Anomolies’ DJ Kuttin Kandi: Appropriation ‘Is What Happens When Nobody Knows Your Name’

By Sameer Rao Jul 01, 2015

In case you’re wondering, the Anomolies—the legendary hip-hop crew whose lyrics were pilfered in a much-talked-about freestyle by actor/Kafka-esque weirdo Shia LaBeouf—will not be doing any interviews about the theft. DJ Kuttin Kandi, the group’s luminary DJ and co-founder, said as much in a searing op-ed published today over at Racialicious

In the essay Kandi describes how artists from marginalized groups are erased when their art is appropriated. The whole piece is worth a close read, but here are a few choice quotes: 

Anomolies originally started off as an “all female Hip Hop” collective back in 1995 with over 26 members. In the last few years, we have evolved to be inclusive to being a gender justice collective. So, we don’t appreciate the assumptions and the misgendering of any of our crew members. We came together to create a safe space for ourselves within Hip Hop so that we can be all that we are and do what we love without having to worry about ridicule, judgement and overall oppression that many of us so often receive within many patriarchal-dominated Hip Hop spaces…

[…]

Because we are the marginalized, underrepresented, and the oppressed; we know that many will never know what it feels like to have been around for more than 2 decades to then have a few of our lyrics [written] and recorded in 1999 to be used in a cypher by a famous white cisgender-male privileged famous actor like Shia LaBeouf as though he “freestyled” it himself. We know that many will not even care to understand what it’s like to be attacked by random people defending his “freestyle” by calling us “b*tches” and to tell us that he was doing us a favor by biting our verses. We know that many will tell us it was only a few bars and that we should move on but yet only true Hip Hop heads will know this is disrespect. We know that many will not know what it feels like to now have white amerikkka watching over us and reaching out to our personal lives just to attack us with misogynist threats and even our children just because we were trying to speak up for ourselves.

[…]

"…We are NOT going to do interviews on this subject because we got work to do. So, we’re going to let our media justice friends do that, should it be done." 

 

Click here to read the full piece at Racialicious.