Has social responsibility fallen on def ears?

In Bakari Kitwana's essay "The Challenge of Rap Music" we are faced with the juxtaposition of the new voice of the urban black male in the form of hip-hop, with the former voice of empowerment, which was the civil rights movement of their parents. Kitwana analyzes the change in mind set between these generations of black men, especially in the context of its influence on popular culture.
At the beginning of his essay Kitwana poses a few questions: "What was the price of this remarkable breakthrough in the visibility of young Blacks in the mainstream culture?" Kitwana further asks, "... had the growing visibility of young Black entertainers further marginalized young Black intellectuals and writers, who have remained nearly invisible?" These questions are posed because it's widely known that hip-hop and rap music continues to portray the young black urban male in a light that is more criminal than upstanding. Although the mediums of hip-hop and rap gives the young black male a place to be heard in the popular culture Kitwana asks us at what price does this recognition come? As the civil rights movement tried to create the image that black men and women are equals to all races, we see that hip-hop and rap furthered an image that was challenging social norms at best and down right criminal at worse. Has hip-hop and rap then created a positive or negative forum for the black community?
A focus of the essay was the Hip-Hop Summit of 2001 hosted by Russell Simmons. Kitwana speaks of the summit as a plea for social responsibility within the black community. As hip-hop and rap became more mainstream and commercialized it was recognized that black leaders, such as Simmons, needed to guide hip-hop in a direction that recognized the struggle of the urban black male, but at the same time, used their forum to bring the community up from its oppression ie the surge in incarceration of black youth and the poverty within the community. Kitwana critiques the summit as being an invitation only affair. In the end the people that profited from the commercial success of hip-hop argued for a stance that allowed hip-hop to be able to continue 'business as usual'.
Although this sounds like a bleak end to the black leaderships attempt to change hip-hop into a vehicle of social stewardship, it must also be noted that from within the ranks of commercially successful hip-hop artists came efforts to take issue with social injustices that the black community faced. Their were benefit concerts held for a variety of issues, and lyrics written to bring specific events viewed as an affront to the black community to light (Mumia Abu-Jamal).
In the end we need to look at the reality of why hip-hop even has a voice in the mainstream media. They provide a product, that being urban black music. This product has to be in step with what the consumer expects and desires. As the plight of the urban black male gained more media attention, it was acceptable to incorporate this message into the music. It became a message that many consumers wanted to hear and expected from their artists. In the end, it wasn't Simmons summit that enacted change in hip-hop. It was the artists as individuals becoming engaged with a socially responsible world view that echoed black culture at the street level. As artists like KRS-One and Arrested Development brought the message to the masses, the idea of being socially responsible snowballed to being a voice that was not only contrary to the voice of the criminal black urban male, but indeed, challenged it commercially. In the end, it seems, this is what's most important. After all, what good is a message if it falls on def ears?

Looptroop "The Struggle Continues"
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Arrested Development "Tennessee"
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