MONEY MAKING HIP-HOP OWES DEBT TO CIVIL RIGHTS ACT
By Edward Peeks

It’s a blessing or a curse, for better or worse, depending on who’s looking and talking about hip-hop music in state and nation.

For one thing, African-Americans figure big in the making and spending on all things hip-hop. Youths in particular spend a chunk of the billions of black wealth touted by the likes of Charleston native Tony Brown of “Tony Brown’s Journal” on PBS.

For another thing, I say, hip-hop is deeply indebted to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, whose 40th anniversary is remembered this month by some Americans, but the law has benefited most beyond hip-hop.

It reaffirms basic American values of equality and achievement. Although equality may be less evident, no doubt about it, achievement stands out in hip-hop among makers and consumers of all races, classes and creeds.

Business Week Magazine took note last year in a cover story on “The CEO of Hip-Hop,” describing African-American Russell Simmons as “the guru of urban style.” The article looked at fashion and facets of the hip-hop movement.

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