Hip hop and Johnny Cash?

I was reading an interview with Chuck D where he said he considered Johnny Cash to be "hip hop". Obviously, he wasn't a rapper, but in some senses I think he was hip hop.

Eg: Slick Rick's Children's Story is considered by many to be the hip hop version of Don't Take Your Guns To Town

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raXKeQ5qF...

Or there's San Quentin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgja26eN...

What are your thoughts? Are there any artists who you think aren't technically hip hop artists, but still embody the spirit of hip hop? Or do you think they can't be hip hop at all?

Hip hop and Johnny Cash?comment boxes for myspace

i think its evident whose young and whose not by the answers

or young and dumb i should say

johnny cash embodied the hip-hop spirit because he 1st and foremost was hassled by the po po all the time

2nd he made songs about real s hit which when it started the hiphop culture did alot more of

3rd he wore black all the damn time

my 2 cents...

today became a cash day...

thanks bonnie

i am gonna drop some non hip hop stuff on zamunda...

u have opened the floodgates

Hip hop and Johnny Cash?myspace quotes myspace.com

I think that chuck D needs to put down the crack..
yeah i totally agree... (im lying so you dont look so weird)
it depends - johnny cash has quintessentially been labelled as alt-country. i can see some similarities - i.e his outspokenness and political awareness but that could also be attributed to other "country" artists

its a good question though
I like Johnny Cash he sang the blues not hip hop music as he got older and got remarried he turned to spiritual music and that was nice, he had a miserable childhood has his father favoured his brother more than him when his brother was alive, his mother was a gentle kind woman.
I wouldn't class Johnny Cash as Hip Hop but the Videos are very good and personally I would say he was one of the best C%26amp;W Artists ever born
I think that statement is a little ridiculous. Chuck's losing his mind in his old age. All forms of music share similar elements. You can pick a song by any non-hip hop artists and find a hip hop song with similar themes. There's a reason why artists get designated to specific genres. There's a big difference between being influential to hip hop and being hip hop. Johnny Cash may have been influential, but he definitely was not hip hop.

EDIT: As for an artist that isn't technically hip hop but did embody it, I would say Miles Davis (toward the end). He was heavily influenced by hip hip while he was making Doo-Bop with Easy Mo Bee. The album is technically jazz but it contains a lot of hip hop elements, and influenced a lot of jazz musicians who incorporate hip hop into their music such as Matthew Shipp and William Parker.
no
definitely not cool like on NO level
Chuck D said that because he didn't want to be seen to be enjoying stereotypical white person music: country.