Friends and rappers Vince Staples and Mac Miller recently sat down and discussed about the state of rap, and what part race plays within the genre.

In an interview in The Fader, Miller told of how his skin color placed him in a different position to his counterparts and how it was advantageous to be a certain color within the industry. “I was the first rap show ever in all these colleges. Six thousand kids, and I’m the first hip-hop show because I’m white-college-friendly. That was always a demon for me. It was hard to sit here and know that, because I was a white dude, I was able to sell easier and be more marketable.”

Staples was keen to point out though that there needs to be more support for black artists in general, not just from the industry but also from the fans as well. “Maybe you’re not the problem. Maybe the problem is that black people don’t support each other and don’t fuck with each other as much as they should. White people got the right idea: the first thought, the first action, is to be a supporter.”

However, Staples then raised the issue of skin color even being a topic in rap and how it needs to be eliminated from the conversation. “When you talk about rap, you have to give credit to the South Bronx and that whole community and Afrika Bambaataa. There are people that created things, and who made things, but if we’re talking about someone’s ability to participate in something, then the color of a person should not be in the conversation, period.”

Well worth a read, you can catch the complete interview here.