here's the original video that sparked the discussion:

and here's his response:

No, I don't think hip hop can be solely to blame for the portrayal of the "black community". I think it is a large melting pot of reasons. A lot of it is ignorance, conditioning to an ignorant form of living, and a lot of it is being pressured by our societal standards into fitting these stereotypes which have already been painted, even before hip hop music came out. I understand that many people from the black community try to live up to certain expectations which these "role model thugs" set, and it can cause a lot of problems, but where I live, I see just as many hispanics, asians, whites, etc. who do the same thing.

The only reason why it may seem like there are more black people falling into that cycle is because there is more focus on them, both from the media and from North American society in general. It truly is a societal problem. True "hip hop" at it's essence does ANYTHING BUT hurt the black community though, I mean you got public awareness speakers like KRS for just one example, who educate youth through hip hop, and it is also offers a multitide of recreational activities for the kids to partake in, in order to stay out of trouble. If anything, true hip hop actually does wonders for the black community. It educates them, opens up their minds, breaks down the barriers of ignorance they have, and self empowers them. I think no matter what you will have stupid human beings buying in to the life style of commercialism, money cars and naked, make up caked 13 year olds, but we can' t just blame it on the black community. every human being is to blame, but unfortunatly in our society, we tend to make it a "black problem" and put the focus on them.. If anything, the commercialized rap is hurting all communities, as it only seperates instead of teaching us all to live in harmony. But true conscious hip hop? No way is that hurting any community. It may still have the same stigmas and stereotypes attached to it in the eyes of somebody ignorant, but it works wonders when attempting to educate somebody, and education is a good thing for the most part.

I think before we blame rap, we must blame the social conditions around these communities that we have all created through out history, and blame the human response to a hostile environment, conditioning, and societal pressure to live up to or fit certain stereotypes. Of course, Solja Boy saying "supa man that ho" through the radio into a bunch of impressionable youths ear drums won't help, but then again, I don't hear the radio stations putting on Public Enemy records and spreading awareness either, yet black communities are still labelled as being like the very same Solja Boy? The more I think of it, it seems like the bloody elite rulers of the 2 countries WANT the black community to be portrayed like this. Just another manipulative propagandaist tactic to take the focus off of how crappy our country is run, how they go to war and kill kids for oil and resources, how they get richer and the majority gets poorer. It's almost like they created this "enemy" which is the "commercial rap fueled black community" to channel the rest of societies anger, fear and doubt away from there hands, so they can continue sitting back getting rich and doing nothing to truly prevent this social deprevation. And plus, you give a man a dollar and he wants a million, so it's almost like a vicious cycle now this consumerist commercialized way of life....

At the end of the day though, true hip hop music is a message. A very powerful weapon which can be, and is often used to shed light on these very attrocities, and so I rest my rant with my answer that true hip hop, regardless how it is portrayed, is probably one of the most effective tools the "Black community" or any community for that matter really has, and does the opposite of truly hurting them, regardless of how they are portrayed. Mainstream commercial crap? Don't just blame the black people, every race/ethnic group plays a role, and many people from each group do the opposite. Blame the treacherous and lie infused foundation in which our countries have "grown" from. Blame the greed inside a human beings heart. Do not blame a skin colour.