Hip-hop music and culture has been taking a nasty beating in the wider culture in recent weeks, and David Hinckley says that all the brouhaha shows that the critics don’t understand the genre, and aren’t even trying to. “Much of the criticism indicts all rappers and further carries the insulting implication that rap fans take nothing from the music except swaggering self-promotion, derogatory slaps at women and verbal violence… From the ancient Greeks up through opera, folk songs, detective novels and television, entertainment media have focused on excess, that is, behavior beyond normal standards, as a way of making a point. Audiences get this. Rap audiences get this. If violent lyrics really had the direct impact its critics warn about, America’s streets would be knee-deep in dead rap fans.”