Andrew Schulz, the actor and comedian some might know from MTV2’s Guy Code and other endeavors, had some choice things to say about so-called “Gangster Rap” in light of the Irving Plaza incident in Manhattan. Schulz took to his Twitter timeline to criticize gangster rap and says it has more influence than people are willing to admit.
Schulz launched into his tirade Thursday night (May 26) with a tweet reading, “Rappers glorify the thug life but take ZERO responsibility of what comes along with it.”
He followed with, “Cowards and children refuse to take responsibility. People don’t get murdered at Jazz, Classical, R&B, EDM, etc shows. This is a rap thing.”
The thing about Schulz’s statements is that they’re in sync with a line of thinking that Hip-Hop, a music genre traditionally performed and cultivated by Black and Brown people, is a hotbed of violence. At the same time, he neglects other mass shooting events around the nation undertaken by armed white men and centers gangster rap as the lone impetus of gun violence. Those types of thought are as alabaster as it gets.
Despite Schulz’s alignment with Black folks via his shows and podcasts, he still enjoys a privilege that his skin affords him that people of color will never know. If Schulz were walking by Irving Plaza that evening, no police officer would signal him as a suspect and he has to know this. Further, Schulz’s ham-handed point got shot down repeatedly by Twitter users but he conveniently side-stepped criticism with jokes or unrelated factoids that don’t support his flimsy argument. The gangster rap criticism comes directly from the white conservative handbook.
To be fair, Schulz might have a slight point in saying some people are more impressionable than others but to decry a genre of music based on a senselessly violent weeknight in New York City is extreme. Schulz, who claims to be a fan of the very music he’s critical of, sounds out of touch, close-minded, and just ended up espousing a bunch of #FFFFFF fake-deep points in the end.
Check out Andrew Schulz’s tweets on Gangster Rap on the following pages. Tell us what you think in the comments.
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Photo: Instagram
