In 1990, hip-hop music was the genre of music that was growing the fastest in popularity. At this point in hip-hop history, the music was very positive as it taught Black people to have pride in themselves and their race. It also taught the White kids who were the music's fastest growing audience to respect Black people as human beings and as their equals. Of course, this was something White America was absolutely was not going to stand for so they came up with a plan. First they had to create an alternative music movement to "save their children" from "that jungle music". The music industry found a few bands in Seattle, signed them to recording deals, put them on MTV, and voila! Grunge was born. A savior for rock music, which was fast losing its audience at the time, was created in these bands.
Now to finish the job they needed to find a way to stop Black audiences from listening to those positive messages as well. Thus began the era of gangsta rap and sleaze R & B with their endorsement and glorification of Black-on-Black violence and crime, demeaning names for Black women, and in the case of certain R & B acts, endorsement of violent sexual acts bordering on rape. These new acts quickly eclipsed the conscientious rap acts in popularity with not only Black audiences but White audiences as well with disastrous consequences. For Black people it meant all attempts to use hip-hop to achieve Black unity ended and insured that Black people would see very little progress in civil rights and economic empowerment from then on. This also created new stereotypes of Black people that racist Whites, Uncle Toms, and Aunt Jemimas could use against them. Whereas back in the day it used to be fried chicken and watermelon, it was replaced with 40 ounces and blunts. White people accepted these stereotypes wholesale and as a result, there was a resurgence of Black hatred and disrespect from all races; even other Black people. These stereotypes last to this day, culminating in the movie "Soul Plane".
Even worse was the rest of the country's answer to West Coast gangsta rap. From all over New York City, rappers posed as Mafia members and Latin American drug lords. Some of them even took Spanish and Italian names for street names, therefore imposing the slavemaster's names on himself. Afterwards, the South and the Midwest produced rappers with names and images just as degrading and ridculous. Dressing like pimps and getting their teeth plated whth gold, these rappers rose to popularity in the late 1990's. Their philosophy of green (money) before Black is a very dangerous philosophy in these times. To them if you don't make a lot of money, drink Cristal champagne, drive a luxury car or SUV, live in a mansion, or wear lots of gold and/or diamonds (bling-bling) you're a "scrub" not worthy to even be alive. They don't even have enough race pride to give back to the neighborhoods they came from. This philosophy is just another version of what's known as Social Darwinism, no different from what right-wing, racist, Republican, neoconservative(Neo-Nazi) White people believe.
This year, the music industry has repackaged some of the more famous of these Uncle Tom and Aunt Jemima artists to make them appear to be socially conscious. They tell you to wear a condom to fight AIDS and to register to vote, all the while making music, some of the most popular in the world, that glorifies unmarried, rough sex, Black-on-Black violence, and runaway materialism. While the music industry is undoubtedly controlled by Whites and Jews, Black record labels promote the same garbage instead of providing an alternative voice. It's up to these Black record labels to show some love, honor, dignity, and respect for their race and improve the quality of Black music. If they do, then maybe this will eventually lead to a better quality of life for Black people as well.