....and the tried and true, sure-fire method to crush any threat to the established political order is to welcome it into the capitalist fold. Beads, bells, Flower Power and peace symbols connoted solidarity, unity, and general disillusionment with the status quo before being repackaged and marketed to the masses as a fashion statement. Once the money started rolling in, the ideals of a socio-cultural revolution were called into question as fat cats got fatter. Rappers are literally beating us over the head with messages that the situation for young urban blacks in the inner city is getting critical, but tennis shoe companies, the makers of warm-up jackets, soda-pop manufacturers, and some of the rappers themselves have subsumed those apocalyptic visions in pursuit of greenbacks.

Neil Lowe