Seattle Weekly:
Just like electric blues—another historically black art form which morphed into rock and roll—hip-hop reaches a vastly broader, and whiter, audience than ever before. The difference in Seattle is that some of the most recognizable figures are by and large non-black: Blue Scholars, Common Market, Jake One, Mad Rad, and the Saturday Knights. It’s a fact that makes rappers like Silas Blak concerned. “I really do believe the Northwest is not going to push strong black men in hip-hop,” Blak says. “I just don’t believe the message is welcome, or that the image is welcome. In Washington, the darker the face gets, the taller the boundaries are [within music]. My question is: Why is so much black talent in hip-hop getting passed over right now?”