Machine Gun Kelly addresses stigma around white rappers
Machine Gun Kelly has recently opened up about the “stigma” that surrounds white rappers and the backlash that comes with being a white rapper. He said that while he was no stranger to criticism, most of the backlash he received came from white fans.
The Cleveland rapper-turned-rocker was recently a guest on Logan Paul’s podcast IMPAULSIVE. While on the show, he spoke about his career as a rapper and his ongoing relationship with hip-hop.
Co-host Mike Majlak brought up the criticism that a lot of white rappers face in the industry, and Machine Gun Kelly didn’t hesitate to share his experiences. “I won’t deny that there is a subconscious stigma around that, being white in hip-hop,” he said, “To me, it’s so funny because the streets fuck with me so tough. It’s honestly from other white people that give me the most shit.”
MGK then revealed he believes Eminem is the only white rapper who has been entirely accepted into hip hop. Despite being former foes, the Cleveland punk rocker gave him credit, “The crazy thing is, there’s only been one who’s done it. There’s only been one who’s done it and crossed that line of ‘we accept’.”
It wasn’t long ago that Eminem spoke about being a white hip-hop artist. In 2022, while doing an op-ed for XXL, the Detroit rapper spoke candidly about being a white man in the rap game. “When things started happening for me, I was getting a lot of heat, being a white rapper, and XXL wrote something about that,” he said, “I remember going to one of those newsstands in New York when the magazine had just started out, and I bought that and a couple of other rap magazines. I flipped to the last page and XXL was dissing me. What the fuck?”
Eminem is referring to a piece that XXL wrote about him. In it, they were critical of him, pulling no punches about his place in rap music. While Em wasn’t happy with the insults thrown his way, he was also starting to grow accustomed to them.
“I don’t even know if I read the whole article – I was used to reading things like that about me – but it hurt because I felt they didn’t know me to make that kind of judgement,” he said. “Coming up, I had to deal with that a lot. I wanted to be respectful because what I do is Black music. I knew I was coming into it as a guest in the house. And XXL, The Source, Rap Pages and VIBE were hip hop bibles at the time.”