Earlier today popular radio personality Peter Rosenberg from Hot 97 caught a lot of flack from criticizing Drake for what he calls putting up a front for making himself out to be a "hard" rapper that is more about flaunting his masculinity for the sake of looking good in the limelight without actually being able to support the persona that the Canadian born rapper has going for himself.
This is not the first nor the last time that Drake or anyone else will catch flack for not identifying or belonging to the stereotypical mold that rappers must embody. Societal norms maintain that in order to be a rapper especially one that boasts the title "gangster rapper" you had to have lived a life of struggle that can be easily identified in the public eye in the interest of validating yourself for people to approve of you.
As an individual that lived largely in several lower income neighborhoods all my life, I have yet to meet anyone that would gladly boast about being from what is commonly referred to as the hood. Aside from living this reality that is painted by main stream media living in the hood isn't as glamorous as most would make it out to be. Whether or not Drake actually departed from a lower income neighborhood that could have been classified as the ghetto or not should be a contributing factor to the makings of his personality but that's about it. Simply physically belonging to a neighborhood or cult does not determine what becomes of you in the slightest. I for one, can relate to Drake in the sense that I am always being called out for not adhering to the stereotypical images of what a Black hispanic should look or sound like. People always seem uncomfortable associating the two with one another.
In many spaces my brown skin is not enough to qualify me as someone who can articulate their thoughts clearly whether it be through oral or written speech nor does my demeanor validate my belonging to a certain racial group. I cannot tell you how many times I've been told that I "talk white", "fail to act black", or that I don't share enough traits with the typical hispanic living in America to call myself a real Hispanic.
These statements, each one as ignorant as the last, all illustrate just a few of the plights that other individuals like me share.
All in all, whether you're Drake or not you should not allow someone's opinion of what it means to belong to a societal label if it means deterring or discouraging you from following your dreams. One way or another it's impossible to escape the criticisms that come with belonging to a society that seeks to regulate who belongs to what clique.
