From its origin with African American and Puerto Rican influences hip hop has now gained popularity all over the world both musically and as a culture. 75% of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. Hip Hop has made the transition from the backstreets to media corporations and advertising campaigns such as McDonalds, Coca Cola and Nike.  The music and film industry discovered this music form helped by artists such as Run DMC and Beastie Boys. Krush Groove was a very popular movie about the life of rap music. Warner Bros earned over 17 million dollars worldwide from sales. Today hip hop continues to have a very strong media presence. People are very interested in this culture and the music that stemmed from it.  Street slang and language is transmitted through rap music e.g. a Chinese hip hopper will use the same slang as the African-American hip hopper. Hip hop appears to cross national, linguistic and cultural borders. [Read more...]