The unit on the History of Hip-Hop sparked a few thoughts within me. The first, comes as a response to the Dimitriadis piece. In it, Dimitriadis points to a common “text” to which Urban youth can draw from to establish some sort of sense of themselves in relation to the world. These texts, be they music, film, or even the lives of certain people (Tupac, Biggie, etc…) all form the basis of a common culture for a historically disenfranchised and oppressed demographic. For many kids, the Hip-Hop texts were the first instances of representation that existed for them on a national stage. I think it’s interesting to think of this in relation to Basketball & the NBA, being a basketball fan myself. The rise of Hip-Hop culture in the NBA came about largely as a result of one man, Allen Iverson. Iverson was notorious for bringing Hip-Hop fashion trends into the league, wearing oversized white tees, baggy shorts, and cornrows, much to the chagrin of the league’s owners. They disliked the image he brought to the NBA so much that they instituted a new dress code specifically in response to his outfits. The reason I think this is such an interesting case, and one that relates to Dimitriadis’ piece is that, despite all of this apparent controversy  and supposed disapproval around Iverson, he was insanely popular. His jersey ranks #5 on the best selling jersey’s of the last decade, despite never winning a championship. Iverson’s popularity was due in no small part to his Hip-Hop inspired attitude. He served as an inspiration to countless amounts of kids who saw themselves in him and used him as a template on which to graph their own successes and ambitions. The value of Hip-Hop culture to urban youth is often understated and overlooked in favor of a focus on the perceived “negatives” of the culture but, much like Allen Iverson, the aspersions cast on the culture are not enough to keep people from flocking to it in an effort to see people like themselves on the big stage.