Over the last few years I’ve noticed that the label “hip-hop” has become increasingly absurd. I found album after album labelled hip-hop when, to me, it didn’t make much sense. Distributors seem to consider “Hip-hop/R&B” a single genre although there can’t be many buyers finding much in common with Ludacris’s rap and Sharon Jones’s old-school, big-voiced R&B/soul. The only thing all these musicians have in common is that they are black Americans.

And now I’ve found an unexpected ally in Santogold, an American singer, who is tired of being labelled hip-hop when what she writes is intelligent, layered pop with lots of influences (but not hip-hop or R&B). From an interview with Rebecca Nicholson at The Lipster:

When I first started hearing about you I kept hearing about this amazing hip-hop or R&B artist. I was surprised when I heard you, because you’re not like that at all.

It’s racist (laughs). It’s totally racist. Everyone is just so shocked that I don’t like R&B. Are you shocked that Good Charlotte isn’t into R&B? Why does R&B keep coming into my interviews? It’s pissing me off. I didn’t grow up as a big fan of R&B and, like, what is the big shocker? It’s stupid. In the beginning I thought that was funny. I’m an ‘MC’, I’m a ‘soul singer’, I’m a ‘dance hybrid artist’. And some guy said I looked like Kelly Rowland!

The problem of miscategorisation is not trivial to artists. If a fan of pop music thinks you sound like Tone Loc or 50 Cent, they ain’t gonna buy your record. Santogold is lucky to have broken out of the musical category she was allocated to (well, not entirely lucky — her debut album is as good a collection of pop tunes as I’ve heard in years), but there are plenty of other black musicians being collared into a genre that doesn’t suit them at all.

Tags: hip-hop, miscategorisation, music, racism, santogold