Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.
Canon-making is a core part of rap fandom, the subject of endless barbershop parleys and message-board battles. But something curdles when the companies that control the music business enter the chat.