MF GALAXY

I appreciated Sister Moody's article below, which is a helpful articulation of ma ny of the internal reasons why hip hop is in decline. I wish she also would have addre ss ed the deep er problem, the cause: the super rich elites who control the production, distribution and radio/video play of pop music in North America, the same people who bought out the small lab els when political hip hop was in its ascendan cy, the same people who replaced conscious hip hop and its aesthetics with gangsta and then playa rap. Nekesa Mumbi Moody writes (April 9, 2007) for the Associated Press, saying: "NEW YORK -- Maybe it was the umpteenth coke-dealing anthem or soft-porn music video. Perhaps it was the preening antics that some call reminiscent of Stepin Fetchit. "The turning point is hard to tap. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now dealing with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about rap culture's negative effect on society. ...