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So people are discovering black Americans don't all hold the same opinion on social & cultural questions? That not all of them like Hip-Hop/Rap for whatever reason? That all sorts of social divisions exist within 'black America'?
Many black Americans are socially conservative & practising Christians on some level. So it's not a surprise they will take issue with the libertinism of hip-hop & think it has harmful effects on black life. Of course they would, morally & ideologically.
Most 'black leaders' have criticised hip-hop for the usual charges: glamorising violence, promoting crass materialism over 'spiritual' concerns, nihilism, moral corruption, anti-intellectualism, 'objectifying' women, reinforcing bad 'lumpen' stereotypes of blacks etc
This has a history. Here is MLK criticising rock & roll for plunging "men's minds into degrading and immoral depths". He was a deeply devout Christian preacher so this doesn't surprise me. Most religious preachers were against rock & roll.
So @thomaschattwill is hardly a fringe deranged "contrarian" for writing a book that contains critiques of hip-hop culture. I'm sure you will find a good number of black Americans who will be sympathetic to his arguments on some level. As well as others who would oppose him.
Now, I know virtually nothing about his memoir so I can't judge or say anything about it. Though *I think* he takes a slightly different path than the usual conservative critiques of hip-hop.
Anyways, I don't subscribe to these criticisms of hip-hop or the moral panic that tend to surround it. Or a similar one with drill music & knife crime here in UK. But I always detect BS in these debates that skims over inconvenient schisms that exist in the 'black community'.
Then there's the double standards those who will pushback against moral panics against hip-hop for its supposed "harmful effects". But launch incandescent tirades against other cultural products for its supposed harmful effects.
