FEATURED Shaboozey fans left 'furious' after he was 'robbed' of CMA Award despite epic Billboard 100 success

[314slim1]

This ain't even really that though. No power comes from receiving a CMA award. If there is any power here, it would come from the money being made in the industry and I assume he's getting. This just comes down to the desire for recognition. To some extent black people have to learn how to do them like they do us. Get what we can from them, and fuck how they feel.

Right but what I'm saying is that's their award show. So they have the power. That means they can gate keep and dictate who does what in country. Which means that power is exclusive. When we have the ball in our court the flood gates open and anybody can waltz thru. Next thing you know either they use you to get hot or they claim it for themselves later.

 

[The Lonious Monk]

Right but what I'm saying is that's their award show. So they have the power. That means they can gate keep and dictate who does what in country. Which means that power is exclusive. When we have the ball in our court the flood gates open and anybody can waltz thru. Next thing you know either they use you to get hot or they claim it for themselves later.

Ok, I see what you mean. I'm trying to think if that's really true though. If we think about somebody like Eminem. Did he just waltz through any more than Shaboozey? Black people allowed him to participate in Hip Hop, but that's no different than white people allowing Shaboozey to participate in Country. Eminem's got awards (e.g., 10+ Grammies), but to my knowledge none of them came from black controlled spaces (Source Awards or BET Awards).

I think what confuses the issue is that we don't always have power even when it comes to shit we create. Black people created Hip Hop, but we don't control the music industry, so we didn't have the power to stop execs from marketing Eminem as the greatest rapper ever. We're not the majority of Hip Hop music fans, so we don't even dictate who sells the most.

It's not that we don't gatekeep. It's just that our ability to gatekeep is more limited. That said, black approval still means something. Eminem probably wouldn't have broken through if he didn't get pushed by Dre and have a crew of black people vouching for him. That's not done for just any white rapper, so our gatekeeping is successful to some extent.