Five things white people should know about cultural appropriation

[BumRushDaShow]

55. What's interesting to add

to the "hip hop" theft argument is the recent young woman to hit that scene - Iggy Azalea. Her ascendence over the summer with the song "Fancy", generated all sorts of controversy in the younger demographic of the AA community (or at least the media critics of that style), although to me, she basically represented someone not unlike my generation's version of a Teena Marie, or a Phoebe Snow, or even a Madonna, all of whom successfully sang music that crossed over into R&B territory... Some of these performers were often embraced by the community or were thought to have actually been black (most notably "Lady Tee" Teena Marie, who passed away what will be 4 years ago tomorrow).

Ironically, despite Iggy Azalea's vocal style (having apparently immersed herself in the Atlanta hip hop scene per an article I read over the summer although she is Australian), her video portrayed essentially white teen cultural themes using black teen cultural music and dance-video styles. Alternately, perennial favorite "Weird Al" Yankovic did a parody video of her song called "Handy", which also lampoons a segment of his own white working class culture. And the album with this song became his very first #1 Billboard-charted album after 30 years of performing parodies (like his previous famous "Eat It" parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It&quot .