LOS ANGELES — An autopsy was scheduled for the mother of Kanye West after preliminary information suggested she died of surgical complications, a coroner’s investigator said Monday.What kind of surgery Donda West, who was often seen at the musician’s side, had was not immediately clear. West had approached a plastic surgeon months ago about a procedure, but he never performed it because she did not return with a medical clearance for a condition that concerned him, the surgeon’s publicist said Monday.

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Rev. Jesse Jackson can breathe a sigh of relief: Nas’ new album will no longer be titled Nigga. It’s Nigger now, according to the Illmatic MC. Regarding all the controversy surrounding his provocative choice of album titling, Nas said, “Stay out of our business. You ain’t got no business worrying about what the word ‘nigger’ is or acting like you know what my album is about without talking to me.”

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Maybe it was the umpteenth coke-dealing anthem or soft-porn music video. Perhaps it was the preening antics that some call reminiscent of Stepin Fetchit.

The turning point is hard to pinpoint. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture’s negative effect on society.

Rap insider Chuck Creekmur, who runs the leading Web site Allhiphop.com, says, “a lot of people are sick of rap. … The negativity is just over the top now.”

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With hip-hop itself hitting its third decade, hip-hop studies has become one of the most explosive subjects to hit academia in decades — as UCLA Professor H. Samy Alim says, “It’s reinvigorating the academy.”[…]

“There is a literary flood,” says Jeff Chang, a writer, UC Berkeley graduate and sometime Chronicle contributor, whose award-winning book “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation” is one of the primary texts in many classes. “It’s becoming a tidal wave. Right now, I have six or seven books on my desk for me to review or blurb. They weren’t there a year ago.”

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The Black Youth Project looked at opinions on politics, sex and health among nearly 1,600 black, white and Hispanic people between 15 and 25 in what researchers called one of the most comprehensive reports of its kind.

The project focused on the ‘Hip-Hop Generation’ and the later ‘Millennium Generation,’ groups whose parents or grandparents lived through the civil rights era, said Cathy Cohen of the University of Chicago, the survey’s lead investigator.

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Ben Gilbarg and Amir Hoagland have a different way of giving back. Their nonprofit organization, 3rd EyE Unlimited, teaches kids how to ignite social change and kick-start rap careers.

“There are a lot of pitfalls in the industry, and we teach them that hip-hop isn’t just what you see on television,” Gilbarg said from 3rd EyE’s New Bedford office. “We build kids into leaders, not just through rapping, but by having them produce television shows, design fliers and organize events.”

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As rapper Ludacris takes the stage at Sundays’ Grammy Awards show in Los Angeles, more than a dozen anxious volunteers will huddle up at a North Side call center for runaway children, hoping his performance sets the phones ringing.

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