Hip-hop and social injustice
Hip hop music, developed in the South Bronx in the early 1970s, has long been tied to social injustice in the United States, particularly that of the African American experience.
Hip hop artists have spoken out in their lyrics against perceived social injustices such as police brutality, poverty, mass incarceration, and the war on drugs.
Musicologist Robert Walser disputes this, arguing that many white youth who are exposed to hip hop as children are more likely to have positive relationships with African Americans and resist racism from their parents or other sources out of respect for black artists they admire.
After many years of hard fought political battles for black people in 1964 the civil rights act of 1964 was passed which made it illegal to discriminate against a person because of their color and it also ended segregation.
Now modern era social injustices include employment discrimination amongst women, police brutality amongst minorities and educational inequality with poor areas of the United States.
Some early music of this kind includes "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday and "The Bourgeois Blues" by Lead Belly, which decried injustices against the African American community.
Notable artists in this genre such as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and Sam Cooke composed and released music that opposed the Vietnam War, supported the civil rights movement, and advocated for world peace.
Gangsta rap, pioneered in the mid 1980s in Los Angeles, is characterized by explicit, often violent lyrics in opposition to police brutality, mass incarceration, and systemic racism.
The gangsta rap phenomenon spread across the United States, with similar styles of music emerging in New York City by artists like Mobb Deep, Nas, and the Wu-Tang Clan.
Many of the most prominent figures in conscious hip hop emerged in the early 2000s in Chicago and New York, with artists like Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli, and Common bringing the genre to a wider audience.
Public Enemy's lyrics were meant to be shocking and hostile, as they went against the norm for American culture at the time and cultivated an image in the media as a "gangsta group".
[2] Chuck D has also been outspoken about his views on capitalism and its link with racism, economic exploitation, oppression of minorities in the United States, and has called for unification within the black community.
"[2] N.W.A was a Los Angeles rap group made up of future hip hop legends such as Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, and MC Ren.
[18] However, the misogyny and profanity in the group’s lyrics as well as their image as violent and dangerous negatively affected the public perception of N.W.A., gangsta rap, and all hip hop music in general.
[23][24] Chicago based rapper, singer, producer, and fashion designer Kanye West, who rose to prominence in the early 2000s and has since amassed tremendous critical acclaim and commercial success, has been known for his outspoken opinions and lyrics on racial and social issues since his debut album The College Dropout (2004).
He infamously made headlines in 2005 for his remark "George Bush doesn't care about black people" during a live broadcast relief concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
[citation needed] West's comment is usually attributed to his frustration with George W. Bush and FEMA's perceived slow response to the disaster while the majority-black residents of urban New Orleans suffered.
[28] In an interview with Bill O'Reilly in 2011, Fiasco talked about the nature of his music and its political influence, saying, "My fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama and the United States of America.
Cole, along with Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West have played the biggest role in bringing conscious hip hop to a global audience in recent years.
[32] Throughout his career, J. Cole's music has taken a more conscious tone, most notably on his 2017 album KOD, which features anti-drug themes, "Once an Addict (Interlude)", and commentary on the American tax system, "Brackets".
Lamar's 2015 hit "Alright" became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement, symbolizing hope and optimism in the face of discrimination and persecution.
The Brooklyn native has achieved critical acclaim[37] as well commercial success following a more traditional "boom bap" musical style and lyrics involving social injustice.
[38] He also famously performed his hit song "Stan" with openly gay singer Elton John at the 2001 Grammy Awards in an attempt to publicly reconcile with the LGBT community.
The group's frontman Kevin Abstract is openly gay and has talked in interviews about his desire to make a change in the perception of homosexuality in the hip hop community through normalizing it.
Prior to 2015, many references to Donald Trump were made in hip hop music, mostly celebrating his status as a symbol of wealth, power, and machismo.
