Recently, 25-year-old white Jewish rapper Lil Dicky's single "All K" was age-restricted on YouTube. It doesn't matter that he's Jewish, or that he used the word satirically to address an obvious double standard. People complained, and the video came down.
Now keep in mind, we aren't here to sing Lil Dicky's praises, necessarily. But rap music is often a home for chest-beating and hyper-masculinity, which makes Dicky a rare commodity even if you question his talent. He operates somewhere between joke rap and frat rap, and is part of a new group of independent emcees who use GarageBand and YouTube to release music. Without a label to answer to, Dicky is able to put out whatever he wants, whenever he wants, no questions asked.For Dicky, the online response has been immediate and mostly positive. His shtick consists of relating to suburban white kids while throwing in bolts of blunt social commentary. For some listeners, this can come off as out of touch, like in "White Dude," an ode to white privilege. âWhere Iâm eating when Iâm high is where they eat at to survive (food chains).â He finishes the track by asking rhetorically why Latinos can use the n-word in their raps: âThat shit donât make any sense. Iâve been thinking about that shit a lot. Because, like, if I could say the n-word, it would really help my rhyme scheme out. Itâs like the perfect filler word.â
Lil Dicky's debut mixtape, So Hard. For the free download, click here.Itâs this type of comedy that has the power to simultaneously draw in listeners and push them away. Dicky says he's received some negative feedback on his video, understandable in a culture where most YouTube commenters make those two muppets in the balcony look like Jack Handey. But regardless of how you feel about Dicky, the questions he raisesâabout n-words and k-words and every stereotype you can think ofâare legitimate. However, answering them with satire causes John Q. Public to take him either too seriously⊠or not seriously enough.
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âI donât really set boundaries for myself,â he told me recently. âI donât do things to be shocking. It has to have some sort of intelligence behind it. A lot of what I do has to be based on social truths. Itâs social commentary, and the best satire is controversial. I think everything I have done thus far is fair.âFair is really all about perspective. Take someone like Drake, who identifies as black and Jewish. He has no problem dropping an n-bomb in every verse, but if he said the k-word once in song, heâd be publicly reamed, and risk his endorsement deals. Even though Drake seems to use his connection to Judaism as a token chip for broader market appeal, he still came under controversy for incorporating a âre-bar mitzvahâ into his âHYFRâ music video last year.Dicky doesnât have to worry about that yetâheâs not making much revenue off a free mixtapeâbut the comparison emphasizes how drastic hip-hop double standards can be when financial interests become part of the equation. âNo rap videos on YouTube get age-gated. There are so many rap videos on YouTube where itâs a bunch of black guys doing the exact same thing Iâm doing, except theyâre using the n-word. It just seems thereâs a higher standard of judgment on me.âCalling out hypocrisy is often the purpose of satire; actually changing perceptions takes more time and commitment. Dickyâs take on leveling the field for offensive words isnât just a one-off attention grab. On âHam,â he raps: âLadies get them pants down/ Sorry to my god and my synagogue and my mom because this kike is going ham now.â And on âThe Cypherâ: âPretty clear right here that the kike the best (thatâs my n word so chill)/ Never scared nor embarrassed, ask my ex.â These lyrics are blatantly self-aware, and Dicky uses them because he âwants people to have these types of conversations,â conversations about what is and is not publicly acceptable.
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Jewish rappers, even though there arenât many to choose from, have confronted these topics of identity and political-correctness before, but those who have done so never reached a relevant platform. In 2000, the New York Times characterized MC Paul Barmanâs debut EP as âdeliberately, the whitest hip-hop record ever made.â Barmanâs raps overlapped aesthetically with Woody Allen dialogue. Thereâs also the Latino-Jewish group Hip Hop HoodĂos, who released the song âKike on the Micâ on their album, Raza Hoodia. Mainstream acts like Drake, Mac Miller, and the Beastie Boys can always be identified as Jewish, but Judaism and Jewish stereotypes arenât the focus of the music.
MC Paul BarmanThe public and the media, however, have no problem praising and supporting other rappers for lyrics with social commentary. When Kanye raps, âFuck you and your Hampton house/ Iâll fuck your Hampton spouse/ Came on her Hampton blouse/ And in her Hampton mouth,â heâs using the same sort of racially charged lyrics that might make you laugh or shake your head, depending on how easily you're offended. Heâs also Kanye, and not Lil Dicky, so people treat him differently, even if Kanye is trying to provoke conversations about similar social issues.All of this shows nothing, except that there are different ways to ask the same questions when it comes to societyâs double standards. Some of the differences have to do with skill, context, perspective, and intent, all of which Lil Dicky is aware of when he makes a punch line or uses the k-word in a rap.âIâm speaking to and for a subsection of people thatâs way bigger than the amount of people making it rain in the strip club. While it may seem like Iâm this renegade alienating people, I think Iâm actually way more relatable than any other rapper around. [Eds. noteâYeah, right.] I operate by my own personal code of what I find to be acceptable. Iâm not worried about crossing a line that I shouldnât cross.â@JordanTeicher
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