Hip Hop, Enough, The Minstrel Show, Beyond the Beats

At this time in the course the class has been examining Hip Hop it's beginnings and it's current effect on the Black community here and throughout the world. We are working with a couple of different books as reference: ENOUGH written by Juan Williams and Dr. Raphael Heaggans' book 'The 21st Century Hip Hop Minstrel Show'.
Both books examine Hip Hop's history and influnce within the Black community. The class examines how Rap started out as a true reflection of the community incorporating elements of the civil rights movement with instrumental beats as a background.

According to Dr Heaggans, These five elements were the cornerstone of early Rap:
1) DJ'ing
2) Graffiti
3) B-boying and B-girling
4) MC'ing
5) Knowledge, culture and overstanding

We have to ask ourselves if these five elements the same today? Has Rap changed? We are now coming to the understanding that it certainly has changed. It has changed into Hip Hop. Just as Black culture has been co-opted by large corporations, Black music has been as well. The question is almost 'chicken-egg'. Which was the first to be commercialized? As seen in the video documentary studied in class, 'Hip Hop, Beyond the Beats and Rhymes', it would seem that the music has influenced the community . In this video we come to understand that violence, misogyny, homophobia, and commercialization are defining the new Hip Hop and that Gansta Rap has become the predominant form excluding all other forms of Rap. This creates an ever narrowing definition of the musical form and a degrading and self-defeating environment for young Black males and females.