....For some critics, usually older and often black, such sentiments seem dangerously close to pathological, hymns to debauchery and justifications for thuggery. But the hip-hop generation recognizes them as anthems of purpose, manifestoes that describe their time and place the same way that Public Enemy's did. Most of all, these songs and their audiences say, we are survivors and we will never forget that. Survivors or amoral miscreants? That is the question, and as far as the audience goes, I'm not sure what "surviving" applies to the more than half of the hip-hop audience that is white and suburban. For them I'd say hard core rap's odes to a life of violent crime, drugs and casual sex is contrarian fantasy. But many fans, artists and those part of the business infrastructure, choose to live the lyrics. The fact that for many there is very little disconnect between life and art is the real concern of politicians and those who bash the art as dangerous; and add to that the inconvenient artistic concern that most of it is boring, derivative, and has nothing new or interesting to say.

Chang tries to link the virtues of "conscious" or "alternative" hip-hop, and neo-soul with hard core rap, but this is praising rotten apples for the virtues of oranges - no flipping way. He concludes by noting the irony in the unprecedented financial success and influence of hip-hop culture, while its "message" goes unheeded by the larger culture. But that's exactly the point: what "message"? If the message is that violence, crime, drugs, and indiscriminate sex are a cool way to live, then I wish the larger culture was ignoring it outright.