Is rap music here to stay?

Jet, August 17, 1998

Two decades ago when rap was born, any wondered if it had a future. Today, tens of millions of record sales later, surprisingly, some still wonder, Is rap music here to stay?

"Rap is in its 20th year of recorded music. It's already been around," quips Chuck D. of Public Enemy, one of the few successful rap groups to make Black awareness popular in the hip hop community. "Black people are still wondering about it and everyone else knows about it. Once again, we're three steps behind."

Chuck D. says rap will be here because of Whites. "We're letting rap get away and that's a travesty. We come up with so many negative responses that it allows others to come in and take control. Whenever you create something in your own environment and don't control it, it can be used against you. Rap is here to stay unfortunately because Whites control it. It should be a sign to those of us intelligent enough to see the aspects of this world-respected art form."

Russell Simmons, hip hop's first millionaire entrepreneur who is chairman and CEO of Rush Communications, which includes the pioneering rap label Def Jam, says the resistance that rap has met, and continues to meet, keeps it alive.

Many of the people who have fought so strongly to get rid of rap, "have actually given it another stronghold," explains the self-proclaimed grandfather of hip hop. "What keeps reaffirming its position in terms of importance is the fact that the established quo keeps fighting the music and trying to force it back. Kids like that. The creative aggravation that the mainstream puts on them and the limitations, the censorship and things that they have to fight to make the statements they want to make, that fact gives it its credibility and strength."