The controversy over “voice appropriation” – one culture or race telling the stories of another – is most heated in the field of literature, but popular music is where appropriation often becomes the equivalent of a brazen daylight heist.
From jazz to blues to reggae and rock ‘n’ roll, white folks have long been borrowing and adapting and making piles of money out of music that black folks originated. Keith Richards cheerfully admits he lifted his licks from Chuck Berry; others have not been as gracious.
The trend spread to hip hop, a genre encompassing rap, funk and dance music that began in the inner cities of Los Angeles and New York in the late seventies. White boys began scratching vinyl and rapping, with results ranging from commercially successful and listenable (Beastie Boys) to mercifully forgotten (Vanilla Ice).
Most trends, especially those carried on the airwaves, don’t stop at the border and this one is no different: In Canada, too, you can find hip hop and Jamaican dancehall music – rapidly chanted lyrics over a swaying beat – in the least likely places.