Word Smith .. give me a break... the whites that BUY hip hop are not mostly "thugs" .. there mostly the clueless 15-23 white kids in the suburbs and college .. that buy hip hop becuase its "cool" .... just as jazz and rock were "cool" for a white audience in the past.<P><BR>Seeing that whites do compose 70% of the hip hop market .. I feel that white "rappers" pose a threat to the commercial viablity of blacks artists they same way elvis did to black rockers.<P>WHite people have a strange habit of over looking the black creators of a artform... in lue of white artists. (ie Elvis was a international superstar whereas the black aritsts that CREATED rock are nameless... and mostly penniless)<P>When white audience ignore black emcees for white ones ... the record companies will follow suit... effectively edge black people (once again) outta of there OWN artform. <P>White culture seem to have a thirst to claim credit for the cultural contributions of others. So thorough is this campaign that TODAY most people black and white dont think of rock and roll as black music. In further support of this.... tell most white "hip hop heads" that hip hop is black music .. and they are QUICK to say "Naw man .. its just music" "Or music has no color" ... all attempts to separate hip hop from its black roots, its originators.<P>I guess the point of this all is .... I'm really tired of white folks in general... particularily their propensity for cultural piracy<P><BR>PEACE TO THE PEOPLE THAT KNOW BETTER<BR>