Portland native Mic Capes joins Myths Exposed with Unique Access Ent. to discuss “Keep Portland Weird” and talks about division within the city between Blacks and Whites in “The City of Roses.”
“I feel like Portland is progressive in a lot of different ways, but it’s more accepting of lifestyles and different type of people.” he says. “With the whole ‘Keep Portland Weird’ thing to me and a lot of the black people that live in Portland, it’s like a ‘Keep Portland White’ type of thing. ‘Cause in Portland on the school buses, they just banned rap music. Like on the school buses the drivers can’t play rap music, but they can play country, jazz and others. That speaks for it right there.”
Mic Capes says that race is viewed as a taboo topic in Portland and what may be viewed as a liberal and diverse city it has not come far from the days of public display of racism. Capes says that the signs of discomfort to equality are still visible.
“I think when you talk about race in Portland it brings of a whole lot of guilt and people either like super defensive loving when you bring it up or they just kind of brush it off,” Mic Capes says. “What made me realize that Portland wasn’t as progressive as he claims to be my experiences there, I got called a nigger at eight by a grown man. Just in the micro aggressions living in Portland anywhere you go, people across the street see you, holding they purse tighter and moving a seat when you come to sit next to them. That’s a lot of stuff I experienced.”
Capes says that he uses music as an outlet to address the division, bigotry and racial issues that still plague the city of Portland.
“A lot of people just look at Portland as Portlandia and super hipster is new age shit has come to be young and retire and not really work and shit like that,” the rapper says. “So I think I can make Portland a better [place] by keep making this music is shedding light on the city and bringing my perspective of the city to light. Just bring that perspective that I feel is lost in the mix a lot of time in the public eye, which is more like you know the people of color perspective.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNSvQwx7TC4?list=UUCG196St-2rjRK77RWI58sA]