Sophia Foy U.S. History Final Paper The Evolution of Rap During the end of the 1980’s and beginning 1990’s, Hip Hop started as a local musical movement to fight the political, social and economic oppression African Americans were experiencing in their inner cities all across the Unites States. Since 2013 this movement has re-emerged on a global level. Rap music was born out of an expression of social injustice, which captured the black urban experience but as it grew in popularity, the music and lyrics changed to commercialize rap and attract a broader audience. However, the black experience and social injustice have hardly changed and with the recent attention to police brutality against the black community and the emergence of groups like …show more content…
The movement brought the old issues of social injustice and racism against African Americans to the general population and caught the attention of popular artists especially in the Hip Hop genre. Rappers were swept up in the powerful messages of the Black Lives Matter movement and began to stand new ground. J. Cole had been wrapped up in the lifestyle of famous rappers but began to change his focus. In 2014 he wrote his song “Be free” as a response to the police brutality in Ferguson. J. Cole was quoted in Rolling Stone: “I’m tired of being desensitized to the murder of black men … I don’t give a f*ck if it’s by police or peers. This shit is not normal”(Grow, 2014). He dedicated the song to every young black man in America with the lyrics: “All we wanna do is break the chains off/ All we wanna do is be free”. The injustice was also noted by other famous rappers like D’Angelo, who came out with a new album after 14 years called Black Messiah in 2014. Later in 2015, the biggest musical impact was made by Kendrick Lamar’s album “To Pimp a Butterfly”, whose track ‘Alright’ was sung by demonstrators at the “Black Lives Matter Conference” in Cleveland (Harris, 2015). The police came after the demonstrators very heavy handed and they began to sing: “We gon’ be alright! We gon’ be alright” in defiance. The lines, “ All my life I has to fight, ni**a/ Alls my life I…/ Hard times like,”God!”/Bad rips like, Yea!”/Nazareth, I’m f*cked up/Homie you fu*ckedup/But if God got us/Then we gon’ be alright” tell the story of painful, hard lives but deliver a message of hope at the same time. People started to call the song the new protest anthem of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Another artist who wrote controversial music is Pop and Hip Hop star, Beyoncé.
Hip hop, the creation of electronic sound and enticing language is a style born from the African American and Hispanic cultures. It formed in New York City from block parties and the participation of the youth culture. This style of music began as a minimal change in rhythm to a globally popular culture consisting of graffiti art, dancing, and music. Hip hop was not only a type of tasteful music, but it also became a benchmark in history. When this style of music was created, it served as an outlet for those who did not have a voice, particularly the minority groups. These groups were given rights that they deserved just like everyone else. In the 1970’s is when hip hop began to spread, creating not just
Rap music has become one of the most distinctive and controversial music genres of the past few decades. A major part of hip hop culture, rap, discusses the experiences and standards of living of people in different situations ranging from racial stereotyping to struggle for survival in poor, violent conditions. Rap music is a vocal protest for the people oppressed by these things. Most people know that rap is not only music to dance and party to, but a significant form of expression. It is a source of information that describes the rage of people facing growing oppression, declining opportunities for advancement, changing moods on the streets, and everyday survival. Its distinct sound, images, and attitude are notorious to people of all
Millions of people in the world listen to music for all different reasons. Most people all over the world listen to different genres of music in order to relax, but not too many people pay attention to the actual lyrics of a song. If you listen to the lyrics of a song you will realize that many songs have important messages or themes to them. An example of this is the lyrics of the song “Changes” by Tupac Shakur. If you listen to this song, you will realize that Tupac raps about not only the problems that African Americans face from society, but also the struggles that poor people in society have to endure and overcome. Many
The hip-hop culture began in the streets of New York City during the 1970’s and has gone through tremendous changes up until now. Hip-Hop consists of four elements: rap, graffiti, break-dancing, and the disc jockey. In this paper, I intend to fully explain the evolution of rap music, from its infancy to the giant industry it is today.
Through songs many people express their feelings of the world threw the words they have wrote. Many songs talk about civil rights of the people and how change should be an option. In the world we live in today we have social issues that people have to face such as: police brutality, racial profiling, discrimination etc. Through Kendrick Lamar, Public Enemy, The Game, Bebe Winans, and N.W.A they will use their voice as a weapon for change among all people. Music with a message thrives in a live setting, for obvious reasons, and many politically conscious musicians aim to channel the heightened emotions
the lyric we gonna be alright means that the african americans will make it through all the equality eventually. this song is a social protest song because it is incorporated with the black lives matter movement.that is how the song alright by kendrick lamar is a protest. the song "Alright" is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar,
Molefi Asante is the author of It’s Bigger than Hip-Hop: The Rise of the Post Hip-Hop Generation. In this article, Asante predicts that the post-hip-hop generation will embrace social justice issues including women’s rights, gay’s rights, and the anti-war movement. To challenge these stereotypes, Asante speaks to the personification of the African-American ghetto and the need to stop glorifying black suffering. For Asante, the post-hip-hop generation no longer expects hip-hop to mobilize disenfranchised youth. Asante states, “The post-hip-hop generation shouldn’t wait for mainstream musicians to say what needs to be said…No movement is about beats and rhythms…. it must be bigger than hip-hop.” Because hip-hop is controlled by corporations, Asante says hip-hop will never be the focus of political change. Asante argues that “old white men” have dictated hip-hop, and by extension the actions of black youth, since 1991. “Allowing white executives, not from the hip-hop culture, to control and dictate the culture is tragic because the music, and ultimately the culture, as we can see today, has not only lost its edge, but its sense of rebellion and black movement- the very principles upon which it was founded.” Asante calls for the rise of “artivism,” a new social movement that uses art to improve community police relations, failing schools and the criminal justice system. Asante encourages the post-hip-hop generation to unite with Latino/Immigration Rights and Black Civil Rights
Rap music is the most popular genre today. The root of rap is people playing different instrument and telling stories while doing it. Rap music has become more than just playing music and telling stories it have made a big impact on how people view others. This is an example of tupac telling a story, “ I see no changes. Wake up in the morning and I ask myself,"Is life worth living?
Many artists explain social protest throughout their own music and explains how they feel about it. Domani Harris explains his side of the story throughout his song “Black Lives Matter”. Harris song, “Black Lives Matter” Harris explains
In “Alright” Kendrick Lamar is speaking to the public about police brutality, or is he sending a deeper message to the people of minority. Kendrick Lamar released the song titled “Alright” in 2015. Upon release the song instantly blew up. It 's catchy and even though people got tongue tied trying to recite the song everyone knew the hook of the song which stated “We gon be alright do you hear me do you feel me we gon be alright.” I wonder did anyone catch the poetic verses Kendrick was saying before the hook. By simply watching the video you instantly think oh police brutality but I recieved a deeper message. I believe Kendrick wanted the song to inform the public about the brutality that seemed to be continuous at the time; and offer a bit of hope to those who didn’t feel there was any. That’s why the song was so famous, Kendrick performed this song on numerous award shows and talk shows because the people needed to hear it. Though some believe the song is in protest against cops or sending a bad message others believe it is an anthem for african americans.
“Alright” by Kendrick Lamar brings awareness and light to the abuse and oppression of Black people. Highlighting issues such as police brutality, discrimination, racial profiling and many other forms of oppression, “Alright” and its impact has stretched
From it's inception, rap indured a lot of hostility from listeners--many, but not all, White--who found the music too harsh, monotonous, and lacking in traditional melodic values. However, millions of others--often, though not always, young African-Americans from underprivileged inner city backgrounds--found and immediate connection with the style. Here was poetry of the
The rap genre originated from some of the most underprivileged areas of New York in the 1970’s. What was once DJ’s talking over a beat they were playing to encourage more activity on the dance floor, turned in to a new genre of music called rap. The majority of earlier rap songs were fun inducing tracks, but in the 1980’s, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five introduced social consciousness to the genre. They sparked a long lasting impact on rap as it started to evolve rapidly as time went on. The 90’s was home to “gangsta rap,” followed by a softer side of song writing pioneered by the likes of Outkast and Kanye West in the 2000’s. Today, rap music is very diverse and more accepting of different styles than it was before. However, throughout the entire history of rap music, the one thing that has stayed
Ever since Kool DJ Herc coined this term, new comers have been interpreting this culture in their own terms and making it their own. This has certainly caused hip hop to evolve, but purely in the context of America, hip hop probably no longer stays true to its roots. Hip hop used to be an outlet for the black youth to express their struggles and rise above the racial boundaries. Since record labels started investing in hip hop music, there has been a conspicuous change in its lyrical content (Flores, 2012). The lyrics have shifted from social and racial themes to violent, and even inappropriately explicit themes.
Kendrick’s song expresses the continued struggle faced by African Americans in modern society. The first couple lines of his song truly display how he feels about the mistreatment of African Americans: