In case you missed it: Seattle rapper/producer/agitator Matt “Spekulation” Watson recently announced that he’s retiring from rapping. (You can read it on his personal FB page—I only got so much space here.)
Despite some mixed feelings, I respected this decision and the thought process greatly. It seemed quietly revolutionary to me. How do “we” stop White America from appropriating Black culture, which has been happening forever? We can’t. Only “they” can, and for the most part, they wouldn’t dream of it. Do you really got to fight for your right to party? (Could you also bring a dish? Help clean up? Be the one that talks to the cops?) Obviously, I had questions. So I asked him.
You started off your status update saying that “Seattle hiphop shouldn’t look like me.” Considering the demographics of Seattle, why do you think that?
Witnessing the changing demographics in Seattle over the last decade has just made me more certain that Seattle hiphop shouldn’t look like me. I know how powerful hiphop is, and I know that this music, and the identity behind this music, is essential to the particular communities that are rapidly being driven out of this city. Every time I pick up a microphone, I take away from that, because of what people who look like me represent in this city.