Tom MacDonald’s “Whiteboy” Lyrics Meaning

Whereas Tom McDonald may not be a rapper we commonly refer to as an A lister, he is perhaps the most-controversial of his ilk heading into the 2020s. This is an era in hip-hop whereas hypersexualized female rappers are winning Grammys, dudes are committing felonies and dropping songs about it, and other dudes are more or less worshipping the devil in plain view of the public. 

But still, Tom tends to deal with more backlash than any of the above. And that’s one of the reasons why he decided to drop a track like “Whiteboy”.

Lyrics of “Whiteboy”

The rapper commences this particular song by pointing out that he is not privy to giving in to another phenomenon of contemporary American society, that being White-guilt complex, because he personally is not racist. Nor is he going to allow himself to be chastised for anything along those lines of what his forefathers may have done “way before (he) was alive”. 

Moreover he holds disdain for anyone who tries to racially stereotype him, even Nazis, White supremacists and others who, contrarily, try to exalt him due to his race. And ultimately, the point McDonald is trying to make throughout the first verse is that it isn’t fair to label all White people as racists, simply because all of them are not racist.

And that’s more of less the same concept the chorus is based on. There’s plenty of usages of the word “White” in the passage. But it seems the point Tom is getting at is him not wanting anyone to negatively stereotype or try to hold him down because of his race.

I’m not Racist!

Then he begins the second verse by reasserting, once again, that he isn’t racist. To him the different races of the world are equal since “we all bleed the same”.

Then he addresses the whole culture-vulture controversy, i.e. the idea that White people who rap are stealing Black culture. And his response is sorta like thinking such a way is indicative of the same type of racist thought processes that some Black people accuse him and indeed even the entire White race of possessing.

In the third verse, the rapper lets it be known that he hates White racists just as much as Black people do. But that established, he’s not going to let himself or his loved ones be victimized based on judgments because of their skin color. What he is rather espousing, simply put, is that if non-Whites have decided to hate White people, then they should judge them individually. 

And at the end of the day, concerning the atrocious racial history of North America, he lets it be known for instance that not all White families owned slaves. In fact his own nor those of any of his friends have never engaged in such inhumane business practices. And as a Whiteman living in the modern world, he is acknowledge that what such White people did in the past was in fact wrong.

If You Will Hate, Hate the Real Racists!

Then finally comes the fourth verse, as well as the bridge that follows. Here the vocalist once again reasserts that he is not a racist, a classist or anything like that. In fact concerning that latter notion, he notes that the true White people who have committed crimes against humanity aren’t everyday Caucasians but rather “the Rockefellers, Rothshilds, Bushes and royals”. 

In other words, if a person decides to hate White people due to the impact they’ve had on the world, than it would be wiser to turn their attention to the ones in power as opposed to an inconspicuous dude like Tom McDonald. It’s sort of like he’s saying to non-Whites hate your enemies. Hate the ones that have actually done you wrong, not the ones who look like the ones that have/are messing you up!

In Tom’s eyes, “being White and being racist” are not the same thing. And even though for some folk it may be “hard to tell the difference” with people like Tom McDonald, the rapper feels that he at least deserves to first be heard and then judged instead of vice versa.

“Whiteboy” is Lambasted!

And there are other tidbits of advice towards Black people contained therein. And expectedly, Whiteboy went on to receive its own fair share of backlash. But it’s like you have to appreciate the effort because truth be told, all White people aren’t racist. Nor has Tom McDonald ever said anything, at least in the songs we’ve covered, that is intentionally demeaning against non-Whites. 

Instead, it’s more like he’s a White rapper who isn’t afraid to speak his mind, even on the subject of race, which has always been a sensitive topic. And it just so happens that he came up in an era where White people saying anything that is potentially racially-offensive is considered to be politically incorrect. 

So in this day and age, as he cleaves to such a modus operandi, we can anticipate that Tom McDonald will always be controversial. It’s sort of like his shtick, if you will. That is to say that just how masses of people tend to lambast him, he also has his fans. The latter is evident by the fact that as of the writing of this post he’s arguably the most-successful independent rapper in the game.

“Whiteboy” Facts

This track was the lead single from Tom McDonald’s fourth studio album, 2018’s “Deathreats”. The track itself was released on 9 February of that year. 

And as with all of McDonald’s musical efforts throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s, it is a tune which he released under his own initiative and utilizing his own resources.

This song has its own music video, which was directed by his girlfriend, Nova Rockafeller. And Tom McDonald himself went on to explain that he “made the… video in a classroom because it’s a learning environment”. In other words, he intended this track to be educational, so to speak.

The producer of “Whiteboy” is a hip-hop based musician known as Dansonn.