Introduction

“Rap forfeited whatever claim it may have had to particularity by acquiring a mainstream white audience whose taste increasingly determined the nature of the form. What white wanted was not music, but black music, which as result stopped really being neither.’’
- David Samuels

Corporate America’s influence on the hip-hop crossover into mainstream media is very significant. Since the merger of corporate America and hip hop, this genre has evolved from a predominately urban audience to having global appeal. Now media and entertainment such as pop music, film and fashion are among the major forces transmitting culture to this generation of black Americans (Kitwana, 2002). The Hip Hop Generation Corporations have exploited many artists by taking advantage of the black artist’s ability to produce and sell mainstream crossover music.