Hip-Hop is an international culture art form developed in the late 1970s through African-American youth in the Bronx. Although not limited to the African-American youth of its time the culture is widely known to consist of the four elements of mceeing, turntablism, djing, b-boying/b-girling as well as graffiti ( ). Throughout the development of the genre Hip-Hop has had a conscious role in educating listeners on current political events and issues affecting the surrounding communities the music serves. In fact, in the 1980s one of the first Hip-Hop songs to discuss sociopolitical issues was by Brother D with Collective Effort titled How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?. The song addresses issues of racial genocide, White supremacy, media corruption, and the importance of understanding how to be an agent of change. In 1982 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five followed by developing The Message, unlike its predecessor it was the first widespread sociopolitical Hip-Hop …show more content…
song to reach air ways continuing the conversation of inequality, corruption, and the challenges of living in the ghetto. These two songs have paved the way for Hip-Hop being used as a social agent and today the trend has continued. 33 years later with the development of the Black Lives Matter movement Hip-Hop has become a staple voice in the current political challenges of our nation. The purpose of this paper will be to address the current ways in which Hip-Hop has been a platform to raise social awareness within the Black Lives Matter movement. Firstly, I will address the importance of the relationship between politics and Hip-Hop. Secondly, I will discuss Hip-Hop and its relationship with the Black Lives Matter movement. Thirdly, I will overview the challenges of Hip-Hop to be a social agent of change. Ultimately, I will conclude that Hip-Hop is a complex voice for sociopolitical movements. Those who are the actors and participants of the movement each bear their own perspectives on sociopolitical issues that are not monolithic in Hip-Hop culture. Hip-Hip itself as a genre is not a monolithic genre, nevertheless, what is important is that Hip-Hop in some way engages in political conversation. The Hip-Hop, The Hippie’s Role in Politics As Craig Watkins identifies in “Hip-Hop Matters”, politics has always been intertwined within Hip-Hop. Since The Message and its success, this song in particular proved that there was a place for socially conscious music to not only succeed within the marketplace of the genre but also open the door to furthering the conversations of change. In fact, between 1987 and 1994 what some labeled “message” or “political” rap broadened the definition of popular music. Afrika Bambaataa a Bronx, New York native and central figure to Hip-Hop who rose to fame through his electro tracks and breakbeat Djing says in regards the relationship between of Hip-Hop and politics that “in essence of the genre being entertainment, it can also be an agent of social change”. From the musical side many artists have used the artform to speak about sociopolitical issues. Some of the most conscious songs of the genre have not only been a commercial success but distinct in raising awareness. For instance, seven years after the release of The Message, Public Enemy’s Fight the Power broke airwaves, paying homage to Black culture and signaling a need for people to wake up and pay attention to systematic issues of our time: “Our freedom of speech is freedom or death “We've got to fight the powers that be Lemme hear you say Fight the power Lemme hear you say Fight the power” Multiple songs have followed in the footsteps of Public Enemy including the release of 2Pac Shakur’s “2pacalypse Now” an album released in 1991, that consisted multiple songs like Trapped, Young Black male, and Words of Wisdom that spoke on problems of the similar political topic. Aside from conscious rap lyrics, Hip-Hop has built a foundation to raise awareness among young people on sociopolitical issues through Hip-Hop artists, moguls, and activists developing and participating in organizations focused on community and political changes. One of the earliest attempts of this was the Zulu Nation, a grassroot organization developed by Bambataa focused on building “social warriors” for the community during the time of rising drugs and violence in the inner city projects of New York. The Zulu Nation held weekly meetings to discuss ways to eradicate communal concerns.Today although faced with controversy following the sexual allegations of Afrika Bambaataa the Zulu Nation, now a worldwide movement stands as an “... youth-driven organization with the mission of saving young lives through the advent of hip-hop culture all around the world." Fast forward years later in 2002 Russell Simmons co-founder of Hip-Hop record label Def Jam would create the Hip-hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) dedicated to “helping providing a voice for those who did not have a voice”. HSAN prides itself on being “the world's largest non-profit, non-partisan national coalition of Hip-Hop artists, entertainment industry leaders, education advocates, civil rights proponents, and youth leaders united in the belief that Hip-Hop is an enormously influential agent for social change which must be responsibly and proactively utilized to fight the war on poverty and injustice”. The network has brought together artists like Fredro Starr, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, as well as Crooked I to encourage voter registration among Hip-Hop youth nationwide and dialogues focus on initiating change. HSAN has also campaigned against New York State Rockefeller drug laws. It is fair to say these are not the only two organized groups in the realm of Hip-Hop that have shown the genre’s relationship to politics. However, these groups have definitely made an impact whether bringing forth collective action through their communities or catching the attention of legislators. What makes groups like this political is their ability to raise awareness and engage in the conversation of change. More specifically, to the connection of Hip-Hop culture and politics, the actors and participants of these groups used Hip-Hop as the platform to evoke awareness. This is why relationship between Hip-Hop and the Black Lives Matter movement is important. One Nation Under A Groove: The Black Lives Matter Movement and Hip-Hop After the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's murderer George Zimmerman the Black Lives Matter Movement derived out of a hastag tag #BLACKLIVESMATTER, created by Black community organizers Alicia Garza, Partisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.
“Black Lives Matter is a chapter based national organization working to rebuild the Black Liberation Movement”. As their website proclaims “When we say Black Lives Matter, we are broadening the conversation around state violence to include all of the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. We are talking about the ways in which Black lives are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity”. For years Hip-Hop culture has been engaging in the same topics of Black Lives Matter. In fact, with Hip-Hop artists like David Banner, Lupe Fiasco and J. Cole conversing about the injustice of Black Lives early in the movement’s development it was only a matter of time before Hip-Hop’s relationship with Black Lives Matter
progressed
Hip-hop culture has been a global phenomenon for more than twenty years. When introduced into the American culture, the black culture felt that hip-hop had originated from the African American community. The black community was being denied their cultural rights by the supremacy of the white people, but hip-hop gave the community the encouragement to show their black pride and televise the struggles they were facing in the world. The failure and declining of the movements, the influential, rebellious, and powerful music is what reshaped Black Nationalism, unity and to signify the struggle. The African Americans who suffered from social and political problems found that they similar relations to the political movements, which allowed the blacks to be able to voice their opinions and to acknowledge their culture openly.
Today there are many controversial subjects discussed throughout the media. One of the most discussed is race and the Black Lives Matter movement. Recently, I came across an article titled “The Truth of ‘Black Lives Matter’”, written by The Editorial Board. The article was published on September 3, 2015, to the New York Times. In the article, The Editorial Board writes about what they believe African Americans are facing as challenges in society today, including the all-too-common police killings of unarmed African-Americans across the country. The Editorial Board is right that some African Americans have been treated unfairly, but all ethnicities have been. Life is a precious thing that comprises all ethnicities. This brings us to ask; why
...nt to an African American child than Roosevelt or Kennedy. Hip-hop culture began to embrace other subversive forms of expression, such as graffiti, whose popularity soared in the mid 70s throughout the South Bronx . After a decade spent trying to gain favor with a supposedly “superior” white middle class, African Americans turned to hip-hop as a direct response to this apparent white incompatibility with black culture. No longer unequal, by the end o the 70s it had become clear that there was no reason to mold the black racial identity in an easily digestible package for America’s white middle class. This method of forgetting, which resulted in yet another decade of black marginalization, was thus largely rejected, as the America’s African American urban youth turned to hip-hop to remember, preserve, and create a new telling of the black historical identity.
Hip hop is a culture, it is a way many people use to connect to one another, it allowed many African Americans to express their own point of view in their story. But in the early 2000’s it became commercialized and went from storytelling from many perspectives like a party, politics, self-celebration, and gangstas to consisting of mainly of the lives of hustler, pimps, and hoes. Though it has become quite profitable and a successful form of music it cause arguments in American of whether it is more detrimental than beneficial to black community. Hip hop is in fact in a crisis and critics of hip hop believe it is just angry stories of black males and females but do not see it as proof that black behavior was created from the condition of living in a ghetto.
It is subgenre that tests the ruling cultural, political, philosophical, and economic agreement. Political hip hop often interfere with conscious hip hop and the two terms are used mutually. However, conscious hip hop is not really openly political; instead discuss social matters and conflict. Religion aversion of crime, and violence, culture, the economic, or simple depiction the struggle of ordinary people are focus of conscious hip hop. Conscious hip hop helps public to know the social problems and to make their own decision without been forced to take actions that they can make on their own. “How we gonna make the black nation rise?” by brother D. was the first social conscious hip hop song, grandmaster “the message” reflect much of political and conscious hip hop track, tells the poverty, violence and dead end lives of the community poor time. Some of the artists of conscious hip hop are Mos Def, Talib Kweli
Hip hop is both a culture and a lifestyle. As a musical genre it is characterized by its hard hitting beats and rhythms and expressive spoken word lyrics that address topics ranging from economic disparity and inequality, to gun violence and gang affiliated activity. Though the genre emerged with greater popularity in the 1970’s, the musical elements involved and utilized have been around for many years. In this paper, we will cover the history and
Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that emerged from the dilapidated South Bronx, New York in the early 1970’s. The area’s mostly African American and Puerto Rican residents originated this uniquely American musical genre and culture that over the past four decades has developed into a global sensation impacting the formation of youth culture around the world. The South Bronx was a whirlpool of political, social, and economic upheaval in the years leading up to the inception of Hip-Hop. The early part of the 1970’s found many African American and Hispanic communities desperately seeking relief from the poverty, drug, and crime epidemics engulfing the gang dominated neighborhoods. Hip-Hop proved to be successful as both a creative outlet for expressing the struggles of life amidst the prevailing crime and violence as well as an enjoyable and cheap form of recreation.
Hip-hop began in the undergrounds in Bronx New York in the early 1970s and has gradually grown to become mainstream music. According to Lori Selke a professional writer for Global post, “hip-hop is the term that refers to more than just a musical genre; it includes culture, dance, art, and even fashion” (Selke). Since it originated in the 1970’s, hip-hop has had profound influence on society, and has grown into the lives of listeners worldwide; hip-hop’s influential power is astonishing. Within the last decade, hip-hop artist like Jay-Z, Nas, and Young Jeezy helped to increase voting in the 2008 presidential campaign by informing a hip hop audience consisting of a majority of African Americans on soon to be 44th President of the United States, by using their voice and lyrics as their tool to encouraging people to stand up for a change by voting. According to Emmett Price in his book Hip Hop Culture (2006), “in the early years prior to the rise of recorded rap music via Sugar Hill Gang’s controversial “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) hip-hop was a growing culture driven by self-determination, a love for life, and a desire to have fun [through entertaining fans and expressing themself].” (Price) Although artists today accomplish the same things, the focus of the lyrics has changed consisting of “extolling violence, drug and alcohol use, and detailing sexual exploits” (Selke). If one were to observe the most popular music from artist in the 80’s until now, they would notice a definitive change in its overall message. If hip-hop continues on its current route it will become a musical genre known solely for its references to sex, drugs, and violence.
Knowing the purpose of the Hip-Hop culture was to be the new improved of the civil rights movement is devastating. Jay Z and Kanye West are not looked at as being a Martin Luther King Jr. or a Malcolm X but they are still idealized as being the best. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X fought for our rights where Mr. Jay and Kanye only fighting for album sales. There is a difference between what Hip-Hop supposes to be and what Hip-Hop turned out to be. The black youth is seeing Hip-Hop as being a culture where nothing is important, but wealth and not realizing the crisis they are in. Taking a break and looking back in history, the youth will notice, “denial of education played an important part in the legalized status of Blacks as inferior and immoral” (Burris 2011, 4).
Hip-hop music is the best base form of music to invoke change because songs can be written quickly by rappers to address their communities. Hip-hop started in the early 1970’s in minority-filled neighborhoods that were surrounded with poverty, crime, and drugs. Over time, hip-hop has been changed to express different messages. At its beginning the message was positive addressing the problems of poor neighborhoods and now the message is flashy and unclear. With this change
Hip hop has multiple branches of style and is a culture of these. This essay will examine Hip Hop from the point of view of the following three popular music scholars, Johnson, Jeffries and Smitherman. It will delve deeper into their understanding of what hip hop is and its relation to the different people that identify with its message and contents. It will also identify the history of Hip hop and its transition into popular music. In particular this essay will focus on what hip hop represents in the black community and how it can be used as a social movement against inequalities faced by them. This will then open up the discussion for the how this has influenced society, and the impact it has had in terms of race issues which hip hop itself often represents through music.
Black culture in our society has come to the point where it is allied with pop culture. The most popular music genres, slang terms, to dance forms it all comes from black culture. Hip hop emerged from black culture, becoming the soul of it that is seen in the media. Hip hop helped the black community by creating new ways of expressing themselves, from breakdance, graffiti, rap and other music, to slang. This culture was rooted in their tradition and created from something new. Hip hop created a new form of music that required the use of turn tables, ‘cuts’, loops, rhythm, rhyme, stories, and deep-rooted emotions, but also incorporated black oral forms of storytelling using communal authors.
Black Lives Matter is an international activist movement, originating in the African American community. It campaigns against violence toward black people and has become a uniting call for an innovative chapter in the black freedom fight. The clearance of Trayvon Martin’s killer in 2013 and the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 stimulated this movement. Black Lives Matter isn’t just about the loss of Black lives; but mainly about the lack of consequences when African American lives are taken by Caucasian officers. The question is; do black lives truly matter to those that claim to protect it? The answer is no they do not because the movement’s alleged “peaceful” protests continuously
Overall, many believe that the undeviating war on racism in today’s society is fueled by police brutality and anti-police violence. Specifically, The Black Lives Matter movement which is the source of controversy regarding these topics. To summarize, this campaign is “both a hashtag and a political project that formed after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin.” (Miller). Later in the article Chelsea Fuller, senior communication associate of The Advancement project which is a multi-racial civil rights organization, states “The Black Lives Matter movement is to deal with anti-black racism, to “push for black people’s right to live with dignity and respect” and be included in the American democracy that they helped create” (Miller). In discussions of The Black Lives Matter movement, a controversial
Black Lives Matter is not a movement that believes all lives do not matter; nevertheless, it highlights the fact that black lives are taken for granted by the judicial system. Protests around the world have taken place to fight for justice in the black community. The immense number of deaths of unarmed black men and women is a clear sign that they are more likely to be killed by police than white people. Physical violence and excessive use of force by the U.S. police towards African Americans are seen in the news regularly.