>i just meant hip hop is sort of black music's rock (im
>forgetting 50s rnr for convenience). R&B is more like black
>pop, but hip hop is, or was rather, its rock, where it was
>very artist driven, took itself more seriously, thought of
>itself as an agent for social change, an album oriented
>medium, against the establishment, against 'pop ideals', etc
>etc. lots of parallels.

I was gonna ask is this still the case but then saw you wrote 'was', which I'm inclined to agree with. When did this change though? Was there a watershed moment or more a gradual shift over time for a variety of reasons?