Jetée

I don't think it is wise to want to typify or portray an example of the "Hip-Hop music" community as even a viable part of the demographic that is the Black cultural identity in the West, whether it be North America, the Caribbean, Brasil, and other segments of the population in which we associate its influence. Building upon your initial example of Black culture and music icons, I do understand the unfair recognition in which Hip-Hop music can shape a skewed perception of what the "exact values" are of African-American youths. But I've seen many former "gangster-rappers" reform their ties and values to shape a new future for their children, so I'm not sure how to contend the argument. As I've seen in documentaries and real-life commentary, it is the younger generation that tries to uphold and/or surpass outdated values in which they were raised. The furtherance of tolerance and lessening of sterotypes all begins with education, tempered by real-world experience.

Hip-Hop is an echelon of a lifestyle that is played upon and largely aggrandized to represent something that is not entirely truth. Whether it is the struggle of becoming a represented and signed music artist, or the ridiculous lavish appeal of "rims, chains, hoes and shoes" that always seem to receive inordinate play in popular music videos, that is not the defining measure of what being Black is, nor is the all-encompassing poster for what the hip-hop culture is meant to represent.

I do agree that it is a sad state where the most popular and "heralded" rap artists are in fact building up the racial/hate barriers we long sought and toiled to break down, but I believe them to be not more 10% of the populus that inhabits and "claims" to be true hip-hop. There are many different subsect & schisms in all forms of art, music, and film, but I don't believe the right basis on defining modern racism is to submit Hip-Hop as a new vehicle in which rasist beliefs are held. It was once our parents, neighbors and churches who promted racial intolerance and segregation, but relating to you Shauk, I am inclined to side with you that the "mass-media machine" today is trying its damn hardest to portray the most typical examples of what is atypical in the Black culture. I mean, nobody need ten flat-lid hats, twenty pairs of kicks, or even one pimp cup, so the television has failed us in that regard of "fair education of all, for all".

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As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi