Jack Harlow pays homage to his grandma’s favorite artists by honoring Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.
The Kentucky native covered Presley’s 1961 hit, “Can’t Help But Falling In Love,” during one of his homecoming shows at Whitney Hall on his No Place Like Home 2024 event. Harlow could be seen gracing the stage in a lavish suit, with the Louisville Orchestra backing his rap-less performance.
WLKY reported that the “First Class” rapper paid tribute to Frank Sinatra with a performance of “Fly Me To The Moon,” which he called a dedication to his grandmother.
However, Jack Harlow’s attempts to show love to both his grandmother and these American icons weren’t positively received by some netizens. After clips of Jack went viral on social media, people accused him of being a “culture vulture” and simply using Hip-Hop to gain fame and then seemingly distancing himself from the genre.
“The irony of it being Elvis Presley is almost too good. This is really their culture. Lmao,” one person commented on X/Twitter. “Post Malone and MGK did so much damage to the general reputation of white rappers bruh,” another comment opined.
“Typical culture vulture sh*t dude gonna be making country with Post Malone soon just watch,” another account chimed in. Amid the scrutiny, Harlow’s fans came to his defense. Comments drew attention to the fact that the “What’s Poppin?” rapper did the songs as a dedication to his grandmother and that he is dedicated to being a rapper.
“People being mad at Jack Harlow for dedicating his grandma’s favorite song to her during his hometown concert and calling him a culture vulture because of it, saying he used hip hop for fame & is now ‘switching up’ are the lowest of the low idiots & need to be exiled,” a social media user said in defense of Jack Harlow. “The fake outrage over this sh*t kinda funny lmao let that man get his bag,” another account followed up.
The Jackman rapper previously opened up about the “responsibility” he feels in being a white artist in a Black genre. During an interview with Billboard in 2021, Harlow spoke about using Hip-Hop to “fuel his dreams” and to remain a part of the culture instead of leaving it behind after obtaining success.
“There is a certain reality that I am white, and I think there will always be something attached to that. No matter how embraced I am, there will never be a day that I’m Black,” he said. “With that being said, there’s a certain responsibility that comes with being a white man in a Black genre, and there’s certain things that have me regarded differently. But there is something exciting about skipping over any barriers that might be there and creating unity.”
“People think of white rappers using Hip-Hop as a vehicle,” Harlow added. “It’s important that people know I love Hip-Hop and want to stay in Hip-Hop and want to be part of Hip-Hop and I’m using it as a vehicle to fuel my dreams.”
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