Notes on Hip Hop

Patrick Neate, who wrote an award-winning book about hip hop, has posted a long, thoughtful piece (long by blogging standards) about "breaking up" with the genre:

I still write about hip hop occasionally. Once, I used to write about it in small independent magazines for love and armfuls of free vinyl. Now, I write about it for broadsheet newspapers for money. I don't feel great about this. These newspapers aren't actually interested in hip hop culture, they just want to be authentic/ down/ real and the fact that I'm as authentic/ down/ real as they dare to trust tells you all you need to know.

Read the whole thing.