Integrationist knee-grows will never have good politics, this is very typical, I can't stand for some of these assholes to be "singing we are the world" while getting shitted on, just to make other people feel comfortable.

http://www.allhiphop.com/editorial/?ID=173
House Nigga Hip Hop: Slaves in the Game
By Adisa Banjoko

Hip Hop culture has been gaining so much attention in the political arena over the last few years. It is a beautiful thing. Unfortunately, it is surprising to see so much self-hating Black men and Hippie’esq types trying to paint a multicultural myth that has never existed. First understand, that I LOVE Hip Hop. I also love those who say they love Hip Hop. But it is disrespectful to watch people actively lie about what Hip Hop culture has done, as well as it’s roots.

You have many Black people today who apologize for the Black roots of Hip Hop. Recently I was speaking at a Hip Hop event and the subject of race and politics came up. My question, was “Where does the Hip Hop community’s contemporary needs separate from the needs of the immediate needs of the African American community? Other people in Hip Hop have needs.”

My point was that Asian and Latino women and men may have needs very different from my political and social needs as a Black male and so on. So how will Hip Hop address such a wide spectrum of people under one umbrella? We ALL deserve political, social and economic attention.

One guy, who will remain nameless jumps up and says that Hip Hop is not a “Black thing”. This is more than disgusting because he is an African American. We go back and forth on this point (which is so sad really). I explain that Kool Herc (Black man), Grand Wizard Theodore (Black man), Afrika Bambataa (CLEARLY a Black man) Jo-jo (Black man), the Nigga Twins (you guessed it, still Black) and countless other African Americans were at the roots of all the elements REGARDLESS of who else got involved later.

To establish this as a historical fact does not in ANYWAY negate the contributions of Asians, Latinos (Puerto Ricans and Mexicans specifically) as well as Europeans and others to Hip Hop culture.

His point was that because he was a graf writer and ran and tagged with Europeans, Latinos and others that Hip Hop is NOT Black. No doubt, that the graf element is the most innately multicultural. But visual ART is a more multicultural thing in itself.

My point was that the art of Black men like Phase2 or Basquiat gave early attention to graffiti. The world was highly fascinated by the African American males latest artistic expression. It was illegal, mysterious and left temporary imprints of what was on the Black mind of the 70’s and 80’s. To acknowledge this does not make the graffiti works of someone like Seen, Dug One, Scape One or King Dream any less relevant.

Later, this guy walks up to me and we continue to debate. He tells me that part of my problem is that I am debating with him as a Black man. He then goes on to tell me that he is NOT a Black man, but that he “is Hip Hop”.

First, the idea that people shed their historical, racial and cultural selves to “be Hip Hop” is mind-boggling. Next time his Black butt gets snatched by Oakland PD, we’ll see how “Hip Hop” he is. That though, I will save for another rant.

I responded to him that I was talking to him as a Muslim first (as I choose to define myself spiritually first), but that my Islamic spiritual filter forces me to embrace the truth. The true history of Black people being the founders of the culture are not personal, but factual. I am a Black man and I naturally love Black men, women, and Black children. Coming from an oppressed people I naturally love ALL people (and want peace, justice and equality for everyone).

However, the racial makeup of the founding fathers in Hip Hop speaks for itself. Where these brothers came from, who their parents were and how they responded to oppression were direct results of being born Black men in America. This fact would remain true if I was an Indonesian Buddhist, or an Irish Catholic. I just happen to be an African American Muslim.

Malcolm X in old speeches used to talk about “house niggas” before. I hated the word. I never even used it really, until now. Because I SEE so many house niggas in the game today. I see them trying to lie on their own people’s achievements, so they can make others feel comfortable within the culture. Others do it so they can get an extra dollar. This a growing problem in America, and in Hip Hop.

We have a race war in Hip Hop culture. A race war rooted in certain Black people denying their own contributions, to gain favor with the new global Hip Hop community. It’s creating a multicultural myth. This myth keeps the true multicultural reality from truly maturing to fruition. A few White guys, Latinos or Asians who participated or were open to the beauty of Hip Hop in it’s early stages does not undo who the founders were.

I love what all races have contributed to Hip Hop. I think it is the greatest strength of Hip Hop culture. But, if we can’t be honest about the history of the art, how can we authentically mobilize it politically and socially? How can we have any real focus or honest platform? If we deny the authentic Black roots of Hip Hop today, when we have the power and the technology to define our history now, what can we say 50 years from now when we are written out? We will just appear as a footnote as poor folks who “just happen to have been there” when the multi-culti trend took over the world. This historical crime will be done by Black men, denying their own to get a dollar.

Does Hip Hop bring all kinds of races together? Absolutely. Are we one big happy family? Hardly. We’ll never be a happy family, until we can talk honestly about who we all are, and where we all came from- and love those truths without shame.

Adisa Banjoko can be emailed at: soulpolisher2001@yahoo.com

"Riots eruptin around and still we party on..."

I posted this article last week!!! I got the article off of Davey D's website and on the message board there, it pissed off a lot of White folks!!!! (I don't care!!!!) Check out the link below!!!!!

http://b11.ezboard.com/fpoliticalpalacefrm21.showMessage?topicID=284.topic

on this board a few years back, i got into a very heated debate on this very topic about hip hop's roots, and the most suprising thing to me (back then) was that BLACK FOLKS were arguing me down saying how the beastie boys were just as influential and important to the culture yada yada, and how hip hop wasn't BLACK but world wide and all this jazz...

you'd have to be a FOOL to say that hip hop isnt global and people from all walks of life are enjoying the music, and id even bet that most black folks who say that hip hop isn't just black anymore have tons of white friends who listen to hip hop, but to say that the ROOTS of hip hop (going all the way back to the old slave negro sprirituals) culture are not from BLACK FOLKS!? cmon now.

"but to say that the ROOTS of hip hop (going all the way back to the old slave negro sprirituals) culture are not from BLACK FOLKS!? cmon now. "

Not entirely true my friend.

peace.

let's play ping pong ■

I mean is it any different from let's say surfer culture? Rock and roll made it much easier (and faster) for hip-hop to be accepted by the mainstream. Have you seen the music video for Rapper's Delight? Blondie and Madonna were adding raps to their songs in the early 80s. I know hip-hop's history and I argue that it began with the Last Poets and 70s counter culture but even that was commodified. Even with grafitti you had folks traveling Europe, exhibiting work in galleries.

I was watching "Style Wars" recently and it helped me realize that hip-hop was a commodity even before it was mainstream. I was a kid, listening to Afrika Bambataa & Grandmaster Flash and then Run DMC but by then it was everyone listening to rap and trying to get into it. "Breaking" was a hit (and a embarassment), Futura 2000 came to my school and I signed up so he could teach me grafitti.

Hip-hop started in the Bronx and Harlem. Black folks, Latinos AND some white folks started it...I mean who was in the Bronx back then (see first part of this sentence)? It didn't take long for hip-hop to get downtown to the punk rock folks...that was the beginning of the end of what we know as Black hip-hop...maybe an opportunity for social change.

<--- Blame this lady for Nutty.

I read his recent article in Rolling Stone:

"People called rock & roll "African music". They called it "voodoo music". They said that it would drive the kids insane. They said that it was just a flash in the pan--the same thing they're saying about hop-hop today. Only it was worse back then, because, you have to remember, I was the first Black artist whose records the white kids were starting to buy. And the parents were really bitter about me. We played places where they told us not to come back, because the kids got so wild. They were tearing up the streets and throwing bottles and jumping off the theater balconies at shows. At that time, the white kids had to be up in the balcony--they were "white spectators". But then they'd leap over the balcony to get downstairs where the Black kids were."

<--- Blame this lady for Nutty.

Directly descendents from the DJ souns system clashes in Jamaica. I spoke to the Last Poets and they take no credit in it directly although they certainly helped shaped it. Ex. BIggie's Party And Bull ish or Busta's Put Yah Hands Where My Eyes Could See" Or other samples.

"Forget Black History Month, how about live an African History Life"-Ansley Burrows

>Directly descendents from the DJ souns system clashes in
>Jamaica.

I forgot this as well as capoeira (breaking).

>I spoke to the Last Poets and they take no credit
>in it directly although they certainly helped shaped it.

I agree.

<--- Blame this lady for Nutty.

I meant DJ sound system. Funny most of the DJ in early hip-Hop were from the Caribbean or first generation Yankee. Baby Bam is from Barbadoes.

>>Directly descendents from the DJ souns system clashes in
>>Jamaica.
>
>I forgot this as well as capoeira (breaking).
>
>>I spoke to the Last Poets and they take no credit
>>in it directly although they certainly helped shaped it.
>
>I agree.

"Forget Black History Month, how about live an African History Life"-Ansley Burrows

I agree with your comments about the history of hip-hop music, and overall culture. I have found myself wondering until now why some people are so passionate about this topic. However, once I considered all the studies I have done on Religions and what I prefer to call the events of the past (not His-story), I realized that this is an important topic for youth and the elders of hip-hop to continue to crusade about. It is bad enought that we have so many people that do not realize that Africans started highly refined and spiritually "civilized" societies in not only Africa, but also Asia-(India-Indus Valley-China-Japan), Europe, Austrlia, and we traveled to South America, and North America before any European, Spanish or whatever nation did. I was a religious studies major at Georgia State, and me and a friend of mine were continuously frustrated with the approach of the department and its blatant support of such lies and perversions of the past. It is in Kemet and Ancient Africa that the first calendars were produced, the sciences were first explored and mastered on so many levels, mathematics, archeticture, and most importantly systems of spiritual cultivation and enlightenment. Too many folks today do not know these facts. And too many so called Western or Eurocentric "scholars" debate these facts presented by writers like George G.M. James, George Jackson, Ivan Van Sertima, Wayne Chandler, Carter G. Woodson, Charles F. Finch, Yosef Ben Jochannan, Chiek Anta Diop, and numerous others I have not named. The facts are the facts, whether or not it is stated by me a young black male or someone of some other nationality, ethnicity, or whatever. We must continue to champion the beauty and innovation of our creativity, which manifest in culture like hip-hop for example. No doubt that it is beautiful that it is universal nowadays, however it did not get that way without the risk taking and efforts of cats like Cool Herc and others. This past must be reflected to the youth, and elders alike. We must not allow our work to be taken for granted. Peace brotha. Hetep.

i think the author feeds into the false dichotomy between Latinos and Blacks to an extent. the myth is that hip hop was birthed in the south bronx - a thoroughly Black community. yet he falls into the language trap (that many fall into all too often). most puerto ricans in the south bronx are Black. to call them Latino and suggest (ever so mildly) that their role in the formation of hip hop as peripheral is plain wrong.

my two other issues are:
1) his definition of house nigga is a little off...
2) how is identifying as a muslim first better than identifying as hip hop?? *awaiting a pouncing*

peace.

---------
<= "Tomorrow" Romare Bearden

!

"Forget Black History Month, how about live an African History Life"-Ansley Burrows

lol...

i mean is it a big diffence between arguing that something started in Bushwick or Flatbush, Harlem or East Harlem. it's basically the same, no?

peace.

---------
<= "Tomorrow" Romare Bearden

Yaaahmean!

"Riots eruptin around and still we party on..."

i knew that was coming...damn can we go one day without the haterade? LOL.

peace.

---------
<= "Tomorrow" Romare Bearden

The bridge is over, the bridge is over, BIDDY-BY-BY!!!

--------------------------------------------------
"OK, and yet, if I get out of my chair right now and
beat the shit out of you, then *I’m* the bad guy?"

- Aaron McGruder, exercising a right to be hostile
towards 'Family Circus' hack Bil Keane

___________________

Mar-A-Lago delenda est

I don't see what the argument is here... Of course blacks PRIMARILY started hip-hop, there is no denying that. If one admits to that premise, that does not mean that hip hop is meant for blacks only, all it says is that when hip hop originated, it was originated by a bunch of cats, of which most were blacks. I myself am Pakistani, but grew to love hip hop, cuz it helped me realize what my black and latino friends, or their elders, were going through when I was growing up in the streets of Pakistan. Hip hop has universal messages in it, which allowed a F.O.B immigrant like me to come to terms with issues kids deal with growing up here. I have never felt "left out" within the hip hop community and have largely been embraced with love and understanding amongst my peers. So what's wrong with acknowledging the truth? It's like Arabs devised Algebra and other important concepts in Mathematics. That does not mean that only they can use Math. Just my two cents from an "outsider" to this debate.

There is nothing in our book, the Quran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That's a good religion.
Malcolm X (1925-65), U.S. Muslim leader. "Message to the Grass Roots," speech, Nov. 1963, Detroit (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 1, 1965).

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I agree with a portion of your statement. Hip-hop is universal, and its universal appeal is what makes it so prized by not only the original founders, but also corporate America, which is trying to mold it into something that the founders did not necessarily intend. The argument has greater meaning because it also goes back to deeper issues regarding the misrepresentation of people of color in "his-story". For instance so many people in the masses do not know that the first and most celestially accurate calendar was composed in Africa, as well as explorations into mathematics which spread to the Arabian region, and was passed down via the Moors who then elightened the Europeans. Not to mention astronomy, cosmology, philosophy, archeticture and so many other sciences and areas of study. The bottom line is that we cannot allow the individuals with the most money and influence to make up a false composition regarding hip-hop or the events of the past. I believe that the past helps us to understand ourselves in the present and plan for the future. It may seem like a trivial issue, however I believe that if more of the youth were taught the truth about ancient events that there understanding of the world would transcend concrete blocks, fashion, and so many other mundane and truly insignificant distractions to the most important aspect of our purpose, which is Re-union with the Most. Peace to you brotha. Hetep.

The Past is before one, the future behind one.-Maori belief

I agree, and I guess what I was trying to say is that, "we," the "not-blacks," damn I'm coming up with my own new words, need to realize that the above statements are not meant to offend "us," but that they should be realized so that the proper peoples, the blacks, are acknowledged with starting hip hop. Most people debate this issue because we feel threatened that hip hop is not for us, or that we don't belong, which is totally not the issue. Black people should say that yeah, they started hip hop, cuz they did, and I don't think there is anything wrong, or superficial about that.

I too agree that History has contorted our view of how things really were. U brought up the Moors, which is very important, and another example would be how we continue to teach that Columbus "discovered" America, when in fact, he just helped us almost wipe out a race of people.

As far as the Beasties go, I still believe them to be pioneers in hip hop, not cuz they brought it to mainstream America, but because they did bring in their own unique sound, and to be honest with u, are some talented ass musicians. I really don't like them too much myself, but I give credit when credit's due...

There is nothing in our book, the Quran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That's a good religion.
Malcolm X (1925-65), U.S. Muslim leader. "Message to the Grass Roots," speech, Nov. 1963, Detroit (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 1, 1965).

DROkayplayer™

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I think the author misses the point a bit. While I understand the author's issue with "self-hating" african-americans, I think the onus for this problem should be put on the white media that is trying to do with hip-hop what they did to Jazz and Rock 'n' Roll. Rather than attacking one of the symptons, attack the sickness. You can say black people need to stand up for their contributions, but before that one must address the white washing that goes on, not only with music, but with history.

As for the Beastie Boys, by the time they came up, the roots of hip-hop were firmly planted. I would say that they are a seminal hip-hop group but not necessarily that influential. I think they were more influential for those rap-rock groups. I mean, how many hip hop acts today sound like the Beasties?

----
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With Hip-Hop....It is not an element of hip-hop..........That whole 4 or 5 elements of hip-hop is a load of shit......the same can be argued about breakdancing not truly being an element of hip-hop......so just stop all of that elements of hip-hop shit.

Thanks I appreciate all of your help in the ongoing battle of disassociating the "elements of hip-hop" with hip-hop.

"Lookin' at my seiko it's about to be waco." Viktor Vaughn

"Where you gonna be when the sun falls brother? Probably gathering up your sheep like all these other motherfuckers." Aesop Rock

What is your definition of hip hop? If u just stick to the musick, then that's just rap. I don't see how u can diregards Graffn and breakn when it comes to hip hop, cuz to me, they go hand in hand.

There is nothing in our book, the Quran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That's a good religion.
Malcolm X (1925-65), U.S. Muslim leader. "Message to the Grass Roots," speech, Nov. 1963, Detroit (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 1, 1965).

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>What is your definition of hip hop? If u just stick to the
>musick, then that's just rap. I don't see how u can
>diregards Graffn and breakn when it comes to hip hop, cuz to
>me, they go hand in hand.


Ask Revs (Revlon) the type of music he likes and liked when he was first writing on trains back in the day. Ask Lee (Zoro) from WildStyle what type of music he liked and likes today. Ask any oldschool head what type of music they liked, it wasn't hip-hop because graffitti existed before hip-hop. It is it's own culture that eventualy hip-hop embraced because it was/is an urban culture. writers liked rock, heavy metal, spanish music, etc. and when hip-hop started they liked hip hop......but graffitti was not synonomous with hip-hop as it is today. B-boys were boogying before hip-hop weren't they. didn't they dance to breaks in the funk and soul records? which does not have to mean hip-hop. eventualy it became associated with hip hop. If anything these two "elements of hip-hop" can be associated with urban life and not hip hop. Maybe hip hop and all of it's elements are really elements of urban life and not the other way around.

"Lookin' at my seiko it's about to be waco." Viktor Vaughn

"Where you gonna be when the sun falls brother? Probably gathering up your sheep like all these other motherfuckers." Aesop Rock

It's all word play. I know lots of artists here in the Chi, that are about 32-36 and yeah, most of them didn't listen only to hip hop, but more of the "classics." My point is is that what cats like KRS are trying to say is that hip hop is more than just the music, it's a lifestyle. And u are 100% correct when u say that it's more urban life than anything, cuz IMO, that is also hip hop. I mean, I consider cats like Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix hip hop. Even Eric Clapton and Led Zepplin, cuz of their deep roots in the blues. But then again, that's just my dumbass...

There is nothing in our book, the Quran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That's a good religion.
Malcolm X (1925-65), U.S. Muslim leader. "Message to the Grass Roots," speech, Nov. 1963, Detroit (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 1, 1965).

DROkayplayer™

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Breakdancing evolved from a Brazilian fighting style.

Graffiti is as old as civilization.

peace.

let's play ping pong ■

You're speakin' of Capoeira which is an Afrikan-Brazilian artform that came from the Bantu Afrikans that were imported to Brazil during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade....either way you slice it...HipHop is Black.

-These catz drink champagne, and toast death & pain, like slaves on the ship talkin' bout who got the flyest chains-
-Talib Kweli

www.myspace.com/chriswynd

Co-sign den-a-muhfukka.
I've noticed that these days, Catz of all ethnicities are straight Frontin' on the origins of HipHop. If Catz don't recognize and respect the fact that the Originators of this Culture were Afrikan-Americans then catz need to get the fuck outta HipHop. STRAIGHT^^^^^UP!

-These catz drink champagne, and toast death & pain, like slaves on the ship talkin' bout who got the flyest chains-
-Talib Kweli

www.myspace.com/chriswynd

"One guy, who will remain nameless jumps up and says that Hip Hop is not a “Black thing”. This is more than disgusting because he is an African American. We go back and forth on this point (which is so sad really). I explain that Kool Herc (Black man), Grand Wizard Theodore (Black man), Afrika Bambataa (CLEARLY a Black man) Jo-jo (Black man), the Nigga Twins (you guessed it, still Black) and countless other African Americans were at the roots of all the elements REGARDLESS of who else got involved later."

This is messed up!!! Brotha on some multi-cultural shit.
Check out this article from www.conscioushiphop.com

SLAVES TO MULTICULTURALISM?
by prodigal child

http://www.conscioushiphop.com/html/articles/multiculturalism.html

I spent this past Labor Day weekend at an African Arts & Culture fest on Chicago's Southside. It was 4 days of African and African-American culture — politics, music, dance, clothes, worship, food, art... It was peace 'n' luv like I hadn't seen in a long, long minute. Every tongue of the Diaspora was there — West Indies, Africans, Caribbean Islanders, southern black folk, you name it. It was 4 days of dialoging and sharing of our own cultural fruits with each other. The luv was thicker than the Shea Butter the cats from Mali were selling. It felt like family. But it also got me thinking about multiculturalism and hiphop.

Is the movement that's forcing black folks to embrace multiculturalism actually sacrificing black folks' culture?

You can't turn on the TV or open a book without hearing someone tout multiculturalism. There's multicultural stars like Tiger "Don't call me Black" Woods and Vin "All Of The Above" Diesel. MTV is eating big-time off the multiculti plate — even though they wouldn't play black artists at all in the early 80s. Clubs and radio station formats are multiculti. Fashion is multiculti. The whole world is turning beige.

I peeped a recent Donahue interview with Russell Simmons. Big Rush said whites and non-blacks purchase 80% of all hiphop albums. 80 percent. Add into the mix that some 40% of all hiphop gear like Russell's Phatfarm gear and Diddy's Sean John and Jigga's Rocawear threads. Combine that with the fact that black music (i.e. hiphop, soul, blues, R&B, gospel) black art, black fashion and black entertainment is run by primarily white-owned multinational conglomerates (i.e. Viacom, Universal, Sony, Nike, Disney, etc.) and you have the dynamic of a mostly white consumer-base dictating black culture to white manufacturers and marketers. That's "them" to talking to "them" about what they accept from "us".

I hit a few reggae spots recently and two-thirds of the crowd was Asian and white kids rockin' dreadlocks, drinkin' red stripes and doing their Bob Marley impression. I see the same deal in hiphop, jazz and blues spots all over the world. Remember rock 'n' roll before multiculturalism got hold of it? When black folks were creating it, rock 'n' roll was deamed "race music", "nigger music" and "jungle music". But Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Pat Boone, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Metallica, Aerosmith and friends come along co-opting it and suddenly, rock 'n' roll is white and acceptable. Remember house music before multiculturalism got hold of it? It was black soulful dance music from Detroit and Chicago. Multiculturalism shows up and suddenly house music becomes "techno" and "drum 'n' bass" and very, very white.

If a Japanese kid, a German kid or a White American kid wants to ignore their heritage to go on cultural safari, that's on them. At least they have the comfort of knowing their culture is still in tact. And when little Samantha Suburbs gets bored with having sex with black guys from the 'hood, she'll settle down and go mainstream. When Trevor Mainstream is ready for a career, he'll pull up his pants, lose the backwards baseball cap and go back to his roots, too. Meanwhile their safari jumping "let's go multiculti" leanings are destroying our cultures.

You can't go to Japan and tell Japanese people what their culture is or what it should be. You can't go to Russia or France or Italy and dictate their culture to them. Can't do it to the British, the Irish or the Spanish or the Greeks. Yet, when it comes to the African Diaspora; from America to the islands to the motherland, everyone else wants to dictate blackness to us, participate in blackness and profit from blackness all in the name of multiculturalism.

But black folks don't have the luxury of playing the multiculti game. We have spent the last 500 years piecing together our identity and heritage. We've been fighting a storm of lies, half-truths and disinformation about what we are, where we're from, what we've done and where we're going. Now, on top of all of this we're supposed to let everyone else co-opt our flavor in the name of unity?

But I can't front. I believe in true multiculturalism — it's a beautiful thing. But what's going on in America is not multiculturalism. Multiculturalism only exists when the cultures that come together are on equal footing. If one culture is respected less, seen as a product/commodity for the rest to control, or viewed as a marketing tool for selling chicken, sneakers, cars and CDs, then it's not multiculturalism — it's cultural colonization. It feels to me like black culture is only accepted when non-blacks get to define it, control it and profit from it.

Multiculturalism seems to be liberal code for "Black culture belongs to us now and we'll define it and use it as we see fit". Culture is the soul of a people. And when you control a people's soul, you control those people. They enslaved us once before. If we're not careful, multiculturalism will be the next set of shackles they throw on us.

FOR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS, THE WRITER CAN BE CONTACTED AT prodigalchild27@yahoo.com

I don't think the mass media conglomerates really care about defining blackness. If anything, it is the opposite. They want to move hip hop away from being a "black" form of expression and into being a music for everyone. They aren't trying to profit off of blackness, they are trying to erase it. While people think the best examples of this are Elvis and Eminem, I think better examples are in pop music. Maurice Starr came out with New Edition, who did well but not huge. Then he added less talented white performers and all of a sudden the phenomena of New Kids on the Block came out. Look at Usher compared to Timberlake.

The Queen of Co-opting is Madonna. In the beginning it was the fresh pop sound, then it was the club beat, then it was techno. Madonna has been around so long because she has no 'style'; she steals whichever is about to blow up.

I believe in multiculturalism as well but nobody ever truly practices it. We always have diversity of race but rarely, if ever, is diversity of thought ever promoted. Possibly the only turly multicultural pop album in the last few years was Santana's Supernatural because everyone brought a piece of themselves to the music. When Timberlake and Timberland have a collabo it isn't multicultural, it is Timbo showing Justin how R&B works, and Justin giving input from what he's learned.

The mass media will always co-opt the popular media from other cultures. Just look at film: if there is ever a good foreign film, it is bought and remade as an American movie (ala The Ring, Vanilla Sky, etc.) As in music, the remakes are never as good as the original.

The key for the originators is to make sure that they stay true and do not change their ways in order to fit in with the co-opted version of their music. At the same time (and here is the hardest thing about being an artist), you also can't settle into what you were doing well, because your audience will tire of it. There's two problems: a) selling out and b) settling into your formula and getting left behind by your audience.

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