Sarai Looks to Prove White Girls Can Rap

[Guest MrRant]

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer

 

NEW YORK - Eminem (news - web sites) has disproved the notion that white boys can't rap. White girls, on the other hand, have had almost zero impact on the genre in its 30-year history.

 

Remember Tairrie B? Probably not. Wait, there's ... hmmmm. Actually, the most influential white woman in rap history may be punk princess Deborah Harry, whose rhymes in the 1980 hit "Rapture" helped take rap mainstream.

 

 

But now a new face, Sarai, is raising hopes that there might be someone new — a Feminem — to go where none have gone before.

 

 

"Eminem has definitely opened people's minds, that there could be a white artist actually mastering the skill," says Sarai (rhymes with "goodbye"), a 20-year-old, blue-eyed blonde from Kingston, N.Y., about two hours north of the city where rap was born.

 

 

Her debut album, "The Original," was released by Epic Records last week. The first single, the party song "Ladies," has been getting airplay on hip-hop stations and MTV.

 

 

One of Sarai's producers is Scott Storch, a founding member of the hip-hop band The Roots who's worked with artists ranging from Eminem to Christina Aguilera (news).

 

 

Storch says when he first heard Sarai, "she was doing something different than I had ever heard before, sort of hip-hop with a white female, and actually bringing it off like a real sister. I was a little surprised and definitely a little intrigued."

 

 

Unlike Eminem, whose race is stamped all over his nasal delivery, Sarai's skin tone won't be readily apparent to listeners — she actually sounds a bit like one-time Jay-Z protege Amil.

 

 

Until the superstar producer Dr. Dre ushered Eminem into the rap game in 1999, white people had a checkered history in rap. Unless they completely dissed their white heritage — like the late 1980s group 3rd Bass — or delivered comedy — like the early Beastie Boys — they were usually dismissed.

 

 

And who could forget street poseur Vanilla Ice of "Ice Ice Baby" fame, who will go down in history as the Pat Boone (news) of rap?

 

 

Even considering Vanilla Ice, rap has been worse for white women.

 

 

"I never came across a white female rapper who could rap," says Damon Dash, the Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder who helped put Jay-Z on the map.

 

 

A few have made blips. Eazy-E had protege Tairrie B, described back then as the Madonna (news - web sites) of rap (she's since gone metal). The trio Luscious Jackson has gotten attention, though more from the rock contingent than the rap community.

 

 

Currently, the trio Northern State has gotten good reviews, and the group Fannypack, which had a minor hit this summer with the novelty song "Cameltoe," has a white rapper.

 

 

But for the most part, coming up with names of notable white female rappers seems like a challenging game of Trivial Pursuit.

 

 

Dash says that's "probably because there hasn't been anyone good enough. I mean, Eminem was like the first real good white male rapper."

 

 

"It's hard enough for any kind of female rapper to stay in the game and compete with the male rappers, so being white and being female makes it all that much harder," he said.

 

 

 

 

 

Princess Superstar, a sexually frank white rapper sometimes called the white Lil' Kim, can attest to that.

 

"We've got a lot of racial issues here, and sometimes it plays itself out in the music game," says the rapper, who puts out her music on her own label. "Any white female rapper is going to fight against being considered a novelty."

 

In addition, since rap is as much or more so about the street life than black life, white acts are often rejected for not having street cred.

 

Sarai's official bio makes it clear she wasn't a child of privilege, noting she's the daughter of a "single mother" and mentioning she took jobs to help support her family. She says she grew up in a multi-racial neighborhood with "all different kind of income levels."

 

"Everybody thinks that I'm from a big white house and this white picket fence and my parents bought me a Mercedes on my 16th birthday," she says.

 

Sarai says she grew up listening to Public Enemy, the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur (news). She got her break when she met a producer in Atlanta during a vacation with a friend; she's lived in that music hotspot for the past four years.

 

Sarai describes her sound as more mainstream than hardcore rap, and her personality seems to bear that out. She describes herself as a "loving person" and doesn't pepper her talk with street slang (or even curses, catching herself before uttering a cuss during a recent interview).

 

Whether Sarai will make it big remains to be seen. But Dash says if she has the skills, she'll be accepted.

 

Record companies "are always looking to break a white rapper. They're always looking to break a white anything," laughs Dash. "If somebody is white and they can rap, that means MTV, that means middle America."

 

But Sarai says she hopes people eventually look past her skin color and see just another rapper.

 

"It's always gonna be, 'Yo, it's a white girl,'" she says. "Eventually, they have to look past it."

 

 

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She isn't even hot. This will bomb so much... or bring about a bunch of fans like the Avril fans.

 

The horror.........

[Guest NoCalMike]

Hey now. I do remember Tarrie B. She is in the aggro-rock band "My Ruin" I talked to her after a show and said she was so close to letting Dr. Dre sign her, but she wanted to go in a different musical direction.

[Guest NoCalMike]

Gotta love the "Miss B Haven" shirt....hahaha, ya that will bring in the masses.

[Guest godthedog]

Dash says that's "probably because there hasn't been anyone good enough. I mean, Eminem was like the first real good white male rapper."

what the hell? do the beastie boys live in some alternate rap universe because they play their own instruments?

[Guest ant_7000]

I mean its possible that a white chick could be lyrically good in rap, i've read about some that can battle like "Inviscible" but she's ugly so she won't put on. I don't think this Sarai chick will be good. I think label execs will push a white female rapper to the moon if they can find one thats attractive and have credibility in the rap community.

[Guest ant_7000]

Dash says that's "probably because there hasn't been anyone good enough. I mean, Eminem was like the first real good white male rapper."

what the hell? do the beastie boys live in some alternate rap universe because they play their own instruments?

The beatie boys had good early albums, and rap heads do acknowledge them as rap but now they are garbage, and they have more of a rock influence than rap. As for your instruments arguement "The Roots" are highly respeceted by everybody and they play instruments. Besides, the Beaties sampled too.

[Guest godthedog]

i know they sampled, i was just throwing out the requisite dumbass reason cause i can't figure out why they'd be forgotten. hell, i thought their best work was when they were sampling like mad.

[Guest Choken One]

Well...

 

PURAL.

 

People

 

RAPPER=One Person.

 

If she said they hadn't been a good white rap group...then you could kill her.

[Guest Mindless_Aggression]

Hm...so there really is no God. Bummer.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

White female rappers begin and end with Blondie's "Rapture"...

[Guest razazteca]

I'm going against everyone here and say I like it. Sarai's sound and flow seems to be heavy influence by the 90s Atlanta sound. Its as if So So Def and Quad City Dj's had a baby and gave birth to the white girl, Saria.

 

Now if Sarai started to act as if she was a gangsta bitch and took the look of Boss or the early Da Brat than I would start to wonder.

[Guest Nevermortal]

Hah, on MTV's True Life: I'm Getting a Divorce, they were profiling a female white rapper ("Slim JG") getting a divorce from her crackhead husband.

 

Not the same girl though.

[Guest whatitistoburn]

Princess Superstar isn't all that bad. She worked with Kool Motherfucking Keith.

[Guest TheArchiteck]

Call me old fashioned.....but I didn't even think white female rapper goes together.

I don't know man....it just seems......odd.

[Guest Ripper]

Call me old fashioned.....but I didn't even think white female rapper goes together.

I don't know man....it just seems......odd.

You ~RACIST!!

 

of course, I kinda agree with you...

[Guest Dangerous A]

I can't make a judgement until I hear at least 2 tracks.

 

 

BTW Architeck, kick ass banner!

[Guest La Parka Es Mi Papa]

I don't know about Sarai, but Northern State are pure crap.

[Guest TheArchiteck]

lmao....

 

Nah, not racist at all.

Its just so hard for me to picture it.

Since the ones I've heard sounded so HORRIBLE, someone really tight have to gain my confidence.

Anyways, i'm generally not into female rappers period. Its just the way they pronounce their words...seem like they try too hard, ya know?

 

I do like Mystic though.....

 

Btw- Thanks Dangerous.......someone posted 2 pics of em and I had photoshop open...it was all too convient.

[Guest shlidgn90]

whoever said the beasties aren't respected by true hip hop fans is full of it. liscense to ill is still listed as an all time classic in hip-hop and most fans consider their work beyond that revolutionary in creating rap/rock. on jay-z's "final" album. he personally brought in rick rubin, for the old beastie boy sound.

 

as for the thread about a white woman rapping. i think it could work, for instance, if a white woman made a version of mighty casey's white girls, and called it black boys, it could reach bet uncut.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Am I the only one that thinks she's pretty? Everyone's saying, "she doesn't even look good" and stuff like that.

 

I know her music will suck though.

[Guest Choken One]

No she is Pure White Trash stank ugly.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

When I first saw her pic I actually thought she looked more like a rich white girl trying to act black.

[Guest Dangerous A]

I just saw her video on MTV Hits.

 

She's not bad in the looks dept. but her song sucks. It's southern style "shake that ass" music.