The sound of a single gunshot echoes from a black BMW, followed by screams, skidding tires and sirens. Music is one thing, but this is business.
Never has an industry been so clouded by the events that surround it. As is the extent of the situation, it would be possible to fill this fifteen-hundred word article solely with names of the victims that lost there life to the violence of this culture; the ones that, over the years, have died from gang, drug and race affiliated attacks in connection with the hip hop industry. .
It is easy to use individual examples of hostility to generalise Hip Hop to this inaccurate stereotype; however it is important to understand that as an industry it is moving forward. The so called "Hip Hop" culture is a self expanding one. Influences from other music are there in small amounts, but Hip Hop in general expands internally. Tomorrow it will be a completely different thing to what it is today. Meaning it is very inaccurate that it is labelled with this stereotype, the stereotype that's been extended from a very violent era.
And yes; the era was violent, from the introduction of gangster rap through "Rakim Allah" in the late eighties, right through to the infamous East coast vs. West coast feud which ended in 1996, taking with it the lives of the Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur, two of the most influential people in music. Hip Hop in-between these years was laced with hostility, from the "Old Dirty Bastard" serving eight years for assault, the relatively unheard of; Tony "50 Cent" Banks shootings and the extremely controversial court decision finding Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs innocent on gun charges despite overwhelming evidence against him. This era was so notoriously violent that the stereotypical gangster image born in nineteen-eighty-eight and all but died out several years later has lasted to this day and is likely to haunt the industry forever. .
It is unfortunate however; that this article comes at the very contradictory time following the event that Jam Master Jay of Run DMC, a group notorious for bringing Hip Hop out of the shiny jumpsuit look and into a casual, streetwise one was shot dead in a New York recording studio.