Post Malone Accused Of Cultural Appropriation After Dragging Hip-Hop In An Interview

24 November 2017, 14:59 | Updated: 13 December 2018, 15:43

By Woodrow Whyte

@woodrowwhyte

Posty has now addressed the claims in a video on social media.

You’d think artists would realise by now that it doesn’t matter where in the world you say something, if you say something shitty, people are going to find it and drag you to hell and back for it. Post Malone has learned this lesson the hard way this week after people called him out for cultural appropriation after his comments about hip-hop to a Polish publication were shared across social media.

Posty, as he’s known to his fans, was widely criticised across the internet this week after he appeared to dismiss the emotional range of hip-hop, the very genre he supposed to be apart of. “If you’re looking for lyrics, if you’re looking for lyrics, if you're looking to cry, if you're looking to think about life, don't listen to hip-hop," he said. “Whenever I want to sit down and have a nice cry, I'll listen to some Bob Dylan."

Fair enough if Bob Dylan is your go-to crying music. Personally speaking, we prefer to listen to Blood On The Tracks with a glass of red wine in front of a roaring fire and reminisce about the good old days, but that’s just us. The point is that to completely dismiss the emotional depth of hip-hop is obviously a very uninformed comment to make.

It doesn’t help that Post Malone has been accused of cultural appropriation before. Many feel that he’s using using hip-hop to gain popularity while actually preferring to be a rock and country musician.

On Thursday morning, Posty released a new video (above) to his Twitter addressing his previous comments. First up, he explained the comments were made during "a beer-tasting interview," which kind of implies that he was blaming his comments on being intoxicated. Then he defends his comments by saying he was only speaking about his personal taste. “It’s funny because who the f**k am I to tell you don’t listen to this? And who am I to tell you you should feel a certain way when listening to something.” Quite.

Addressing claims of cultural appropriation, he added: “"A lot of people [are] saying I don't appreciate hip-hop or I'm taking advantage of hip-hop. My last hip-hop album was fuckin' hip-hop, my next hip-hop album is fuckin' hip-hop.”

He then adds, “I love hip hop, I make hip hop – I want to stretch this genre so far that people that don’t listen to it, listen to it. ‘I’m 22 years old, I’ve not had all the life experience in the world – I’m just singing about what I’ve gone through – never once did I say that I did not appreciate hip hop. I’m just trying to keep living and make the music that I love.”

Do you think Post Malone is culturally appropriating hip-hop or is he just a guy who needs to stop drinking before/during interviews?