A new book accuses the hip-hop culture which is so dominant among African-Americans of “doing a better job of demeaning black people than the Ku Klux Klan ever did… [The author’s] main point is that by glorifying ‘gangsta’ and ‘playa’ lifestyles, most major label rap releases are stereotyping black Americans as sex-crazed simpletons prone to violence.” The book doesn’t argue against rap music in general, only against the “thug” image which drives the form in today’s corporate-dominated music industry. The book is winning slow and cautious support from some on the fringes of the hip-hop world, who claim that the form has been co-opted by gun-wielding thugs and pretend ‘pimps.’