Their main goal is to close it down, and I know that because they don't want a black hip hop bar in Lawrence. It's a racial issue.

While the patriarchal boys in hip-hop crew may talk about keeping it real, there has been no musical culture with black men at the forefront of its creation that has been steeped in the politics of fantasy and denial as the more popular strands of hip-hop.

Hip-hop is very commercial and is very open to commercial messages.

No one can identify the uninformed until they voice their ignorance about a topic. Silence is a fool’s best friend. Sadly, he is often too foolish to realize it.

For so-called conscious rappers, it is an opportunity to rap about ways to educate others about African American history, politics and even relationships: all of which would be missed if society merely focused on the “hook” and ignored the influence.

The business of hip hop is probably the most tangible example of the genre’s dramatic maturation.