Rapper Eminem’s movie “8-mile”has grossed the second highest first week ever for an R-rated movie. The movie’s success will inevitably expose more and more viewers to hip-hop music and hip-hop culture. This led by one of the genre’s most controversial, most mainstream and… most white artists. Once thought of as underground and street music, hip-hop is now played on rock stations, sold off the shelves in white suburbia, and now showcased in Hollywood. Has hip-hop lost its focus or is it living out the great American dream? Tonight, the current temperature of hip-hop.

Guests:

Adam Mansbach, Novelist, rapper and founder and editor of the former hip hop magazine “Elementary”

Smokey Fontaine, Former music editor for “The Source” and author of the new book “E.A.R.L: The Autobiography of Dmx”

Tricia Rose, Professor of American Studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz and author of “Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America”