Rap doesn't belong to a race here either. In fact NOTHING other than skin color belongs to a race.
Culture and Race are very different things. :) Culture can be adopted by anyone. Sure cultures often have people of specific races/traits that are more common but that doesn't mean that race/trait owns that idea/culture. It simply means it is more dominant in that demographic.
Yet culture can be adopted by anyone. Though I also think it is the cultures that end up being where the problems are and often get blamed on race.
We can change cultures. We can fix that.
When we blame it on race though we are picking an evil path because we shouldn't be blaming it on immutable characteristics. That is the path to dehumanization.
Sadly that is often what is being done.
Rap / Hip-Hop often embraced a thuggish culture. Yet they don't have to and not everyone that is a fan of such things decides to be a thug. There are artists in that genre of music that are not thuggish. It simply is that up to a point the thugs in the genre were the most popular. That seems to be changing.
Yeah, Hip-Hop got really annoying at some point but that seems to change. Some of the good German Hip Hoppers also became House artist and I am not even sure if you can call Deichkind even Rap at this point, it is part of their music but it is more Electro than anything else.
I have never been a fan of Rap. I was around and way into music when it first hit the scene. I do however, think Tom MacDonald is pretty bad ass and brave. I am also thrilled to see him doing so well without a label. It is all done by himself and his girlfriend Nova. EDIT: I do appreciate rap battles where they have to come up with it on the spot in response to some input. That can be impressive.