Affect Quote by will.i.am

What's happening right now in the Hip Hop industry is that it is deeply affected by the general economy of America.

— RZA

The biggest thing that has happened to hip-hop is the clinging on to the corporation as the all-mighty hub of the music.

— Chuck D

Hip-hop is supposed to uplift and create, to educate people on a larger level and to make a change.

— Doug E. Fresh

Hip-hop is just bombarded with a lot of materialistic stuff. When a group like us with more creativity comes out, I think it will…

— apl.de.ap

Hip-Hop's cultural movement is much larger than the corporate representation. The images most of hip-hop's critics point to are those manufactured by major corporations…

— Bakari Kitwana

Critics are always complaining about the materialism of hip-hop and accusing the artists of living way above their means. But this ostentatious sort of…

— Simon de Pury

Hip-hop is such a disposable art form from a business standpoint. It never treats its artists as art; it never treats its product as…

— Questlove

Hip hop is a multi-billion dollar business, and it was built off an opportunity that nobody else saw because they didn't understand the culture.

— Troy Carter

Hip Hop has become real constrained. The creative juices and creative flows have been diminished.

— Grandmaster Flash

What's wrong with hip-hop [is that] it became so one-dimensional; it became like a businessman thing. It's run out of creativity. It went so…

— M.I.A

Hip-hop basically controls the world through fashion, through music, through language, through culture. It's basically running the world, no matter what anyone wants to…

— Prodigy

I see hip-hop as going in a self-managing place. It's very culturally controlled and artist-controlled. It's not really based on a label anymore. Everything…

— Travis Scott