That video by critic Sensei Aishitemasu in which she accused Bruno Mars of cultural appropriation has gotten heaps of attention over the past few days, and a lot of folks have weighed in on it.
The latest person to do so is 9th Wonder who defended Bruno by saying he was shaped by the artists he was exposed. Check out his argument.
So many loopholes in this Bruno Mars situation.
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
SO MANY.
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
I’ve made boom-beats..forever...there’s still a large part of the population of people saying “no one wants to hear old school 90s sounding hip-hop...”. I continue to stay on my path, knowing that there is generation of people that needs to be exposed to the feeling...
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
Still it’s “the 90s are over....”. Dot made a black ass album entitled....”To Pimp A Butterfly”...and it was “nobody wants to hear all that black shit; and yes...you have to look outside of your bubble to see exactly what lots of folk are saying..before you say “well I DID”..
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
SHIT. Black Panther was a comic book, a series on BET..etc...before half of y’all Now wanna pack all of your shit, cross your arms, and head to Wakanda all of Of a sudden.
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
For some of y’all...It’s NOT the sound...it’s NOT the feeling...it’s the popularity of the situation you are concerned with.
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
We live in a time now...that we don’t have the Arsenio Halls, the Rap City’s, the Video Souls, The Video Vibrations, The Ebony’s, the JET magazines, The Yo MTV Raps to establish the epicenter of what WE as black musicians and black culture deem to be #1
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
We are now fighting for space in a mainstream culture, when during that time...we were mainstream all along. We were being studied, and...we were also influencing...
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
So, if you were born in the 1970s and 1980s....dancing in your living room to New Editions NE HeartBreak or watching Janet’s Rhythm Nation 1814 videos as a kid....it’s called INFLUENCE, which has no racial barriers...
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
Even in the time of Soul II Soul and Sybil, Lisa Stansfield dropped “All Around The World....”, Jane Child dropped a jam....shit...3RD Bass Dropped the Cactus Album (Serch had the first white Flattop haircut I’d ever seen....)...
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
So what do we want...in a culture that is Universal as math...how do we expect to for our culture now to be accept by mainstream (in which half of y’all don’t even recognize brilliance in artists UNTIL it’s slammed in your face by mass media..)..and NOT INFLUENCE the masses..
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
Half of y’all don’t even appreciate high level black art until it is support by silent white benefactors...but that’s another class...we will save that for later....
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
Enter Bruno Mars...(half of y’all don’t even know his story, wasn’t in his house, know his childhood friends...)...nothing...
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
The word is EXPOSURE...what someone was EXPOSED to....
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
NOW! Do I agree with the sediment of mainstream only accepts “black” sounds such as “24 Karat Magic” from certain boxes....in some ways...MAYBE...but DONALD GLOVER made AWAKEN MY LOVE...which is 1970s PIMP BLACK.....which also made the album of the year category..
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
So is it Bruno Mars fault that...he was influenced by BabyFace, Teddy Riley, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis...around the same time from a hip-hop side I was influenced by DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and The Beatminerz? This is a Sociology study on influence and exposure....
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
....not...”Oh Bruno wanna just copy us....”. How many of us black folk has seen people from different backgrounds growing up surrounded by black culture and being heavily influenced by it? How many “Jon B”’s was at your high school? How many Teena Marie’s was it in the 80s?
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
Is there a “black” barometer? Who gets the pass? Who’s invited to the cookout? How many times we’ve been at a cookout and seen someone from another race and someone explained...”Nah...he/she cool as shit tho...”
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
What’s “cool as shit?”....normally it’s when that cool “whatever race they are”...either; Knocked somebody out, dunked on somebody at the park, can dance, can dress, has “swag”...or something we deem as cool...
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
So...the most powerful cultural element in the world....black culture....some of y’all want it to be mainstreamed but not to influence....you want it to be RECOGNIZED and BLASTED for everyone to see, but not thinking about its casualties?
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
So...we have Vibranium and all of this wonderful technology and art...should we keep it in Wakanda? Or....
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
Again I say. STAY away from complainers. We got @BJTHECHICAGOKID, @inglewoodSiR, @AndersonPaak, @DanielCaesar....how about GO out and BUY/STREAM their music, popularize them and stop waiting for mainstream to tell you to like them, so you can’t say “well I didn’t know..”
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
Peace to Bruno Mars, and word up to Bobby Caldwell, Hall and Oates, Michael McDonald, Teena Marie, Lisa Stansfield...some of y’all didn’t even know Bobby Caldwell was white until that night he was on the BET Awards...been singing it all your life...
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
....if the brother @Usher would have made this album, our OWN people would have said....”why you making old 90s sounding stuff....you passed that..”. Shit... @chrisbrown made “Fine China”...and a lot of OUR OWN didn’t rock with it because we are infatuated with being YOUNG... https://t.co/a0pD6dNVKC
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
Know the history of music you love, and the people that helped make it. ALL of the people that helped make it..ALL OF THEM, colors, backgrounds...the musicians, engineers...everyone.
— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) March 12, 2018
Where do you stand on this debate? Do you agree with what 9th tweeted?