The first ever global debate on hip-hop: is hip-hop the authentic voice of the oppressed that turns anger into poetry and political action? Or is it a glorification of all that holds back oppressed minorities and hinders them from mainstream assimilation?

In the third of our Versus series of debates with Google we brought together some of the biggest names in hip-hop to debate these questions. Some of the speakers were on stage at the Barbican Centre and others appeared on the big screen via the Google+ Hangout technology. We had rappers such as KRS-One, ?uestlove, Q-Tip and Estelle, and renowned US hip-hop intellectuals such as Touré, Michael Eric Dyson, Tricia Rose and dream hampton. We brought over civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson, once a critic and now in the hip-hop camp.

Hip-hop and all it stands for has moved well beyond its black American roots. We heard from  John Sutherland, Victorian fiction expert, who is a hip-hop aficionado, and we brought over the Egyptian rapper Deeb who was involved in the Tahrir Square uprising and thinks hip-hop has fostered revolution in North Africa.

Also flown in for an exclusive London appearance was Jaron Lanier, computer scientist, virtual reality pioneer, composer and one of TIME’s 100 most influential people of 2010; and there were critical voices from Shaun Bailey, David Cameron’s adviser on youth and crime, and Hattie Collins, music editor of i-D magazine.

In our new quick-fire courtroom format, two brilliant advocates grilled our panel of hip-hop fans and critics and built a case for and against the motion. Hip-hop is a state of mind, an attitude of defiance that has been adopted by the oppressed all over the world. But does it help or hinder society?