When will rap music be less mainstream?

Rap and hip hop have roots in funk. I love funk. I enjoy rap and hop also. I agree with Bongo - lots of great stuff out there! My favorite BEP numbers are not the hits you hear on the radio.

The BEP cover (sampling) of James Brown's "Mind Power" is awesome
They don't want music. This is proof that rap is not a new horrible sound but an evolution, with highly distinguished roots: think of it as an evolution of Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock, James Brown, Maceo Parker etc.

The drums on this track is courtesy of the incomparable genius of John Jabo Starks!

Bongo-Furious, didn't mean to get in your pocket. Obviously from your very selective response you must deal with these people everyday. If you are/were involved in any of those "songs" you mention with Pdiddy/Mac/Combs/Daddy, I'm sorry you've obviously lost whatever musical talent you once possesed.

My point, which you in no way addressed, was that the statement Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin among others didn't acknowledge his/their predecessors was WAY off the mark, and I stand by that.

Be it Johnny Lee Hooker, Lead Belly, Koko Taylor, I had and have heard from many of those great rock bands and acts that these great blues artists were their influences.

Also, your dead wrong on current musical tastes too. You obviously don't see all of teenagers I do combing through record stores looking for 20+ year old music, and downloading all sorts of songs from my youth, that's why new music sales are way down. At least that what the Wall Street Journal, and many of the mainstream media outlets say. We never checked out old music as teenagers, we only were interested in new music, admittedly some of it sucked, but we wanted to be on the cutting edge. Current kids do that because what is shoved down their throats by the music biz now, which you seem to be in by your admission is currently clueless as to who is buying music.

To me you sound ignorant, myopic and clueless, and I mean that in the best way. If you really are in the music business and have been for 30 yrs you are probably part of the problem. Get out now and let some kids come in, you don't know what you are talking about.

How many die-hard "hip-hop" bashers here have never heard the DJ Shadow album Endtroducing?

And didn't Willie Dixon sue Zep for them totally ripping him off without giving him credit?

He actually sued them over "Whole Lotta Love" and they settled it with him as soon as they found out about the suit, it was in the late 1980's. The reason it never went to court was their respect for him, and also the fact that the song does sound extremely similar to one of his songs from the early '50's which I can't remember the title of, but the opening riffs did sound incredibly similar to the bridge of Wille's song.

This is one of the incidents that I remember from Led Zep talking about thier influences because I saw an interview with Jimmy Page talking about the incident and his admiration for all of the Chess regards group, with special attention to Willie Dixon and Johnny Lee Hooker (was he at Chess?).