Jack Harlow talks setting an example for “white kids” in Black culture

Jack Harlow has spoken of his responsibility to set an example for white fans and rappers in Black culture.

The Louisville artist, who released his debut album ‘That’s What They All Say’ last December, told Footwear News in a new interview that he “feels blessed to have a voice in this period”.

“…Because, one, I’m not a street artist, and two, I’m not Black,” Harlow explained. “The only thing keeping me here right now is that level of authenticity, of being myself.”

He also reflected on participating in a protest against the murder of Breonna Taylor, which took place in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky (the police officers involved in the fatal shooting did not face charges relating to her death).

“The things I was doing last summer, any fans who didn’t feel like criticising the police or were on the other side of things, I was going to weed them out,” Harlow said. “That could have been a moment for them to no longer be fans.

“But what is important is that I lead by example for all the white kids looking at me. This is what you do. You don’t just enjoy Black culture. You stand up next to Black people in a time of need.”

Elsewhere, Harlow cited Odd Future and the late Mac Miller as artists to have inspired their fans to be themselves – a shift from the hip-hop scene of 2008-2010. “All of this stuff was coming into the fold and it had this energy surrounding it of, ‘We’re letting the white kids come to the party. We’re all in this together’,” he said.

Recalling a conversation he had with his friend Nemo Achida, Harlow continued: “He feels like the country going into these new civil rights moments almost shifted away from, ‘Let’s have the white boy at the party’.

“It became less about let’s all be diverse together and turned back into Hip Hop being, ‘It needs to be a Black genre’. That’s just been the natural transformation of things, I think.”

Earlier this year, Jack Harlow contributed a verse to a remix of Eminem’s ‘Killer’ alongside Cordae.

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