Its My Music If I Say It Is

In the '80s, Debbie Harry, otherwise known as Blondie, produced "Rapture," which featured Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash. But I think the most famous rock-inspired rappers were Run-D.M.C. who remade Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" in 1986, followed by the Beastie Boys's hit singles such as "Fight for your Right" and "No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn." The list goes on and on.

My friend Sebastian Burnside from Dorsey High School says he's not surprised to hear that people think certain races only listen to certain types of music.

"I'm around close-minded people five days a week at school while attending Dorsey. There are race wars here and gangs, so it's not a surprise to me that people still believe that a certain genre of music is limited to a certain race," he said.

Sebastian is black and Puerto Rican and mostly listens to metal like Marilyn Manson, Tool, Drowning Pool and System of a Down.

"I'm also the lead singer of a garage band that's made up of some of my friends," Sebastian said. "So I'm totally against the state of mind that rock is only for whites and rap is only for blacks."

Dealing with the race thing
But not everyone is as comfortable as Emilio and Sebastian are with the race thing in music. Take Eminem, for example. This scrawny white guy from Michigan came on like an atomic bomb into the rap world, which is heavily dominated by blacks.