Few genres are as freighted with the politics of authenticity as hip-hop. Just last month, the New Yorker kicked off a fresh round of controversy when it ran a profile of Lord Jamar, a cantankerous middle-aged rapper who rails against what he sees as the softening — and whitening — of modern hip-hop. In between lambasting Le1f's sexuality and Kanye West's stylistic and sartorial liberties, Jamar took aim at artists like the white rapper Macklemore: "You are guests in the house of hip-hop. . . . Keep it real with yourselves: you know this is a black man's thing."