Get your own Free Home PageSince its inception on record in 1979, rap music has gone through many changes and has affected music as a whole. However, due to the concept of gangsta rap and the recent tragedies of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., rap has been an object of much controversy. Many people see rap as a bad influence to their children and to society as a whole. Their opinion of gangsta rap affects their opinion of rap as a whole.
People who think like this are blind to the fact that there are actually rap songs that provide positive messages to it's listeners. Many of these rap songs speak for the upliftment of the black race and speak for equality of all. These songs give their opinion of what's wrong with the government and with society. These rap songs are placed under the title of political rap.
Political rap would not exist today if it wasn't for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's and 1960's. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the Black Panther Party were just some of the African Americans who led powerful movements in fighting for black rights and equality. Through demonstrations, sit-ins, and marches, African Americans found many ways to deal with the white racist structure that had occurred in America at the time.
Although African Americans have made much progress since the 1960's, they still face this white racist structure. Once a country that was openly racist, the racism in today's America is more hidden. It is for this reason that political rap emerged in the late 1980's and continued into the early 1990's.
The roots of political rap can best be explained in an article by Ernest Allen, Jr. Allen(1996) believed that the roots of political rap "are to be found, in part, in the black poetry movement of the sixties, its specific content traceable to the sociopolitical thought of African Americans from that period to the present" (p. 161).
When rap first started in the late seventies, this "sociopolitical thought" was nonexistent in the content of the songs. There was no message, just lyrics and a beat. In the early eighties, rap would start to have more of a concept. In 1982, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five would release the song "The Message". This song would be considered by many as the first official rap song with a message.
In this song, Grandmaster Flash raps about ghetto life and how it's like a jungle. The pressure's of the ghetto are so bad that they are pushing him close to the edge. This song was unlike any other rap song at the time. Rap artists would realize that they could rap about their personal lives and struggles and get a message out to their listeners. It would take another five years before this message rap would be taken to the next level.
In 1987, message rap would become political rap with the release of Public Enemy's first album "Yo! Bumrush the Show". This album would be considered the first official album of the political rap era (Allen, 1996, p.161). No other group in rap's history would reach the level Public Enemy did when it came to politics in rap,
It wouldn't be until Public Enemy's second album "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" that they would truly set the example of how political rap is supposed to be made. Songs like "Don't Believe the Hype" and "Rebel Without a Pause" explored the rage and anger that African Americans had against the government and the constant inequality they faced everyday of their lives.
Chuck D, leader of Public Enemy, would use his lyrics to make his people aware of the problems they face on a daily basis. William Eric Perkins explained in his article that "Chuck D has used rap music and the public space it has opened to promote a nineties version of racial politics tinted by neonationalist rage" (1996, p.21).
Chuck D has a goal set in mind for his racial politics and makes it evident in the Public Enemy song "Fight the Power":
From the heart, it's a start, a work of art
To revolutionize, make a change, nothin' strange
People people, we are the same
No we're not the same, 'cause we don't know the game
What we need is awareness, we can't get careless
You say what is this? (Stanley, 1992, p.259
With these lyrics, Chuck D fills a spot left empty by the death of Malcolm X. Like Malcolm did with his speeches, Chuck used this public venue of rap to teach and to educate the African American race. He lets them know that one way or another, even by a revolution, the black race will prevail and that they won't rest until they do.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a powerful man and a great leader for his people during the Civil Rights Movement. Many states in America acknowledged his greatness by declaring Martin Luther King, Jr. day a national holiday. However, the state of Arizona had refused to do this, resulting in a backlash from many African American people.
Public Enemy's backlash resulted in the song "By the Time I get to Arizona". In the video of this song, it "depicts a series of fictional assassinations of Arizona politicians who refused to support a law making Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a state holiday" (Perkins, 1996, p.22). The ironic part about this is that Public Enemy depicts violent methods to support a man who used nonviolent methods to battle racism. However, Allen explained in his article that this video represented a view stating "acknowledge our existence or we'll blow you away symbolically" (1996, p. 183).
This symbolism is what many political rappers used to get their message across. Back during the Civil Rights Movement, supporters would use any means they could to spread their message. African Americans during this time were more unified and fought together for the same cause. Nowadays, with the gangs in Los Angeles, greed and money, and commercialization, many African Americans are at a war against themselves and are not as unified. Political rappers see this strain in their relationship and realize that without leader to speak out for their people, this struggle between themselves will continue.
Like the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, political rappers speak out against the white racist structure that is bringing them down. One song that illustrates this point is the Gang Starr song "Conspiracy". Guru, leader of Gang Starr, speaks out against corrupt governments, school systems, and the negative parts of the rap industry.
That's why corrupt governments kill innocent people
With chemical warfare, they created crack and AIDS
Got the public thinking these were things black folk made
And every time there's violence in the media
Usually it's a black thing so where are they leading ya
Where leaders of the Civil Rights Movement mainly spoke out for equality of their people and the desegregation of schools, today's political rappers speak out on everything that is wrong in America today. Having gained so much in the last few decades, political rappers still realize that there is so much more to do before gaining it all.
KRS-One, in his days with Boogie Down Productions, was a major player in political rap. KRS-One spoke out against political, historical, and religious wrongs that has kept African Americans down for 400 years. In his song "Stop the Violence", KRS-One attacks the constitution and "contextualizes (black) crimes as an outgrowth of the immense institutional forces that foster such behaviors" (Rose, 1996, p. 253).
What's the solution to stop all this confusion?
Re-write the constitution, change the drug which you're using?
Re-write the constitution, or the emancipation proclamation
We're fighting inflation, yet the president is still on vacation
KRS-One also educates his listeners by writing history lessons in his raps. In the song "You Must Learn", KRS-One pays homage to all the African American people in the past who had their hand in creating things in America, such as Benjamin Bannaker, who created the almanac.
KRS-One also spoke out against police harassment, writing a rap that "addresses the power, perspective, and history of harassment of the police" (Rose, 1994, p.107). This rap, entitled "Who Protects Us From You?", warns his listeners of the racial intentions and illegal methods the police practice towards African Americans. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., KRS-One kept his people aware by educating them and exposing the lies of the government.
Following in the lead of the Black Panther Party, rap artist Paris has resurrected their teachings in his pro-black and nationalist raps (Rose, 1992, p.103). According to an article by Tricia Rose, Paris has declared himself a descendant of the Black Panther Party but has revised their text to fit in with the nineties (1992, p.103).
In Paris' song "The Devil Made Me Do It", he blames the white supremacy for making African Americans act out the way they do.
Must end the white supremacy
So let the rhythm roll on when I kick this
Brothers gonna work it out with a quickness
And now you know just why a panther went crazy
The devil made me (Stanley, 1992, p. 248).
Paris takes the teaching of the Black Panther Party and uses them as his main focal point in most of his raps. Rapping pro-black messages in all of his songs, Paris lets his listeners know that black power is the way to defeat this white supremacy. This message is evident in Paris' "Break the Grip of Shame":
This is a serious style for the gifted
Pro-Black radical raps upliftin'
Still growing, the powers so strong
You can't stop it (Stanley, 1992, p.245)
Just like the Black Panther Party, Paris realizes that the struggle will continue unless they fight for their rights. Paris even includes in the booklet of his CD "The Devil Made Me Do It", a complete history of the Black Panther Party and it's leaders. Paris does this to educate his black listeners and to let them know about their history that they wouldn't otherwise learn in their schools.
Political rap brought an emergence of African Americans who had a lot to say against this white racist structure. It evolutionized rap music and brought it to a new level. With the creation of political rap, it awoke a movement long thought dead, the Civil Rights Movement. For the brief time political rap was in the spotlight, it made people aware of the problems in America just like the Civil Rights Movement. It made people stand up and fight for what they believed in.
Today, however, rap music has turned away from the political side. With the absence of Public Enemy, there is nobody around to lead this revolutionary movement of music. In Ernest Allen, Jr.'s article, he credited the fall of political rap to the rise of gangsta rap (1996, p.185). Allen believed that "without an eternal mass political movement to serve as a guidepost, young message rappers, acting alone, proved incapable of probing deeper into the social content of their art" (1996, p. 185).
Without political rap to keep the masses in check, today's hip-hop industry is in shambles. With the death of Tupac and Notorious B.I.G., rap is at one of the lowest points it has even been. Hip-Hop is in a damaged state thanks to rappers who only care about money and not the upliftment of African Americans. Instead of "Fight the Power", it's "All About the Benjamins". Without a voice as powerful as Public Enemy to lead the way, political rap, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1990's, will forever remain dead.
Get your own Free Home Page