I remember Thomas Sowell's writing from college, I think he talked about if the black community got together they could drive out the deviant forces. I think thats what his point was. As for rap and hip hop, I'm not a huge fan but there is decent stuff out there like A Tribe Called Quest, and Q-Tip but there are parallels between rappers and jazzers, the MC Battles are like cutting contests, some of the same vocabulary is used, like "cat", "hip", "motherfucker", etc... and they live a fast life, think of Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard how they'd get similar sports cars, chase after the same women, and try to outblow themselves. It was a friendly rivalry there, but a similar machismo aspect to it.