From the Arab Spring and the Palestinian freedom fight to feminism and class struggles, rap music is a popular medium for calls to action, as well as call-outs of despots and colonizers. In an Associated Press interview earlier this year, Chuck D of Public Enemy said he sees hip-hop as a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement.Īnd then there's hip-hop's global influence on protest, resistance and political dissent. "And it also makes sense that rappers would position themselves in these movements, in part, because rappers are coming out of the communities that are experiencing the need to protest." "It makes sense that social movements would gravitate towards hip-hop, as a culture and rap music as a medium of expression," he said. "All Black creative expression is political because Black life is political," said Timothy Welbeck, the director of the Center for Anti-Racism at Temple University in Philadelphia. It was rare then to attend a demonstration and not hear Kendrick Lamar's 2015 song "Alright," a celebration of triumph over adversity in the face of systemic oppression and injustice. In 2016, following the fatal police shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, rap music and protest were linked. In 1982, in the song "The Message," Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five decried stark poverty and disinvestment while in 1992, Tupac Shakur railed against police brutality in the song "Changes." The song made history in 2019 as the first hip-hop track to win the song of the year Grammy.Īs hip-hop and rap music grew into a force in American culture, its pioneers used it to speak to their personal realities. Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffrey Williams, co-wrote the Childish Gambino hit "This is America," which is a commentary on violence and systemic racism in the U.S. In 2022, Fulton County prosecutors included lyrics from the rapper, referencing drugs and violence, as evidence of an "overt act in furtherance of a (gang) conspiracy." Some have pointed to the criminal street gang conspiracy case, brought under Georgia's criminal racketeering law, against Atlanta rapper Young Thug and over two dozen purported affiliates of the rapper's Young Stoner Life record label. Dennis and other advocates believe the cases, brought against mostly Black defendants, have led to unjust incarceration. Hank Johnson, a Democratic sponsor of federal legislation that would protect artists from having their lyrics and creative expression used against them in court.Ī study by University of Georgia law professor Andrea Dennis, who co-authored the 2019 book "Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics and Guilt in America," found roughly 500 criminal trial cases dating to the late 1980s in which rap lyrics were successfully used as evidence. "Black history is under attack, Black culture is under attack, rap music is under attack," said U.S. And for hip-hop artists who live under repressive regimes throughout the world, "dropping bars" to air one's grievances against the government can mean time behind bars or worse. However, racial justice activists and free speech advocates see the ongoing persecution of rappers as a proxy war primarily waged against Black and Latino men. Social and religious conservatives have seen hip-hop as a threat, but their attempts at stifling the culture have only grown its influence. Since hip-hop's birth in the 1970s, emceeing, beatboxing, deejaying, and graffiti have done more than entertain - hip-hop's four elements carry the spirit of resistance and free expression. "The narrative can't be that this genius cultural expression, that is the greatest cultural force that we have globally, grew out of a disenfranchised people." "Of course they want to weaponize it," Stiggers said. Hip-hop can champion the underserved and reclaim space, like tagged walls or impromptu breakdancing battles on a transit platform.Ĭertain forces have demonized hip-hop, said Willie "Prophet" Stiggers, co-founder and chair of the Black Music Action Coalition, a group working against systemic racism in the music industry and in society. Hip-hop culture and especially rap music have been mediums for holding the powerful accountable. It's also been scrutinized by law enforcement and political groups because of their belief that hip-hop and its artists encourage violent criminality. Hip-hop has been integral to justice movements. Get the latest entertainment from across Canada and around the world.In the early days of hip-hop, plugging turntables into a light post and converting an outdoor basketball court into a discotheque may have seemed like a simple invitation to party.īut hip-hop was a response to social and economic injustice in disregarded neighbourhoods, a showcase of joy, ingenuity and innovation despite a lack of resources.
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