IN THE EARLY years of its development, rap's creators, performers, and listeners were predominantly African American. As a result, when a larger audience was introduced to rap in the late seventies, it was labeled a black form of music. Such categorization was not unusual. Throughout the history of popular music in the United States, music has been classified by the race of its creators and performers. Musical forms such as the blues, jazz, rhythm and blues (R&B), rap, and hip hop have all been labeled "black" at some time in their histories.

This racial separation of music also affected radio play. As radio stations formed and began playing popular music, "white" and "black" stations developed. "White" stations played popular songs by white performers and "black" stations played those by African American performers. This meant that whether a...