the important part of culture can't be heard or touched.

the culture that can be touched...is the tip of the iceberg so to speak.

the heart of culture is how you define the world, the collective consciousness of a group with a shared history etc....

when blacks came here the tip of the iceberg were taken (you can't have drums, not going to be eating cassava and yam etc, speak your language etc)...but we immediately took the heart of our culture (i.e. the worldview) and applied to the physical things we COULD have here

black people speak english with west african grammar and syntax
black people took european instruments and made very african music
black people took christianity and flipped it so it fit we OUR definition of the world

etc etc

so again hip hop wouldn't exist if it wasn't for what blacks in the diaspora went through.

to OWN it you have to be a part of that collective consciousness. its the reason so many hip hop lovers are just tourists and eventually make their way back home (cage anyone?)

can you participate? sure. is it american culture? sure. does it mean something totally different to the group who's collective consciousness spawned it? you would be foolish to think otherwise.

i'm sure there are customs that jews adopted during the holocaust because of the experience. some of those things may have been integrated/used by other folks. it won't mean the same thing to them as it does to the jews. not even close