Analysis 5

Hip-hop is the embodiment of a nation. It has managed to create peace and harmony within cultures when no one else could. Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream “speech was incredibly profound but it never had the impact or the ear of a nation like hip-hop music.Ask anyone 50 and under if they have any animosity towards other ethnicities and the most likely tell you that they do not. Let’s face it, when our favorite song comes on in the club we all rush the dance floor. During this period of pure excitement absolutely no one on the dance floor notices the color of the people around them. At this point in time we are all just “one nation under a groove” says the godfather of soul George Clinton. Many rap artists have sampled Clinton’s music for years. What other genre of music can be attributed to the unification of different ethnic groups? Country, Rock, and R&B are primarily race based music. Viewed in the context of Black music in America over the past century, there's nothing surprising about hip-hop "crossing over." Blues and jazz crossed over in the 1920s, when whites rushed to Harlem to hear the music. In the 1930s, jazz became — for whites — "swing." ('Hip-Hop Is the Most Important Youth Culture on the Planet', 2000)

        The theory was that hip-hop music could not transcend boundaries. How wrong was that observation? Not only has hip-hop music transcended boundaries; whites actually purchase more hip-hop music than African Americans. I admit - I haven't had a chance to read Bakari Kitwana's new book yet, but I did talk with Joe Schloss about it and one of the chapters he found compelling was where Bakari disputes the oft-repeated "fact" that "70% of hip-hop consumers are white."(WHO BUYS HIP-HOP?, 2005) How does something like this happen if Whites and blacks are not unified? We wear the same clothes, we frequent the same places, and the best has yet to come. Gone are the days of seperation ropes at concerts. The 50’s and 60’s are over and for good reason. Music from any genre has no limitations. You can’t label hip-hop as a black or white thing anymore; It’s a people thing.