It was good.

But white's were listening and living hip hop before it went mainstream... Usually not as rappers, but as DJ's, artists and bboys. You seem to only be discussing the music side of things, which is NOT hip hop, its rap. Rap wasn't soiled until like 10-20 years after hip hop's birth... Or even later. Run DMC was real, they didn't talk shit and they made money for it. And even cats in the 90's stayed real... Just cos gangsta rap is their style doesn't mean they're ruining hip hop, it's just another branch of rap... Nowadays rap is getting fucked on in the mainstream because people are just in it for money and are NOT real...

Hip hop as a culture started to lose its integrity when it got commercialised in the 80's by the media... TV shows, commercials, movies (like beat street and flashdance) caused an influx of dudes into the culture. The people who were real and original hip hop heads didn't like this abuse of their culture... Thus, hip hop branched into underground and mainstream... theres no black or white about it.

In that excerpt from your essay, it's like you're saying everything was all good until gangsta rap came along and ruined hip hop because it made white suburbanites wanna listen.... Gotta get ya facts straight n' shit.

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