Young and influental Kentucky rapper sat down with Elliott Wilson and Brian B.Dot Miller of the Rap Radar podcast to talk about his experience in hip hop, new projects, and thoughts on modern music.
It appeared that the understanding of dynamic and tensions in the music industry Jack Harlow gained from reading music press and following discussions about Eminem’s place in hip hop. Of course, there was more to that but to the question about how Harlow realised that hip hop was his calling. Jack gives an unexpected answer:
I used to order bunch of XXLs and I think I was just reading all interviews. Y’all put Eminem on the cover every month. I was reading a lot of Eminem interviews and I remember I was reading this one section and there was a whole column that said “Eminem’s bad for hip hop”. And y’all had some of the biggest rappers in the game answered. Jay-Z gave his answer. I read that and each one of these, everyone answered like, “Fuck no! Eminem’s not bad for hip hop. He’s dope as shit!”. And that’s what connected with me. “He’s dope as shit”. At the end of the day, if you can rap, what else are we talking about? We are not perfect. He made a few mistakes in his career, sure, but it doesn’t fucking matter because he can rap his ass off. So I said, just rap, bro. There’s so many things, you could try to be everything. But at the end of the day, I just wanted to rap.
What about Jack’s statement from his recent album? Some took his self-description as “The hardest white boy since the one who rapped about vomit and sweaters” close to heart and were not too happy about it. Mac Miller’s fans where outraged, MGK went outside to his backyard to diss Harlow on record (ironically, over the Renegade beat written by Eminem). So, in the eye of the storm, how Jack Harlow deals with these type of situations, how does he take it in? Jack laughs:
How do YOU take it in? I guess, you just fucking take it. I think, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I feel great about what I said and I feel great about the reaction. It just is what it is. It was a stream of consciousness sort of verse, and not that I don’t stand on my statement but I’m an MC, I’m talking my shit! This ain’t a new concept to feel yourself. I fell no reservations about what was said at all.
Watch the video below:
