MGK Blames White Fans For Stigmatizing White Artists In Hip Hop

MGK had a lot to say during his appearance on the Impaulsive podcast. He popped off on UFC star Sean Strickland, which we covered in detail here. The rapper also had a bone to pick with a specific subsect of his fans. MGK feels that white rappers are unfairly stigmatized, and the group of people who are to blame are, well, white. He cited various instances throughout his career in which he was made to feel unworthy or less lyrical than his African American peers. He claimed that the people who made him feel that way were the same color as him.

“I won’t deny that there is a subconscious stigma around that, being white in hip hop,” MGK noted. His answer did catch the Impaulsive hosts off guard, however. “To me, it’s so funny because the streets f*ck with me so tough. It’s honestly from other white people that give me the most sh*t.” MGK then said that his goal was to be able to overcome this stigma. He claims he did, but it did, admittedly, take moving to another genre for a couple of albums before coming back with new bars. “That’s the goal,” he stated. “And to me, I crossed that.”

It’s not an MGK interview if there’s not some mention of Eminem, though. The rapper has a complex relationship with Slim Shady, and it’s safe to say the complexities are reciprocated. Eminem did, after all, reference MGK on his new album. He also joked about the rapper sleeping with his mom. But we digress. MGK pointed to Em as a rare instance of a white emcee being embraced by white and Black fans alike. “The crazy thing is, there’s only been one who’s done it,” MGK asserted. “There’s only been one who’s done it and crossed that line of ‘we accept.'”

This is not the first time MGK has waxed poetic about whiteness in hip hop. During a 2022 interview with DJ Semtex, he pointed to his appearance as a hindrance. “[I] feel like right now, my biggest hindrance in why you don’t hear things like, ‘MGK is lyrically hot’…[is] the white thing,” he claimed. “Mixed with the fact that I don’t dress like the normal Hip Hop person.” The rapper’s recent discussion of the topic on Impaulsive definitely had a bit more tact. Not much, but a bit more.