Preeminent rapper Royce Da 5’9 is well known for his association with Eminem, but in a new interview with Nick Cannon, he shows another side of his personality by initiating a deep discussion about his pet peeve: the idea of Black people talking white.
Royce joined Cannon’s online series “Cannon’s Class” to share his thoughts on the idea, revealing that he believes the notion that a Black person is able to “talk white” is a racist statement. He said that no one should feel compelled to talk a certain way in order to impress others.
“I just attribute that to like, us not knowing [who we are],” said Royce. “We gotta have an identity and it can’t be ignorance.”
The songwriter stressed that it shouldn’t matter how he talks, he should be accepted anywhere. He noted that “talking white” doesn’t denote intelligence in one person over another.
Cannon said, “You know, you hear the argument, ‘What is talking white? Do you mean being intelligent?'” Royce rebutted that premise, stating, “No, it’s not speaking intelligent, because you can speak intelligent and not be talking white.”
The conversation pressed on as the two addressed the idea of “putting on a façade to impress someone else.”
“A lot of times it’s not to impress. It’s to fit in [or] send a signal that says I’m willing to be complicit, subservient, and inferior to your inferiority complex,” Royce added.
“You have to be comfortable with me being myself. If I can be my best version of self in a room with important white people and we can get along and we can have love for each other and we can accept one another, I should be able to do that same thing in a room with you. I’m a multilayered individual but I don’t want to break myself up into different people to do this balancing act in life.”
Also in the episode, Royce got candid about someone he was quite familiar with: DJ Vlad. He took the opportunity to list his grievances concerning the entertainment journalist.
“Somebody like DJ Vlad, I don’t even know what he is,” Royce said. “He doesn’t create anything.”
Nick Cannon interjected, saying, “I know I’ve done several interviews with him in the past and even currently where, a lot of the low frequencies or even a lot of my interviews with him get blown out of proportion. And one of his first topics, one of his main topics is that he would always love to bring up Eminem. And I would say, ‘Vlad, why we gotta talk about the same thing every single time?’”
“But I say this, no disrespect, he doesn’t create anything. He sells us our own trauma,” Royce added. “So, when I look at that, he’s looking at everything through that lens. So everything he’s doing is built on the backs of something, it’s at the expense of something. We don’t have to do that.”
