VANESSA CARLTON

Vanessa Carlton Defends Rappers Who Sampled ‘A Thousand Miles’ And Calls Out A Racial Double Standard

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Back in late March, rappers Spinabenz, Whoppa Wit Da Choppa, Yungeen Ace, and FastMoney Goon teamed up on a track called “Who I Smoke,” which samples Vanessa Carlton’s classic “A Thousand Miles.” The track is full of violent lyrics, which apparently upset some of Carlton’s fans. Now Carlton has responded with a co-sign of the track and some points about race.

Carlton tweeted recently, “To the white folks that have expressed anger/shock over my approval of A Thousand Miles’ usage in the Spinabenz, Whoppa Wit Da Choppa, Yungeen Ace, & FastMoney Goon song Who I Smoke, I invite you to ask yourself why you feel this way & then read this.” The tweet includes a link to a 2016 academic paper titled “Share Cropping Blackness: White Supremacy and the Hyper-Consumption of Black Popular Culture.”

In a follow-up tweet, she continued, “Popular songs accompanied by white violence or tales of white violence aren’t questioned. It’s considered visceral or cinematic. Here we have [‘Stuck In The Middle With You’] playing while a guy gets his ear cut off. Reservoir Dogs”

As some commenters have pointed out, however, there’s a significant difference between Reservoir Dogs and “Who I Smoke,” as the latter names a number of rappers and other individuals who were actually killed. As one user put it, “The difference is one is Hollywood, and one is real life. I mean don’t get me wrong, the song is gas! But also remember, there’s multiple dead kids being dissed on in that song and I bet their parents are haunted with this beat.”

A New Song That Samples Vanessa Carlton’s ‘A Thousand Miles’ Has Rap Fans In A Tizzy

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Odds are, you have no idea who FastMoney Goon, Spinabenz, Whoppa Wit Da Choppa, or Yungeen Ace are. But the odds are, you probably know Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles,” so the probability that you’ll soon learn about this crop of hot, young rappers shot up exponentially with their savvy sample of the 2001 pop hit for their new single “Who I Smoke.” Thanks to the chopped-up loop, the song is as inescapably catchy as it is ludicrously violent, and it’s got fans on social media amused and befuddled in equal measure, even though it isn’t the first time a rapper has cheekily appropriated the buoyant hit.

For one thing, the song’s cartoonishly reckless threats of violence clash so much with the bubbly mood of the original sample, it’s hard to figure out if we should be taking these kids seriously or laughing them off. Whoppa’s verse contains an extended riff on enemies he’s supposedly sent to meet their maker, while Yungeen Ace straight up croons about the deaths of foes, with both rappers naming names. It’s so beyond disrespectful that you almost hope they’re just, like, naming Gamertags and referring to Call Of Duty shootouts instead of real ones.

However, that hasn’t stopped the track from becoming a viral hit and inspiring a raft of memes, jokes, and bemused commentary on Twitter pondering the ridiculousness of the situation. As for who these four rappers are, Google has few answers for any of them except for Yungeen Ace, an up-and-coming rapper from Jacksonville who I’ve covered before in passing. Let’s hope that their joyful breakout doesn’t turn out to bite them as it did the members of GS9 back in 2014. For now, enjoy the song above and the memes below.