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Entertainment & Arts

A pale history of white rap

By Jeff Weiss Who can really say who the first white rapper was? But certainly the Beastie Boys were the first to shoot to fame -- and fundamentally alter the genre -- with 1986's "Licensed to Ill," in which hip-hop was forced to confront questions of race, audience and inflatable phalluses. In the wake of those original frat-rappers, music labels throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s sporadically attempted to cash in on melanin-light lyricists, with House of Pain, Vanilla Ice and Marky Mark earning equal parts success and scorn, and only the interracial 3rd Bass achieving modest critical respectability.

By Jeff Weiss

Who can really say who the first white rapper was? But certainly the Beastie Boys were the first to shoot to fame -- and fundamentally alter the genre -- with 1986’s “Licensed to Ill,” in which hip-hop was forced to confront questions of race, audience and inflatable phalluses.

In the wake of those original frat-rappers, music labels throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s sporadically attempted to cash in on melanin-light lyricists, with House of Pain, Vanilla Ice and Marky Mark earning equal parts success and scorn, and only the interracial 3rd Bass achieving modest critical respectability.  (Bertrand Buay / Agence France-Presse / For The Times)

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1981:

Blondie release “Rapture,” with Deborah Harry‘s raps, is the first to top the Billboard charts. Sixteen years later, KRS-One interpolates it for “Step Into a World (Rapture’s Delight),” finally allowing hard-core rap fans to admit they like Blondie.   (Evening Standard / Getty Images)

1986:

Lower Manhattan punks cum rappers the Beastie Boys release the multiplatinum “License to Ill.” Frat boys discover that hip-hop can be more than “The Super Bowl Shuffle.”   (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

1991:

Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch try anyway, releasing “Good Vibrations.” Few mourn Mark Wahlberg‘s decision to start an acting career shortly thereafter.

1997: Led by rapper El-P, Company Flow drops the classic “Funcrusher Plus,” in the process launching the underground rap movement.   (Al Bello / Getty Images)

2005:

Paul Wall releases “The People’s Champ,” failing to specify that by “the People,” he merely meant Houston.

2006: Kevin Federline releases “Playing With Fire,” suddenly making everyone remember Vanilla Ice again.  (Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)

2009:

Asher Roth drops “Asleep in the Bread Aisle,” a hybrid of the Beastie Boys’ frat-rap and Vampire Weekend‘s leisure-class laissez faire, minus the great songs.

After a half-decade hiatus, Eminem returns with “Relapse.”   (Jason DeCrow / Associated Press)

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