8. Hip-hop
Clint Eastwood once said that there are 'only two genuine American art forms - Jazz and The Western'. Clint has always been cool in films, but he would surely agree that there are now three. The fastest evolving form of music ever, Hip-hop is here to stay. So, so many classic cuts, Djs, MCs and labels have contributed to its meteoric rise that it's impossible to even begin to mention all the key players here. Aside from the music, Hip-hop's ascendant lifestyle and swerve, are pretty much taking over in many modern youth cultures. At it's best it's a unifying force for all to share, irrespective of our colour or location. There is nothing else like when a DJ drops that really big Hip-hop tune to a capacity club. The production values at work today, mean that you never know what'll come next (see Missy Elliot). Groundbreaking, exciting and positive, Hip-hop has the power to lift us up. On the flipside, like any multi million dollar business, Hip-hop has its opportunist mercenaries. So called 'gangsta' rappers are reinforcing every negative stereotype that Dr. King died fighting. Whole genres of acts are basing their careers on the glorification of drugs, personal wealth, violence and the disrespect of women. These buffoons suck bigtime, so we stand firm and don't play any of that kinda 'crack/gun/bitch/Bentley' nonsense in our club. They call it 'Keeping it real ?' - We call it 'Keeping it real slavery'. We'll take the Old Skool jamms and the new stuff that's positive and rocks, thank you very much.

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