For the next 26 year. I avoided rap music the way you step over a crack in the pavement. I heard it booming out of cars and alleyways from Paris to Abidjan. but I never listened. in doing so. I missed the most important cultural event in my lifetime. No american music has exploded across the world with such force sine swing jazz in the 1930. This defiant culture of song. graffiti, and dance, collectively known as hip-hop. has permeated almost every society