Versus Hip Hop on Trial Debate

Jesse Jackson, KRSOne, QTip, Estelle, uestlove, P. J. O Rourke, Jaron Lanier, and 14 other rappers, poets, academics and pundits came together in London on 26 June to debate the motion, HipHop on Trial: HipHop Doesn t Enhance Society, It Degrades it, chaired by the BBC s Emily Maitlis, and moderated online by Jemima Khan. Presented by Intelligence Squared and Google+, it was the third in their new joint debate series, Versus. The first ever global debate on hiphop saw fierce arguments put forward by speakers who were live on stage, and also beamed into the event via Google+ Hangouts, a live multiperson platform.