Q-Tip Hits Out At Kanye West For Racially Insensitive Merchandise

Widely considered to be one of the greatest rapper-producers living today, Q-Tip, most famous for his association with legendary hip-hop crew A Tribe Called Quest, has hit out at fellow artist Kanye West for his use of the so-called “Confederate flag” on his tour merchandise.

“Fuck the confederate flag,” said Q-Tip in a post sent out to his over 500,000 Twitter followers. “I love Kanye no shots but my people continue to suffer psychologically from harfships that happened under that banner,” explained the legendary rapper.

Following its use in the American Civil War, the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia came to be called the “Confederate flag” by many, and developed a cultural identity as a potent symbol of not only the US’ history of black slavery, but of anti-black racism and white supremacy.

Since images of West’s tour merch first appeared online, the often controversial rapper has been levelled with criticism over the perceived insensitivity of featuring a widely acknowledged symbol of racism on the merchandise of such a prominent artist.

“React how you want. Like I said, any energy you got is good energy,” said West to 97.1 AMP Radio. “You know, the Confederate flag represented slavery, in a way – that’s my abstract take on what I know about it, right? …So I took the Confederate flag and made it my flag. It’s my flag now!”

Back in September, rapper Tyler, The Creator received harsh criticism from within his own camp, after Odd Future members Syd Tha Kyd and Matt Martians hit out at the iconoclastic artist for featuring blackface caricatures in his clothing designs.

(Via Gigwise)

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