A bigger point of contention was the fact that these Top 40 stations were still able to maintain their classification and status as CHR/Top40 even though they were playing mostly urban music. This was significant because it meant that these Top 40 stations could demand a higher advertising dollar from ad agencies while playing the same music as their urban counterparts. Also having a CHR classification meant they got to deal with the 'pop' departments of major record labels where there was a lot more money and economic resources put into promotions and other activities surrounding an artist. The urban station could only interact with the urban or Black music departments of a label which were often under funded.

The Black programmers kept pushing the industry trade execs to change the classification of these Top 40 stations that were playing urban music. They refused to do it and what resulted was a new classification for the pop stations called 'Churban [crosssover urban] '. This still rubbed the Black PDs the wrong way because it still left the nagging implication that if a Black station played rap it was bad news and all the negative stereotypes of violence were attached to it. When the pop stations played rap it was viewed as trend setting and cutting edge. It wasn't long before Top 40 stations were pushing the envelop by adapting slogans like 'Being Down with the Streets' to reflect their urban appeal. A few years later they would actually include the words Hip Hop in their monikers. For an urban station to do that would've been the financial kiss of death. Meanwhile stations like KMEL and later Hot 97 would go on for years to be voted as the Best Hip Hop stations in the nation according to the Gavin Report which set the standard for the industry, throughout the 1990s. Many of the urban stations eventually moved on to embrace adult formats like Quiet Storm, or Urban Adult Contemporary so they could keep theirself financially afloat.

During this spirited debate at the Gavin panel, the CHR/Top 40 programmers took the approach that they were only playing what was popular and blamed the urban programmers for not following suit. They pointed out that many of the urban programmers had missed the boat by not aggressively pursuing and embracing the rap music genre that was popular with the the youth. I recall one Top 40 PD bluntly saying: 'We are simply playing the music your kids are requesting- Don't get mad at us...

They dismissed the financial concerns of the urban PDs by stating that they too had financial woes of their own and that they too had some explaining to do to advertisers once they started playing Rap. However, none of those stations were willing to give up their CHR/Top 40 classifications and change over to Urban. This was viewed by the Black PDs as them not only having a considerable edge up but also being dishonest. I likened that debate to what has been going on with certain Alternative Rock stations around the country that say they say they Do Not Play Rap but then will turn around and play the Beastie Boys or Eminem. They won't touch any other rap group even if they have a more rock oriented sound. So a white rapper like Eminem will get played while a group like Michael Franti and Spearhead will not. The Top 40 PDs stated they weren't urban because they played dance music and were trying to appeal to a 'wider' translation [whiter] demographic.

It's important to know this recent history because it allows you to better understand why the racial climate in the music biz is what it is today. What this boiled down to was really three groups of people who are circling around this thing called Hip Hop for very different reasons. They include major corporations, The Hip Hop community and the general public.

To break it down simply, you have corporations that want to appeal to a white mainstream audience [general public] and make money. They see Hip Hop as a way to do it, but up until recently felt they had to use Blacks and Latinos from the [Hip Hop Community] to 'keep it real' and authenticate their marketing efforts.

The general audience has grown to become dependent upon what is presented by these corporate media outlets. They tend to follow the lead and embrace the images they put forth in song and videos. After all, they are usually presented under the banner of being trend setting and hip. Hence if these images are responded too favorably then these media corporation will seek out artist or people who fit the bill. It doesn't matter if there are people doing the 'right thing' and trying to set good examples by being socially conscious or 'positive'opr if they are thugged out and acting buffoonish. There are corporate decision makers who scan the urban terrain and either red light or green light a project to be played and presented. They provide the media platform for folks to do their thing. If the general public believes that all rappers drink Crystal and use the 'N' word, then these corporate decision makers will find an artist who fits the bill and heavily promote them.

Keep in mind one of the most successful tried and true marketing themes is sex and violence. Controversy sells. Sex sells. It makes money. Is it by design that in 2003 we have all these corporate owned radio stations that seem to uniformly push music on the masses that echo these themes? We must also keep in mind that nowadays the audience that is being targeted is an audience that believe that has come to embrace and react favorably to certain types of images

In radio ratings are broken down on the basis of race, with Asians being counted as whites. Generation X [read: whites with an emphasis on females] between the ages of 18-34 are the most desired target for many advertisers. This is followed by men [translation white men] 25-54 and teens [white teens]. In many places where you have an exploding Latin population, there's a high value placed on attracting that audience. When it comes to dealing with the Black community the desired target are older African American women. Black males who are last on the totem pole and are hardly ever seen as a desired target audience in radio.

How all this relates to Hip Hop is that in 2003 you have a genre of music that was born in the harshest ghettos outselling any other music and now attracting the desired Holy Grail for corporate advertisers white folks 18-34 [translation: Generation X]. This means that everything that is done in most mainstream media outlets will be done with that the goal of reaching that audience. If it means putting a popular icon like Eminem on a magazine cover or telling the world he's on the short list for Time Magazine's Person of the Year, then it will be done. It has nothing to do with how dope a lyricist he is or how good a singer...It has everything to do with what type of audience he attracts.

If advertiser or radio stations think a Black face wearing lots of platinum on his teeth can attract their white audience they will use it. However, if they can replace that Black or Brown face with a white face and get the same or better results they will do so in a heart beat.

Now that popular white artists like Eminem or even an 'urbanized' Justin Timberlake are on the scene, corporations see a better marketing tool. They no longer have to deal with those Black and Brown faces to attract a desired audience people to a radio station or TV show. It's all about the money and keeping the corporate advertisers happy and comfortable by attracting their target audience.

I can recall countless incidents where high profile, high paying clients who wanted to use the station to attract a hip, diverse, urban audience [translation white:] They would drop lots of money on the table for a station promotion and it was understood that in order for the station to attract that targeted audience that a white deejay with urban appeal would be used.

It was only when the divisive politics and practices of the music industry and big business came into play that the Hip Hop community started to experience these 'growing pains' around the issue of race. Because many of us within Hip Hop have not really studied this country's racial history above and beyond the obvious [slavery, Jim Crow etc] or been exposed to the many covert ways rascism is manifested, we didn't realize when we were being used, our images and talent being exploited or us just being victimized until we started to look up and saw an uneven playing field in a business where race does indeed matter.

It was usually hard to see these polarizing tactics because often times Black and Latino faces were used to create the illusion of authenticity and inclusiveness. We would be the front men while the marketing and imaging and purse strings were being controlled by whites who who remained hidden in the shadows in many cases have a completely different agenda. You could see how this was subtly done in the movie Brown Sugar when they depicted a Black woman as being the head person in charge at Hot 97 who was turning down Mos Def music when in reality its a white woman named Tracey Chlorety. It left the impression that Black folks were really doing big things when in reality we weren't especially when it comes to controlling the mass marketing of our images.

I acknowledged that it was great to see all sorts of people engaged in the conversation..Black white, Asian, Latino, Native American. And it was great to see so many people passionate about this thing we called Hip Hop... I also cautioned folks that we should clearly understand history and that what we were doing that day was very dangerous.

I elaborated on my point about us being dangerous by noting that historically there have been serious attempts by people in power to keep people of different ethnicities divided and untrusting of one another. Divide and Conquer has long been a hallmark of America dating all the way back to slavery. It started when rich aristocrats who ran the plantation created division between African slaves and white indentured servants who worked side by side and for the most part actually got along.

In order to prevent any sort of unity which might result in a rebellion, the slavemasters manipulated things by telling the white indentured servants that although they were servants they were superior to the Black slaves who they described as less then human. To further hammer that point home, they granted these poor whites 'slaves' special privileges which gave the illusion of them being better than the Black slaves who were once potential allies against the oppressive aristocrats. This was one of the beginnings of ethnic divide and conquer.

Over the years this divide and conquer technique that has been refined and has been skillfully used by those in power who have an agenda to control and rule masses of people for both economic and social gain. Sometimes its used to divide rich and poor, men and women, young and old. But it seems like whenever the masses of people begin to build bridges and create a space where they can discover they actually have a lot in common and can build toward creating abetter world, something happens to knock us back and keep us at odds. This is especially true when it comes to building bridges along the lines of race. This happened in the 60s and 70s during the Civil Rights, Free Speech, Anti-War and Black Power Movements.

When Dr Martin Luther King attempted to merge the Civil Rights struggle to the masses of people who were kicking up dust about the war in Vietnam, he was roundly criticized. Folks who were in power at the highest echelons of government who had vigoriously supported King were repulsed by him reaching out to the anti-war movement...

Although Dr King foundly spoke about the need for Blacks and whites to come together it was when he actually made moves to serious reach out and involve poor whites who were under oppressive conditions [Poor People's March] that King got his strongest resistance. Just as King was getting ready to lead a huge March on Washington which included Blacks and poor whites he was assassinated.

When the Black Panther Party decided to hook up with the mostly white Free Speech and anti-war movements they found that the FBI program of cointelpro was intensified... It was later discovered through the Freedom of Information Acts that the US government had a program under director J Edgar Hoover to neutralize and discredit Black leaders and their respective organizations. They would use agent provocateurs, the press and key individuals and opposing organizations with an ax to grind or a long standing beef to carry out their plans of disruption. No one was immune from this insurgency program. Not the non violent Martin Luther King and not the militant Black Panther Party. There were similar measures in place to undermine and weaken the anti-war and free speech movements as well.

There are many who point out that Chicago BP leader Fred Hampton was killed by Chicago police because he was unifying people of all races. He had linked up the Black gangs with the Latino Gangs and had already broken bread and was building alliances with the mostly white Young Patriots.

Of course we know that it was after Malcolm X got back from Mecca and begin to to talk about building bridges with African Nations and that he was no longer advocating for separation of the races that he was murdered. Many think that while he was killed by other Black men, that the FBI's cointel program was behind the devisive climate that lead to him being killed.

It's important to note all this because as I pointed out at that conference if history is any indicator, than we should not be surprised if similar attempts aren't made to manipulate and divide Hip Hop especially along racial lines. The fact that Hip Hop has brought so many people together represents a potential threat to many in power who wish to maintain the status quo by keeping keep folks at odds.

I recognize that for many discussions about race are oftentimes uncomfortable and we are often urged to avoid it and sweep things under the rug. But this issue is not going to go away by us ignoring it and sweeping it under the rug... If there's any place where a heartfelt discussion about race relations should take place it should be within the Hip Hop community. We all know Hip Hop to be brutaly and oftentimes uncompromisingly honest. We also know the Hip Hop community to rise up and meet on new challenges head on...

So its in that spirit that I encourage folks to read these various essays that have popped up over the past couple of months.. Discuss them, debate them and build on them until we finally get over the hurdles are parents and grandparents never seemed to be bale to get over-Race.. Also keep in mind that there will be a lot of resistance for a variety of reasons for us not to get past the issue of race..Finally I urge us not to LISTEN and REFLECT on the various perspectives that people are offering up. ASK QUESTIONS for further clarity rather than write off and condemn folks for not being on the same page as you. Let's not simply sugar coat things when discussing Hip Hop and Race for the sake of 'making nice' and not hurting feelings... Hip Hop was always been upfront, abrasive and honest and in many ways it emerged because it was a reaction to a society that was not always forthright.

Lastly people have been bantering the question about Eminem and whether or not he's the new Elvis of Hip Hop. I say No. To me, Elvis came into the world of Rock-N-Roll and never really acknowledged where he got his influences from. he never hung out with the brothas and basically fronted like what he was doing was all his own creation. As Elvis grew older and more popular he seemed to put forth an image that suggested that he was detached and totally removed from the Black community and the Black music that he used to enthrall millions. I don't see Eminem that way.

They would go on and on and on about how great Larry Byrd was as if Julius Irving, Magic Johnson and everyone else did not exist. Sure they would give other people their props, but not if they were playing on the same court as Larry Byrd. Nor could they allow someone else to simply shine without comparing them to Byrd. This was annoying because basketball at that time for the most part was a game where cats from the hood could define themselves. It was their platform.

Because Larry Byrd was this iconic figure that could do no wrong in the media and as a result he became the scorn of a lot cats in the hood while simultaneously garnering throngs of enthusiastic fans-mostly white who now had someone running up and down the court who they could identify with. Byrd was the man you loved to hate but had to respect because there was no denying his skills. Game after game, he would come through and score baskets and his team would win more often than not.

Byrd maintained his own style of play... If you recall everyone in the NBA at that time was colorful. They were flashy. They personified the bling bling of their day. Byrd was the exact opposite. he wasn't as colorful, He wasn't as flashy, but he was always in the winners circle. If you step to him it didn't matter how flashy your were, there was good chance he was gonna serve you.. and serve you good. That's kind of how I see Eminem..

At the end of the day whether you like him or not Larry Byrd was someone who you had to give it up to. Em is someone you have to give it up to. He plays the game. He plays the game well and will be around for a while. But Em being who he is does not change the racial dynamics that are always at work in America. Let keep our eye on the prize and really direct our rage at the machine..