Rock & Roll Meets Hip-Hop

Musicians gathered at the Waldorf=Astoria on March 12 to welcome five of their own into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 1960s girl group The Ronettes, 1970s punk icon Patti Smith, 1980s alternative pioneers R.E.M., and party rockers Van Halen were all honored at the ceremony ... but the real torchbearers of history were Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
This hip-hop group featured a disc jockey who revolutionized using the turntable as an instrument, cutting between records to create a new sound altogether. As for the five rappers, they set the standard for using rap music as social commentary with their 1982 classic "The Message." This song offered a searing portrait of life in the ghetto, which would be followed by the anti-drug anthem "White Lines" a year later. (Ironically, one of them -- Keith Wiggins, a.k.a. Cowboy -- would fall victim to the crack epidemic and die of an overdose in 1989.)
Critics once said hip-hop would be nothing more than a passing fad ... but, thanks to these six men, it had staying power that redefined how one looks at fashion, sports, business, and even politics. The irony of this genre's metamorphosis is that it never sought validation from mainstream America, focusing instead on documenting the Black experience for those who could identify with it.
Mele Mel used his induction speech to implore today's rappers to resurrect the art form's creative spirit and not dwell so much on materialism and violence. While artists like Mos Def have heeded his call, too many others have not. With any luck, that trend will reverse itself.

On the Money

Gordon Gekko championed the virtues of greed in the 1980s, saying it "captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit" and "has marked the upward surge of mankind." But reality tells a different story, with Wall Street experiencing a downward spiral amid ongoing global economic uncertainty.
On February 27, the stock market suffered its worst loss since the 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center. The Dow fell 416 points, while Nasdaq slid 97 points. Some experts blamed the plunge on Alan Greenspan's comments about the United States economy possibly facing a recession by the end of the year.
It's bad enough that billions of dollars vanished from the economy in a matter of hours ... but when companies have been laying off thousands of workers and the housing market has been declining for months, as Bloomberg reporter Kathleen Howley noted in her February 21 article, this "bubble burst" was inevitable. The real cause of concern, though, is that things are going to get worse before they get better -- which is why financial literacy is an essential tool in today's society.
You don't have to be rich to build wealth, and it's never too late to start saving money. (I'm not a millionaire, but I take great pride in being debt-free.) Consumer groups like America Saves espouse this philosophy, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has educational resources for teens and adults to help them on the road to economic security.
Like Rocky Balboa, the stock market will bounce back after being knocked down. But financial literacy will help one withstand the sucker punches thrown by Wall Street.