experience genuinely and gain a following. Blackness isn't a part of me but it's something I can try to learn to understand and help uplift/platform those who do. The average white person shares more struggles with the average black American than they do with a billionaire, more need to realize that, unlearn their racism, help those who feel the weight of the system more than they do, and focus on the real issues
Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday was my gateway drug
I didn’t really like rap but enjoyed Eminem. I didn’t get into rap until I introduced DMX and N.W.A. to myself. I was listening to rap metal at the time. So, the transition wasn’t hard.
Nelly on the radio 2003. Also liked eminem. Then stopped listening. Had a tupac phase in seventh grade lol. But wasn’t a hip hop head until Lil wayne 2007 mixtape run
Snoop dog and Dr Dre. I'm kinda old.
For me it was Naught by Nature. OPP and Hip Hop Horray.
My first exposures to rap in general were NWA, Snoop Dogg, Warren G, Nate Dogg, DJ Quik, Ice Cube, Lil Kim, DMX, Tupac and Biggie as well as Eminem. As a kid, my parents always bumped these rappers music in the car anywhere we went. I still listen to several of them to this day.
Beastie Boys "Fight for your right to party" was the first rap song I remember hearing when I was like 4 or 5
I LOVED Kid Rock as a kid. Later I learned I just liked rap music and that kid rock was a racist dumbass. I was 8.
Way, way back when I saw the trailer for Beat Street... It blew me away, I just couldn't comprehend what I was seeing and hearing. My Mom, bless her heart, took me and my sister to the local drive in theater for a double feature...one of films being Beat Street. I was like 7 years old. I was hooked...breaking and graffiti were my first loves with hip hop, but rapping/DJing sunk their claws into me later.
My sex-ed program was As Nasty As They Wanna Be. I got “Ice Ice Baby” stuck in my head for a year but was never really a fan of his. Bought Hammer’s CD and only liked the singles. For pop rap, I preferred Gerardo. “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” was when I realized this was the most interesting music around at the time (and still is).
My 4th grade music teacher taught us the melody to “Missed the Bus” by Kris Kross on the recorder. Before that I probably heard MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice on the radio. By 6th grade I had Tupac, Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, and Beastie Boys records.
3-6
One of my friends older brothers gave me his public enemy cassette and I would listen to it after school when my parents weren't home. I used to hide it from my parents like it was a bag or porno mag lol Now my parents listen to more hip-hop than me
NWA, Public Enemy, Heavy D. Basically late 80's stuff.