What does Hip Hop mean to you and as African Americans do you feel like we lost our voice and control of a culture we created?

First ,let me start off by saying I AM PROUD TO BE A BLACK MAN because I have the blood of a race that started a culture that did not just take the black community by storm but the whole world. This culture is HIP HOP. Hip Hop has traveled a long and rocky road; she has seen good times, bad times and the birth and death of the stars who contributed to her growth. Hip Hop has allowed the mute to be unmated, the poor to be rich, and gave hope to the hopeless. WOW! Hip Hop to me is the voice of the African American community being a positive or a negative message. A lot of people blame Hip Hop for the bad things that happen in the African American community being; drugs, gang violets, the high percentage of black males in jails, young teenage girl having babies, and for the high dropout rate of African Americans high school students. That is a bunch of crap! Hip Hop is an outlet for an artist or group to be heard, it is not the source of the message and as we know there are good artists/groups and bad artists/groups. A good artist or group to me is the ones that can mentor, educate and entertain through their music. When there are rappers that talk about their struggles, their brush with crime, and how they made it out the hood, and how they turned their life around, you have to respect that message regardless how hard it comes across. It is hard to respect rappers that got big money deals and went platinum and are still talking about that same life they came from and the ones that are not living the life they are rapping about. My problem with a lot of the rappers are; they glorify the things that are hurting the African America community; doing drugs, going to jail, sleeping with multiple partners and killing if someone cross them wrong way. It’s not Hip Hop causing the problem; it’s some of the messagers using the vehicle, outlet, and platform call Hip Hop that’s causing the problems. Now, do not get it twisted some of the music I’m talking about only accounts for 3% of the problems in our community and parents not being parents to their children accounts for the other 97% of the problems. That is a whole new BLOG. Let’s talk about the business of Hip Hop which is mostly controlled by white America. All the major record labels that manufacture and distribute the product of our culture are all owned by white businessmen and the pressing plants are owned by white businessmen. Now let’s look at the media outlets; radio and TV they are 95% owned by white businessmen. African Americans do not control Hip Hop and if the community does not come together soon, it will get worse and not just for the music industry; film, fashion and art too.