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By Root 629 0

Tucker, the staunchly conservative, antirap black activist, has done to black free expression. Most white rap exemplifies cultural imperialism and inspires justified nonexpectations. It is a walking list of ways white men can’t jump. In the past, white MCs who “made it” won short-term victories then fell out of favor, not by losing their edge, but, after revealing their one trick, by staying the same. The most commercially successful white acts before Eminem were hokey, safe, poplike visions of hip-hop, with a shtick that crossed over with young audiences: Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (rap with one foot in the “urban” dance music of the early nineties), Vanilla Ice (the white MC Hammer), and House of Pain (Cypress Hill with pot leaves and bongs traded for shamrocks and beer), who, to their credit, released not one but two hit singles. There is the terribly awful One Stop Carnival, by Beverly Hills 90210 star Brian Austin Green, that despite production work by Tré Hardson (Slim Kid 3 of the Pharcyde), remains an art-imitating-life caveat: Green’s character on the show, David Silver, was also signed to a record deal for his gangsta rap stylings and didn’t succeed. There is the Insane Clown Posse, a sorely undertalented Detroit rapschlock hybrid act known more for their Kiss-style makeup and an affinity for spraying audiences with Faygo cola than for their music; regionally, they enjoy a devoted cult following.

Only two white rap groups before Eminem enjoyed credibility; only one can be called widely successful. The Beastie Boys were a white group managed by a black man, Russell Simmons, who nurtured these upper-middle-class, well-educated punks into rap brats. The Beastie Boys were a punk rock band for two years, until 1983, when they became taken with the emerging sampling technology of hip-hop and released the Cookie Puss EP named for an ice cream cake by Carvel. The Beastie Boys showed that defiant beer-can nihilism and inept punk rock proved far more creative in hip-hop: The Beastie Boys’ debut album, Licensed to Ill, went to number one on the U.S. pop charts in 1986. It was the first rap album to do so. Licensed to Ill was a collusion of Led Zeppelin riffs, an odd television theme sample (from the Mister Ed show), and irony-free lyrical references from Picasso to porno. Their fuck-it-all formula embraced the machismo of heavy metal (caged strippers onstage), the aimless rebellion of white teens (“[You Gotta] Fight for Your Right [to Party]”), the antiauthority street style of hip-hop (huge gold chains with a Volkswagen hood ornament), and the anthemic rock-flavored dynamics that characterized the early days of Def Jam Records, a style proved successful by Run-D.M.C., (particularly on Raising Hell, in 1986) and LL Cool J (on Radio, in 1985). But neither of those acts sold as many records as quickly as the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill, which sold 750,000 copies in six weeks; at the time, it was the fastest-selling debut album in the history of Def Jam’s distributor, Columbia Records. In light of the volume of their success, the Beastie Boys faced a controversy similar to the one that met Eminem fourteen years later. Hip-hop purists were horrified at the Beastie Boys’ exaggerated, overly Caucasian delivery and excessive bad behavior, wondering if there was a line between an overenthusiasm for rap and a parody of the culture. The mainstream media protested the Beastie Boys’ stage show, which was laden with strippers and an inflatable thirty-foot penis. But the Beastie Boys, like Eminem, played their role properly, pretending to be nothing but white boys, educated at that, though in interviews their behavior and commentary indicated otherwise. “You know why I could fuck with them?” said Beastie Boys collaborator Q-Tip (of A Tribe Called Quest) to writer Matt Diehl in The Vibe History of Hip Hop. “They’re just themselves, not trying to be something they’re not.” Culture-stealers or not, the Beastie Boys introduced a tremendous number of white music fans to hip-hop and received a tremendous amount of attention from whites