Protest Music In The Black Lives Matter Movement

A necessary and common fight for equality has been one that has survived throughout all of man’s existence. Due to recent racial divide and the product of racial profiling, a movement has risen up to combat these common issues. The most recent and most well-covered is the Black Lives Matter Movement. Even though it has been lauded by some media sources and individuals as the next great movement to champion for civil rights, the Black Lives Matter movement is not the same as the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s nor is it likely to be as successful. If the Black Lives Matter Movement continues with discrepancies in ideology, lack of clear leadership, and trends of hate, the movement is doomed to fail.

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

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

In the United States, there has been many cases of Racial injustice. From the beginning of the start of the United States of America it was the injustice to the Native Americans being captured and used for slave labor while their bison be slaughtered for sportsmanship. But this paper is on the specific race of the African Americans. There are many races that have been racially profiled and ostracized by the English people. But the treatment that African Americans have endured even till this day is disheartening. African Americans have gone through enslavement during the early 1600’s to the mid 1800’s. Then the African Americans were obstructed by the Jim Crow laws creating the ‘Separate but Equal” propaganda during the late 1800’s into the 1960’s. After the abolishment of the Jim Crow Laws, people were considered equal until the recent actions of many police officers using deadly force on African American youths in the early 2000’s.

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

From the early 1980’s into the early 1990’s, hip-hop was an integral tool in the dissemination of young people’s voices against mainstream politics. These times were tense and rather controversial. It began with Reagan’s call for the reemergence of state rights; this call was a form of political messaging which utilized coded language targeting different groups with dual messages also known as dog whistling. It allowed individual states total power and control in instituting their own policies including segregation. On top of the aforementioned and in light of the increased state regulation, intense and increased police brutality became an unfortunate reflection of the times. As a result, many people, especially those of color, lost trust in

To gaze into the lyrics of both Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur is like living in the ghettos of New York City where violence never stops. Both of these artists grew up seeing and living a life filled with violence. Gunshots and drive-byes, death and murder were a daily occurrence. Although the lyrics of both artists are simply telling their life stories and how hard it was to grow up in their “hoods” they contain vulgar, hateful, and sexual verses that send the wrong message to their listeners. Whether these listeners are teens or adults, white or black, they are continually sending notions of hatred and fear through their lyrics and actions. Ultimately,

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

Many contradicting views surround rap music’s controversial subjects and use of language. While some consider it highly offensive, there is some validity to the rhetoric applied in political rap. In the 1990’s racial inequality is rampant with uprisings and segregated neighborhoods that condemn minorities and lower socioeconomic classes to inhumane living conditions. Specifically, Tupac Shakur’s posthumous song “I Wonder if Heaven Got a Ghetto” combines an emancipatory lyric with a hopeful and upbeat instrumental to assess the racial inequality in society and the possibility of a better future.

The year of 2016 has been a very crazy year for the United States. With the election of Donald Trump as our new president, the label of cops as racists and last but far from least, the National Anthem Protest that broke out during the pre-season of the National Football League. All of these happenings have broke out of proportion and causing many americans to turn against each other. However, I would like to talk over the National Anthem Protest as it is a huge deal.

The music industry has a huge effect on popular culture and people of today. Rappers especially can tell a story through their music, which is what Keith Cozart (Chief Keef) was hoping to bring awareness to with his rapping about Chicago. Since his career has progressed many younger generations have been informed of the violence and crime occurring there, and his most recent music talks about the dangers of it and the need for change. For older audiences, Spike Lee also brought awareness to the issue in his movie Chi-Raq, a movie about a girlfriend of a Chicago gang-leader who persuades other frustrated women to abstain from sex until their men agree to end the senseless cycle of violence. Most people today spend more time focusing on popular culture than they do on worldly issues, so it is important to make music, television, and cinema a platform for important information. Just as Walter Benjamin predicted, popular culture has become a “democratizing agent of society”. The products produced in popular culture have a major influence in showing us how we should think, feel, and act. Younger audiences are more influenced by Chief Keef considering that his music is considered “low art form”. The lyrics he writes and has younger audiences listen too certainly draws attention to older audiences for its negative messages and meaning. In the crisis of Chicago, any attention is good attention. There’s still so much work to do in order to get Chicago’s homicide and crime rates down. If a wider audience is turning in, hopefully more action will be taken before thousands of other men die from senseless

The music video of “This is America”, a political hip-hop song by Donald Glover, criticizes the US’ media’s reactions to African-American tragedies. The music video of ‘This is America’ conforms to rap culture by including distracting visuals, but it deviates from rap culture when it showcases atrocious events caused by black gun violence; Glover both alludes to and deviates from political hip-hop conventions to argue that rap entertainment distracts Americans from current African-American tragedies. It is essential to understand what the conventions of a particular genre are before one can identify whether or not a song conforms to or deviates from the conventions of that genre. In general, hip-hop can be categorized as either political or

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

Throughout history, music has been used to express the feelings of people or groups whom may have no other outlet to express themselves. The best example of this occurrence would be the lower class of America’s use of rap music. Rap music started out as a fun variation of disco with the purpose to make people dance and enjoy themselves, but it later transformed into one of the best outlets to express the struggles of poverty in the United States. The genre gained popularity when the song “Rapper 's Delight” hit the charts in the early eighties; rap evolved into a plethora of different styles from there, Gangster Rap formed with NWA in the late eighties, and rap really hit it’s zenith in the mid nineties. Modern rap began in the early starts of the twentieth century. Because of the storytelling that rappers do in the music, it gained notice in the inner city where the demographic could relate. Many young teen in the inner city environment built dream to be famous rappers just like their own favorite artists . Rap connects to me by its style, its purpose, and its political incorrectness.

For many centuries, music has been an unwavering force in society, offering entertainment for various ceremonies and events, while also providing an outlet for creative expression. Most people appreciate the entertainment factor music possesses, but fail to realize the power music has to influence social change. One way music inspires social change is through protest songs. Most songwriters agree that protest songs are written because circumstances demand engagement and things can no longer be left unsaid (Haslam). A vital element in a plethora of movements from decades past and present, protest songs are commonly recognized for playing a fundamental part in empowering the oppressed, promoting commitment, and drawing attention from those outside of a movement’s target demographic. According to Deena Weinstein, Sociology professor from DePaul University, “protest songs are defined by the virtue of their words, but many make their impact in tandem with their sonic elements, the emotionality of the music, the strength and confidence of the vocals, or their simplicity and repetitive phrases, which allow the audience to sing along” (Peddie, 4). This extraordinary method of rebuttal typically allows a community of individuals with a common goal to use a universal language—music—to stand up against social injustices, and it was particularly vital during the labor movement. Specifically studying the American labor movement that was remarkably prominent during the 19th and 20th