“1989.”Twenty years ago, Public Enemy simultaneously altered the faces of hip-hop culture and mainstream culture with its smash hit, “Fight the Power.” The song has since evolved into the standard for musical protest, joining the ranks of Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Rage Against The Machine, among countless others.While the times have certainly a-changed for the better with the inauguration of President Obama, the song had less to do with the occupant of the White House than with much broader issues involving racism and racial discrimination.For anyone blind enough to assume Obama’s inauguration fulfills the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King or issues a new, “post-racial” society, you are very sorely mistaken.Setting America’s progress during the last 20 years aside, rap culture seems to have decreased at a rate inversely proportional with mainstream society.In 20 short years, we have gone from “Fight the Power” to “My President is Black.”Which, by the way, is my new favorite song. Along with a phenomenally triumphant beat, the fact that Young Jeezy can say “My President is Black” and have it be true is enough to let me ignore the shout-outs to a blue Lambo with blue rims.What was once a movement about artistic freedom and urban altruism has morphed into a feeble, sexist, homophobic and selfish genre, using whatever means possible to perpetuate stereotypes about rappers — in that they all like ice, rims, getting money and having sex with anything in sight.I still listen to rap.But much like Chris Rock, I’m tired and exhausted from defending it.I can’t defend “If I take one more drink, I’ma end up fucking you,” the latest from Ludacris and T-Pain, the latter of which should be shot for turning the Auto-Tune into an entire genre.I can’t defend “Wait Till You See My Dick,” even though SG’s Students on Target was good enough to give us the Ying Yang Twins at Groovin’ on the Grounds three years ago.I can’t even defend another track from Young Jeezy’s album “The Recession,” called “I Put On.” I can’t defend him saying, “Hundred karat bracelet, I use it like some super bait.”It’s gross and disgusting.The only remedy for this situation is to take the route millions have already pursued, and it has nothing to do with illegally downloading music.It’s called Pandora.Pandora.com has revolutionized the way millions of music-lovers listen to music. Instead of letting MTV and BET tell us what to listen to and what makes “good rap” — which increasingly resembles emo music, since you can’t tell one song apart from the other — Pandora users create stations based on an artist or a song.This is how Aceyalone, Roots Manuva, The Crest and The Pharcyde all came into my life.In terms of change, Obama himself put it best while on the campaign trail, saying “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”There’s no reason why we can’t simply ignore the stale concentration of “misogofunk” emanating whenever MTV decides to actually air a video.The last word goes to Chuck D: “We got to pump the stuff to make us tough from the heart. It’s a start, a work of art.”—-Contact Eric Freeman, Jr. at [email protected]