NEW YORK (AP) — In the early days of hip-hop, connecting a turntable to a light pole or converting an outdoor basketball court into a disco may have seemed like a simple invitation to a party. not.
A closer look at the scene revealed the truth. Hip-hop was a response to social and economic injustice in neglected areas, a showcase of joy, ingenuity, and innovation despite a lack of wealth and resources.
The music emanating from a DJ's equipment might tell attendees to “move your feet” and “fight the power” for the next set.
Hip-hop has been an integral part of social and racial justice movements. Hip-hop and its artists have also come under scrutiny from law enforcement and political groups, who believe they encourage violent crime.
Whether a warning, a demand, or an affirmation, hip-hop culture, and rap music in particular, has become a vehicle for holding those in power accountable and conveying lyrical indictments of systemic injustice. Hip-hop can champion and reclaim underserved spaces, like tagged walls and impromptu breakdance battles on transportation platforms.
Certain forces demonize this culture because it can threaten the concentration of power, said Willie “Prophet” Stigers, co-founder and chairman of the Black Music Action Coalition. He is the co-founder and chair of the Black Music Action Coalition, a group of artists, lawyers, managers and producers who fight against systemic racism. Both the music industry and society.
“Of course they want to weaponize it,” Stigers said. “There can be no story in which this genius cultural expression, the greatest cultural force we have globally, came from disenfranchised people.”
Hip-hop was born in the Bronx, rising from the ashes of a neighborhood plagued by poverty, urban decay, and gang violence. Fifty years later, the industry is a multibillion-dollar global industry, but the Bronx has yet to reap the benefits. (August 9) (AP Video/Noreen Nasir)
Many say the birth of hip-hop can be traced back to a back-to-school party in a Bronx apartment 50 years ago this month. And since its inception, emcees, beatboxers, deejays and graffiti have not only entertained legions of fans around the world and generated billions of dollars in commerce; His four elements of hip-hop convey a comforting spirit of resistance and free expression. Suffering for those who suffer and those who are too comfortable.
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“You gotta give us what we want/You gotta give us what we need/Our freedom of speech is freedom or death/We gotta fight the powers that be! ” – Public Enemy, “Fight the Power”, 1990
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Social and religious conservatives from all walks of life have long seen hip-hop as a threat to so-called traditional values, peace and order, but their attempts to suppress that culture It only increased Hop's global reputation and influence on public debate and democracy. .
But racial justice activists and free speech advocates say the ongoing persecution of rappers is primarily a proxy war being waged against the culture's early pioneers, Black and Latino men. I think there is. And for hip-hop artists living under repressive regimes around the world, “taking down the bars” to express dissatisfaction with the government could mean life in prison or more. be.
“Black history is being attacked, Black culture is being attacked, rap music is being attacked,” says a Democratic supporter of a federal bill that would protect artists from having their lyrics and creative expression used against them in court. said Congressman Hank Johnson.
Georgia lawmakers announced their support for the bill late last month in front of thousands of people attending the Rolling Loud hip-hop music festival in Miami. Johnson and Democratic Rep. Jamal Bowman of New York sponsored the restoration of the Arts Protection Act (RAP Act) to ensure that lyrics are not the only evidence supporting criminal cases. Similar laws in some states would require prosecutors to prove that a defendant's lyrics are not figurative, exaggerated or completely fictional.
A study by Andrea Dennis, a University of Georgia law professor and co-author of the 2019 book “Rap Trials: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America,” found successful use of rap lyrics dating back to the late 1980s. It turned out that there were about 500 criminal court cases. As evidence. Dennis and other advocates believe the cases, brought primarily against black defendants, led to their wrongful imprisonment.
A person points to a street gang conspiracy case filed under Georgia's racketeering law against Atlanta rapper Young Thug and more than 20 companies allegedly affiliated with the rapper's record label, Young Stoner Life. There are some too. In 2022, the Fulton County Prosecutor's Office included the rapper's lyrics that referenced drugs and violence as evidence of “overt acts in furtherance of a (gang) conspiracy.”
Young Thug (real name Jeffrey Williams) co-wrote Childish Gambino's hit song “This Is America,” a commentary on violence and systemic racism in the United States, which became a hip hit in 2019. It made history as the first hop song to win the Grammy Award for Best Song, and was parodied by international artists to talk about corruption and injustice in Nigeria, Malaysia and Australia.
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“Cops don’t care about black people/Pull the trigger and kill him – he’s a hero.” – Tupac, “Changes”, 1992
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As hip-hop and rap music became influential in American culture, its pioneers used it as a medium to speak about their personal realities. In 1982, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five denounced severe poverty and disinvestment, which seemed to be particularly concentrated in black communities, in their song “The Message”. Ten years later, Tupac Shakur railed against police brutality in the song “Changes.”
In 2016, rap music and protests became almost inextricably linked in the wake of the police shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. Back then, it was rare to attend a demonstration and not hear Kendrick Lamar's 2015 song “Alright,” a celebration of victory over adversity in the face of systemic oppression and injustice.
“Black creative expression is political because Black lives are political,” said Timothy Houellebecq, director of the Center for Anti-Racism at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Houellebecq, who is also an independent rap artist and teaches hip-hop courses in Temple University's Department of African Studies and African American Studies, believes rap music's familiarity has contributed to the genre's popularity and influence. He said it is increasing.
“It's natural for social movements to gravitate toward hip-hop as a culture and rap music as a means of expression,” he says. “It also makes sense that rappers would position themselves in these movements, in part because they come from communities that experience the need for protest.”
In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this year, Public Enemy's Chuck D said he thought hip-hop would be a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement.
“(BLM) is a group of people who felt the same way,” he said. “It spoke politically against the injustices surrounding George Floyd and became a spark that connected the world. Hip-hop has done the same thing. Hip-hop connects the similarities between humans and ignores the differences. It’s a movement.”
His brother Terrence Floyd also joined the effort to fuse rap, gospel and spirituality in the wake of global protests over Floyd's killing by police in Minneapolis in 2020. protest song album. Floyd, a former church drummer, said he wanted to use the music to influence his brother's name change.
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“I’m on the preacher’s door/My knees are going weak and the gun might go off/But we’ll be okay.” – Kendrick Lamar, “Alright,” 2015
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And then there's hip-hop's global influence on protests, resistance, and political opposition. From the Arab Spring and the Palestinian freedom struggle to feminism and class warfare, rap music is a popular medium for not only calls to action but also to address tyrants and colonial rulers.
Rap music videos produced by artists from Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America often include beatboxers, breakdancers, graffiti, and other hip-hop elements.
Former President Barack Obama visited Vietnam during his historic tour of Asia in 2016 and answered questions about human rights and freedom of expression across the continent. Suboi, a female rapper known as Vietnam's “Queen of Hip-Hop”, was asked about her resistance to the Vietnamese stereotype that rap music is not an appropriate expression for Asian women.
“Let's be honest, art is sometimes dangerous, and that's why the government is sometimes sensitive about it,” President Obama said. “But one thing I truly believe is that when you try to suppress art, you end up suppressing people's deepest dreams and aspirations.”
Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader who turned 18 when hip-hop was just beginning to take off in his hometown of New York, was inspired by rap music, which informed much of his public life. He said that he has shaped the The 68-year-old credits his hip-hop culture with cultivating the soil for his 2008 election as the first black American president.
“I wasn't part of the 'We Shall Overcome' generation,” Sharpton says. “I came out of Fight the Power, Public Enemy.”
Furthermore, he added: “Hip-hop took the chains off us and said, 'No, just say it our way.' … It was that freedom. It was raw, unwatered expression. We understood the anger and anger, even if we expressed it differently.”
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Associated Press writer Jonathan Landrum in Los Angeles contributed.
__ Aaron Morrison is a member of The Associated Press' Race and Ethnicity team in New York. Follow him on social media: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.
