I saw this news story on the web today and thought about how interesting it was in relation to authenticity and whatever might constitute "real" hip-hop. These two struggling rappers in the UK - regular old college buddies just trying to make a name - were willing to do anything to get that fame and hit it big. They went so far as to create fake identities, saying they were poor kids from California that were trying to make a living in better country. They even faked American accents in their raps. The public bought it and they got huge.
Even though our discussion section got pretty heated and I have to agree with a lot of my classmates in saying that all arguments concerning authenticity can get shut down, I have to just throw it out there that I think this is a little ridiculous and really shows me what it means to lack authenticity. These guys really became a business in the sense that they weren't selling their lyrics per se, but they were selling their created story-image of poor youthful Americans.
Here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128567769
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