“The problem with hip-hop is that it holds up a magnifying glass to the most dysfunctional parts of the ghetto, and African Americans’ complete lack of a chance in life. They inherit hopelessness. The hopelessness that’s forged into the bricks and concrete of the ghetto, that drips down the facades of the buildings, impregnating everything and everyone that lives there. Even the grass is browner in the ghetto. People ought to tell the stories of what African Americans have managed to accomplish despite slavery.”
