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

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.”