Brand Nubian member Lord Jamar made headlines in September when he declared that white rappers were “guests in the house of hip-hop” after he was asked about Macklemore‘s LGBT-friendly hit “Same Love.” The statement was given as Jamar explained why he felt a white rapper had no business criticizing homophobia in hip-hop. Alabama native Yelawolf was asked to offer his perspective on both Jamar’s statement regarding white rappers and the veteran emcee’s stance on homophobia.
“In one instance, he’s right,” Yelawolf told VladTV. “From his perspective, I could see where he … I can agree with him on one side of it. I think he’s right. white artists are definitely a guest when it comes to the culture of black America’s musical arts, whether it be hip-hop, blues or even rock ‘n’ roll, if you wanna look at it that deep. You’ve gotta go back a long way to feel that way, though.”
“On the flip side, yeah, we’re guests, if you look at the roots of everything, but that’s like saying here’s a house that we built as a people,” Yelawolf said. “We built this house, black people. And then a few generations ago, it’s been rented out. It’s been renovated. It’s been changed. Black people, white people, Asian people, people all over the world have been to this house, lived in it, used it, abused it, fixed it up. It is now a different home. It doesn’t matter who laid the first brick. Now you have to just embrace the fact that this house is better now that different ideas have come in to put a different window in there, a different roof on it to change this, to change that, to make it more livable. It’s all about perspective. That’s my perspective. I feel like, as a white rapper, the house that I’ve been a guest in hadn’t been no f—in’ good time sleepover. I haven’t exactly had the f—in’ red carpet laid out for me. I had to fight for my spot. But, it is what it is.”
“Everybody has a place,” Yelawolf added. “I’ve always felt protective of the culture of white rappers because you want to protect the steez of it and make sure that that circle of artists are to a certain par, at least to your opinion. But, all that has changed. It don’t even f—in’ matter no more. It’s not like when I came up. These kids aren’t going to the hood club in the middle of Bankhead like I was doing to try to get respected. They’re not taking the same steps. It’s not comparable to how I came up. The people I was rollin’ with, the things I was doing and how I came up is totally different.”
As far as Jamar’s opinions regarding homosexuality, Yela was far less accommodating.
“To say homosexuality has no place in hip-hop is ignorant,” Yela said. “That ain’t got nothin’ to do with him being black, or white, or nobody. That’s just stupid. What the f— are you talking about, man? It’s music. You could talk about any f—ing thing you want to. That is the beauty of it all.”
