World hip-hop questions US rap

BBC NEWS : "A recent international hip-hop festival which brought together rap artists from around the world has raised the question of why non-US rap is so political - whereas mainstream American rap appears frivolous. Many of the performers at the three-day Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival in Hartford, Connecticut, were critical of the way that US rap - which is by far the best-selling - appears concerned mostly with money, drugs and sex, and has little to do with its roots in the angry political expression of groups like Public Enemy or KRS One. 'There's this negative perception of hip-hop as being a criminal artform, as being the home of the uneducated and non-thinking people,' said Nigerian MC Oke. 'When you go across the continents of the Earth, people are embracing hip-hop as the force to change and transform the world.' "They don't really want to hear about your opposition to George Bush - they'd much rather hear about what you want to do with George Bush's wife," she said."