It's easier to be a white person who likes rap.

There's an alarming number of white rappers these days, sure, but here's a term you don't hear much anymore: Wigger. Sadly, if you were a hip-hop fan in the early '90s, it was just a term you had to endure, as everyone from the kids at school to your parents at home made fun of you for "trying to act black." You were chastised for enjoying and perpetuating a culture  people believed you had no business enjoying, and most people didn't take your passion seriously.

Today, hip-hop is so fused with the DNA of pop culture, even pop stars like Miley Cyrus can profess their love for Gucci Mane and it's all good. That's not to say that white rap fans don't get clowned regularly—and not to say that some of them shouldn't be (for reasons that have nothing to do with being white)—but that clowning used to be the norm, by default. That change is a great thing: While hip-hop might be predominately black music, it's still music that anyone and everyone should be able to enjoy.