"George Bush doesn't care about black people"
- Kanye West
As
radical as Kanye's declaration at the time during a fundraiser for
Hurricane Katrina was, it represented what hip-hop is all
about.
Hip
Hop has always been political and has gone hand in hand with whatever
situation was in the news and media. it's an art form and a way for a rapper to express themselves about how they feel about what's going on in the country and sometimes the world.The lyrics of songs like "The Message" by Grand Master Flash
& The Furious 5 spoke of the experiences of living in a
disadvantaged situation.
in
the 1980s, rappers began focusing their politico rhymes on the people
in office. President Ronald Regan first began getting mentioned because
of his need to cut programs that were helping inner city communities and widening the social gap in America. Many rappers from Scarface to Pusha T blame Reagan in music for many ills and problems in their communities.
Scarface: “Reagan never planned for us to rise.”
— Pusha T: “The Ronald Reagan era was a tough time and a detrimental time to the black community,” especially due to the “Cocaine Ronald gave us.”
Over the years, hip hop has gone from hating the president- and vise versa- to dining with the president.
During
the 2008 presidential election, many hip hop artists and supporters
declared Barack Obama the first hip hop president. He unlike the men
before him didn't shun and criticize rap music. in fact, Diddy and Jay-z publicly endorsed and campaigned for him. we suddenly started hearing more uplifting political songs, that embraced the new president. "My President" by Young Jeezy was just the first of many songs and mixtapes that celebrated the first black president. The influence of hip-hop played a big role in electing Obama into office. who would have thought even five years ago, the president of the united states would have Jay-z and Lil Wayne on his iPod.
"My President"- Young Jeezy featuring Nas
of course when you think of political rap, you have to include the highly influential rap group Public Enemy.
The group, led by Chuck D had hard hitting lyrics that called out the
problems of the country and made its listeners conscience of whats really going on.
"Fight The Power"- Public Enemy
"We Don't Care"- Kanye West
Although hip-hop is seemingly going deeper and deeper into this party and strip club music phase, it still has a powerful voice that demands to be heard in today's political climate. 
Great examples, but a little more elaboration on the artist examples would have been nice.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know other presidents influence in hiphop between reagan and obama. For instance Bill Clinton, who was popular among black voters, received attention in hip hop songs. Also thinking beyond political, in 2004 on the Myspace of The Vatican, (the home of the Pope)Changes- Tupac was featured as the profile song.
ReplyDeleteGood blog, however I don't really think hip hop music really had much to do with Obama being elected president. How exactly does a party/strip club themed song create a powerful voice in politics?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that hip hop still has a political voice. It's true, more recent songs seem to be about partying, jewelry, and women, but there will always be hip hop songs that allude to politics.
ReplyDeleteHip-Hop definitely talks about politics but I do not think it truly has an effect on politics but instead more of just publicity for their fan base. Politics and hip-hop do not influence in each other but instead feed off of one another to gain popularity.
DeleteYeah I don't think that hip hop has a direct effect on politics. I think rappers choose to rap about political issues for two reasons: to reach out to a different audience, or simply because a certain issue has touched them or influenced them.
ReplyDeleteI like your use of examples of artists that rapped about political issues, however in your final paragraph, you just said names of artists and didn't give any names of songs. The YouTube videos you put in your blog were good though, the only one of those songs that I have heard before is "The Message," so the other ones were new to me. I would've liked to see some other examples of songs too, even if you had just said the names so that I could listen to them on my own time.
ReplyDeleteI think rappers choose to rap about politics because its something that they care about. Rappers will always rap about things that matter to them, obviously. Not all rappers rap about politics because maybe they don't feel the need to mix their political opinions with their music. Some might. Either way I do not think that hip hop directly affects politics nor to politics directly affect hip hop.
ReplyDeletePolitics have some influence on hip hop, why else would they take the time to rap about it? However, to say that hip hop influences politics is strong. I've never heard a song of someone ranting about the government and then hear about the government changing their ways because of it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that hip hop does has a direct affect on Politics. I think the kind of affect is subjective. It depends on the individual. If Kanye west raps about how everyone should support the president. I think people's opinion of Kanye and rap could affect the way they feel or they may not let it. However, rap does bring awarness to politics.
ReplyDeleteAs many people stated that politics and hip hop are very loosely related, I tend to disagree with that statement because, as shown in the blog, there are political relations in hip hop. For example, Lupe Fiasco got kicked off stage at the presidential inauguration for dissing Obama. I thought the blog accurately represented the political and racial ideas that are in hip hop.
ReplyDeleteI don't quite think Hip Hop directly influenced politics but I definately think it has brought political issues to the younger audience. So many younger people got out an voted this year and I do, to an extent, think Hip Hop helped that. I mean we saw Jay-z and Beyonce having dinner with the Obamas... thats huge! I think Hip Hop has over time, brought out political issues an influenced the younger generation to vote and do something about these issues. Like Diddy and his voting campaigns... Vote or Die!
ReplyDeleteI also do not think hip-hop has a direct effect on politics. Rappers can try and influence their audience but I don't think they have to much power there. Although it is common for people to hear stupid things like "Bush hates black people" and believe it.
ReplyDeleteI believe that hip hop has a influence on politics. The question is whether it is a minor or large influence. I think it has a fair size of a influence because I feel that music now a days easily influences people. People listen to music so much that I feel even if they try not to let the music influence them it almost brainwashes them by hearing a song consistently.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't believe that mainstream hiphop is even politically relevant. Artists like kanye west are limited to the message they can send and are surely limited to the audiences that they are reaching out to. Mainstream radio is all controlled by large business firms. On the flip side artists like Immortal technique, lupe fiasco, and Common are the real political activists in the HipHop rap game.
ReplyDelete