THE RAP PHENOMENON: BREAKING AWAY OR HERE TO STAY?

The idea of a street culture growing into a mass phenomenon is one of the enduring myths associated with popular music. In the '60s, observers of rock music spoke of a quality they labeled "street credibility," a cachet of hipness earned by the right connections to the emerging youth culture.

Black popular music, in its origins, is the very embodiment of street credibility. Bluesmen and the R&B pioneers on the road house circuit had no choice but to "pay their dues" and their music kept its connections to, its roots in, a community.

As the '60s progressed, rock music came to be seen by critics and fans more and more as an art form charged with the burden of carrying messages, of standing for certain shared values.

At the same time, black popular music began to be dominated by the Motown style. This was music far removed with its gritty R&B origins, a slick music that was obviously commercial in purpose, offering entertainment for its own sake.