[smokingrobot]

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i think the distinction is this:

hip hop culture

rap music.

account on stars: homeydontplaythatJ7off

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Yeah I know what he was getting at. But basically the whole concept of a hip hop culture is pretty absurd as well. It was a term coined by Afrika Bambatta that was largely largely viewed as retarded for over a decade, until corporations starting tapping into this idea of an artificial pseudo-culture in order to sell people shoes and hamburgers and whatever else. Oh yeah, and so people can call themselves 'hip hop historian's and find a niche to make a dollar. Culture isn't something you artificially construct, it organically develops and manifests itself.

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while i dont think its the authority, have you read Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop?

I think it addresses the idea of a culture being created. If anything, its american culture, just as much as jazz is part of american culture.

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I know the book you talk about but haven't read it. Does he agree or disagree with me?

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i'd say up until the point that "hip hop" was coined only as some sort of corporate maneuver. the different 'elements' (i always feel silly saying that) of the all inclusive were not always part of some unified whole, but came out of, according to change, political/social events that drastically changed the lives of the middle and lower class in new york city.

in other words, it was the result of turmoil that these things came together, bambaata coined the term, but the events were still already going on.