I remember riding in a cab with fellow hip hop legend Cut Master DC in 1986 "Brooklyn's in the house" was a hit at the time. We were discussing the future and the past of hip hop or "building" as he called it. He said something that was very interesting, "before hip hop when people came to booklyn from the bronx people died". Hip hop gave people another way to compete other than gunplay and violence in other words hip hop was a culture of peace and self expression. How in the hell did we let it get back to violence is beyond me. Hip hop has penetrated every color line on the planet and it used to be as diverse as the people that listen to it. It included almost every type of subject there was love, comedy, bragging, vocal skills, creativity, now it seems to be only about one brand and anything out of the mold of I got more stuff than you got or I shot up my whole block is often times rejected. A lot of todays hip hoppers are as prejudice towards different ideas as the anti hip hop community was over twenty years ago. Hip hop currently seems to be stuck on stupid.........it started with rappers naming themselves after italian mobsters and has been spiraling downhill every since. Talk to a old black man about how the mobsters treated people of color back in the day and you'll see what I'm saying, it's like naming yourself after a slave Master Like MC Massa Tom Moe.....LOL or DJ George Washington. Actually in retrospect I guess it's appropriate since most of the stuff out today glamourises killing your own people.....housing the block basically taking pride in scaring old women and children from coming out in the summer. You want to impress me go house the cops ha ha ha. Hip Hop used to have people running to get outside to listen now it's got people running in the house.