iarity and identification. Mass-production technology often m utates rap's oral expression into the readable, marketable form of a standardize d text. The notions of identity and authorship in rap are largely attributable t o the wide-scale image marketing that characterizes the modern music industry. Hip-hop music has become extremely marketable in the 90's, making it more and mo re difficult to strip rap culture away from the technological, capitalist realm that has produced and engulfed it. The tricky and deleterious world of "A and R 's" and units-sold is the only arena in which rap artists can make themselves he ard and make a living solely through their music. The over-emphasis of an essen tial reliance on text results from the inescapable linking of the art form to th e album production and sales necessitated by the world of capitalist reproductio n. Rap's dependence upon the world of high technology and commerce makes it nea rly impossible for a clean break between the art and the age that propagated the art. Locating rap music as an art form independent of its era is like searchin g for smooth, brown rocks on a beach, trying to sift out the few stones from a b ucket-full of beer-bottle glass. Rap music presents an intriguing link to past oral culture and its vario us themes, techniques, and thought processes, despite the art form's being firml y rooted in the post-literate world. Hip-hop is flourishing in today's music wo rld, with new rap acts seemingly emerging daily in the rapidly growing industry. The various acts and personalities that make up today's hip-hop world may have their own identities and personae, but the lyrical themes recur. They may just be "stitched toghether or 'rhapsodized' differently," as Ong writes of oral poe tic forms. (Ong 59) Unlike almost any other modern musical form, rap has a stro ng sense of community and of tradition. As countless people have said, hip-hop is a way of life, and the significanc...
