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An item in yesterday’s Page Six identified Ne-Yo as “rapper Ne-Yo,” even though he’s, you know, a singer. And this wasn’t the first time the Rupert Murdoch-bankrolled tabloid has committed this factual error to print, nor was it the first time that it’s misidentified an African-American performer as a rapper. Rich Juzwiak at FourFour uses this moment to conduct a thorough investigation that comes to a somewhat depressing conclusion: “every single male R&B singer of the past 10 years (and quite a few females) has been labeled a ‘rapper,’ by sources that are more or less trusted.” Maybe we should start making copyeditors listen to music, instead of looking at pictures, as they check identifying details about the subjects of the stories they edit? [Page Six via fourfour]
Dear “New York Post”: Maybe You Should Listen To That Ne-Yo Album, You Might Like It (And Do Your Job Better)
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Totally agreed, and it’s worse than the last 10 years. Remember the 1992 “Cop Killer”/Ice-T brouhaha? I don’t think a single major paper accurately covered the fact that it was a hardcore rock song; it was all “rapper” this, “gangsta” that. As soon as they see a black face and “urban” iconography, it’s easier to just call them a rapper.
Does anyone remember when Nas was on “The Colbert Report” and he introduced Nas as a “gangsta rapper”? I know it’s a comedy show but I it’s a pretty widespread problem of identifying almost anyone who raps as “gangsta”.
There’s only one way to settle this. How does iTunes classify him?