Daddy Whitebread explains it all for you

Town Hall's readers talk about hip-hop:

Hip hop is not merely entertainment, it has become a lifestyle for too many young people, and I dare say a counterproductive lifestyle at that. I agree with your entire article except that "hip hop keeps it real". I'd say hip hop keeps it down. Motown, blues, jazz, funk, ...now that's good stuff! And every genre has it's fallen angels, but overall, they weren't promoting destructive lifestyles in the way hip hop is.

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I thought the quote from Russell Simmons was disturbing, "I see hip hop as the new American mainstream. We don't change for you; you adapt to us". That sounds threatening to me. It sounds as if it could be in a story about the Islamists protests.

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The first part of your article is way off, though you come around well. If I look at Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, Ella, and a host of others, I don't see a semi-white European, I see a talented artist.

Rap music is trash regardless of its artist, it can be DMZ, Eminem, or Puff Daddy, who by the way sure looks like a sell out with his prissy white suits that make him appear like an Italian designer gone bad.

Hip hop is not the problem , it is an infested sore. The problem lies in the family breakdown and the lack of individuality in the black community. When blacks stop looking at themselves as black and begin looking at themselves as another American family the light will be begin to shine.

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Somehow, I can't envisage "oldies" radio in the year 2030. Rap and hip hop oldies? I think not. The music of my generation (born 1951), while somewhat "radical" at the time, at least had a point other than slapping around our "ho's". I don't know what the next new wave of music will be, but as far as the black community is concerned, I hope it sounds more like Motown than Hotown.

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celebrating attitude over aptitude is the bi product of lowered expectations. Thanks to the poverty pimps, racial hucksters and the regressive socialist hippies,we now have a generation that laughs at common sense, common courtesy and self respect.James Brown, Curtis Mayfield and Earth Wind & Fire were singer, songwriter, musicians that set a standard of excellence. Hip Hop is keeping it real ? Yeah, real dumb.

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There is so much about Hip Hop and the culture it is fostering that I am, frankly, terrified about. I have a 7 year old granddaughter who is already doing hand gestures without any idea of what they may mean. If this is where we are going, I fear for our entire culture.

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Hip Hop is "Dumpster Dining" for the Ears

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Infantile rhyme schemes, malignant value system - the black rage Williams refers to was much more justified before 1970. There are huge problems in the black community -- illegitimacy, AIDS, drugs, violence, obesity, educational underperformance -- but these are problems the community largely inflicts on itself, yet refuses to take any responsibility for curing. As far as musical talent is concerned, rap offers virtually none. There might be a sampled guitar riff or excellent back-up vocals, but the profane chanting by the rappers themselves is so much juvenile profanity.