Vanilla Ice was the punchline to many a joke in the 80s & 90s, but how did he rate as a rapper?
It seems the only white rappers who get any respect are the Beastie Boys and 3rd Bass.
I know zip about rap, so can someone fill me in?
I don’t know about 3rd Bass, unless they have done other stuff besides Pop Goes the Weasel, which could be entirely true, I just don’t know about it.
Of course there’s Eminem.
:smack:
Must be a psychological block. I really don’t like Eminem and it’s not because I don’t rap. He just rubs me the wrong way.
In the UK there’s Mike Skinner of The Streets, who has been much lauded by the critics (and even been compared to Dostoyevsky by a professor of English). It’s very very English in an urban stylee: not hip-hop by any means, but it is certainly rap.
I was going to say there is this fellow out there named Marshal Mathers (AKA Emenem, AKA Slim Shady, AKA the lead singer of D-12) who is pretty white and raps pretty well.
Other than him and the Beastie Boys, you don’t see a lot of straight-up white rappers. There are guys like 3rd Bass, Snow (Informer), Vanilla Ice, who are at best one hit wonders and at worse laughing stocks.
There are a lot of white artists who have kind of a rap/rock sound that was big in the late ninties - Kid Rock, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit (good enough to rap alongside the Wu-Tang Clan), Uncle Cracker. There sound and lyrics have a very diferent sound from your traditional gansta’ rap or hip hop though and cannot be considered true “rap”.
Interestingly, Vanilla Ice and Kid Rock got their start around the same time. Ice hit it big first with a couple of hits but then all of a sudden became too comercialized and turned into a living joke. It probably set Rocks career as well as white rappers back almost a decade.
Man, are you serious? A bunch of my current-favorite rappers are white.
Sole
Sage Francis
Atmosphere
^^^(aka Slug )
And of course The Streets
And there’s an album in my lifetime top ten albums of all time by a horribly overlooked rapper who called himself Lucas. His Lucacentric marks the dividing line between two stages of my life. Before, I didn’t like any rap. After, rap became extremely important to me.
Then of course there’s the all-time great MC 900ft Jesus.
Then there are some great acts who use a lot of rap style in their music but couldn’t quite be called, exclusively, rappers:
Stereo MCs
Soul Coughing
Right now, Sole, Atmosphere, and Stereo MCs are with me at all times, in my CD wallet. Cannot be got enough of.
I’m black and the first artists that came to mind for me were Soul Coughing, Stero MC’s, 3[sup]rd[/sup] Bass and Eminem (yes, in that order).
I think it’s a stretch to say Soul Coughing is “rap,” but if Doughty counts, then hell yes, he’s the best there is.
The first one I thought of was Everlast (formerly from House of Pain).
I forgot about Lucas! I used to like the song “Lucas With the Lid Off,” but he was a one-hit wonder and faded away. I haven’t even heard the song in years, but it was a good one.
And speaking of Everlast, House Of Pain had a colossal hit around 1992 with “Jump Around.” Again, it was their only hit, but it seems to be one of those songs that even people who “hate rap” can dance around to and be excited by.
Totally forgot about HOP. My bad.
M.C. Chris? 
(White) Debbie from Sealab can’t be wrong.
Cruisin’ Mos Espa, in my Delorean…
I think “Shamrocks and Shenanigans” hit pretty big, too. (It’s the “Boom shalock-lock boom” one). It’s got the best white-boy rap lyrics outside of the Beastie Boys:
You get me down, punk, get off my dick,
You make me sick, like strawberry Quik
and
I kicks the flava, like Steven King writes horror,
If I was a Jew then I’d light a menorah
How about the Bloodhound Gang? They’re sort of a rap/rock blend, but Jimmy Pop has plenty of mic skill.
Further on the rock/rap sound is Linkin Park - there’s a lot of rap interspersed with the heavy guitars and angst, but I likes 'em.
You so forgot the first rock/rappers, Anthrax. They later teamed up with Public Enemy. 
What about G. Love? Not hip hop by any means, but definitely a lot of rap in there, especially if you catch him live (which I recommend).
Damn, I should’ve mentioned G. Love and Special Sauce. I’m a big fan, and saw them live in concert twice. G. Love has a smooth, lyrical flow that could put a lot of the more mainstream rappers to shame, and the music is excellent.
What about Will Smith? I know that he’s more focused on his acting career of late, but still, back in the day…
Whoa. I know that he is totally mainstream and doesn’t cuss on his records and all that…but are you callin’ the man white!!!