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When Hip Hop first came on the scene it was mainly recognized for it’s creative artistry. It also became a way for African Americans to express their views on the the social and political happenings of the time. Hip Hop can be fun, informative, expressive, and socially conscious at it’s best. It can also be ignorant, threatening, and misleading in some instances. Can this form of expression be the same thing that is holding us back today? Read more and tell us what you think.

VIA NEWSONE

Author Thomas Chatterton Williams, has book, “Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture,” out where he claimed that hip-hop music is detrimental to African-Americans. Here was interviewed by Angel Woodall for the Oakland Tribune, here are some excerpts:

The stakes are higher, he said, because racism and now hip-hop have limited what it means to be black by insisting on one measure: street culture as embodied by Biggie Smalls and Jay-Z.

Jay-Z, who once rapped, “I dumb down my lyrics to double my dollars,” is one form of blackness, Williams said. “But why does he set the tone for black culture today? It’s tragic.”

The irony is that young men have a better chance of being like President Barack Obama than a rap star, Williams said. From Oakland to New Jersey, they will READ MORE