Hip-Hop is a popular style of music which came into existence roughly around 1970’s .Hip-Hop in the 21st century is the fastest selling genre of music. It is not only a genre of music but slowly has developed itself into a cultural movement influencing youth around the world. Hip-hop is associated with dancing, tattoos, graffiti art, fashion, slangs and various other elements.1 But is Hip-hop’s popularity based on just fashion, explitive lyrics,tattoos and graffiti? This is a question that has to be explored. The popularity of Hip-Hop and Rap lies in the fact that it provides an outlet to the angst of Society’s youngsters. This paper through a close reading of a few early Rap/ Hip-Hop songs tries to trace how racism is still prevalent in America in spite of the various anti-racial stance that the government adopts . The rappers through music, try to put forth the issue of racism and assert their black identity. Hip-hop that started as a Black man’s movement against racism has now been assimilated by the White man to express his angst against the society, the government etc.2
The Harlem renaissance3 of the early 20th Century lead to the popularity of African-American forms of music like the Jazz and the Blues. The Jazz and Blues movement of the early 20th century was a musical expression of the syncretic African-American culture and and assertion of the African roots of the Black Americans.4 During the Mid 20th century, Rock n roll , Funk, Soul became popular and African- American artistes such as Marvin Gaye, The Mama’s and Papa’s, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley etc gained enormous success. Early 1970’s saw the decline of black musicians as white listeners shifted their tastes to Country music , Rock and Heavy Metal etc. The Late 1970 ‘s saw the emergence of Hip Hop music in the “Block Parties” Of Harlem. Till the year 1985, Hip Hop was associated more with the various dance styles it adopted, turntables, rhythms and the breaks it explored. The year 1985 saw artiste’s such as Run DMC collaborating with hard-rock bands such as Aerosmith, bringing the black artiste’s into focus again. The new wave of Hip-Hop raised issues of race,social equality and rights of the black community through music. It went back to the African oral tradition where in the rapper played the role of the Griot5 who presents the legends and tales. Tu Pac Shakur in his song “I wonder if heaven got a ghetto” went on to tell the tale of his childhood . “.I was raised, the little young nigga doin bad s***..Talk much s*** cause I never had s***..I could remember being whupped in class..And if I didn’t pass mama whupped my a**..”6 Through the song he put forth the issues the people living in Ghetto faced .The DJ or the Rapper narrate the tales of the ghetto and the violence against them through toasting7 .Artiste’s such as Public Enemy, Arrested development, Nigga With Attitude,Tu Pac Shakur, Notorious BIG voiced their distress through music and raised questions against racial discrimination, poverty and violence.8
The African-American9 has always been stereotyped by the white American as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal , deserving punishment. Till late 20th century the whites feared miscegenation .Many states passed the anti miscegenation law10 which prohibited marriage between different ethnic groups and those who trespassed the law were charged under adultery or forniction.11This fear of miscegenation is evident in ‘Public Enemy’s’ song “The fear of the black planet “Are you afraid of the mix of Black and White..We’re livin’ in a land where..The law say the mixing of race..Makes the blood impure..She’s a woman I’m a man..But by the look on your face..See ya can’t stand it.. . 12 Public enemy also questioned the whole notion of racial purity. They argued that racial purity is a social construct and not a biological truth. What is pure? Who is pure?..Is it European state of being, I’m not sure..If the whole world was to come..Thru peace and love..Then what would we made of?….13 Public Enemy’ states that the white man creates a fear of the black man “Why is this fear of Black from White..I’ve been wonderin’ why…People livin’ in fear..Of my shade..(Or my hi top fade)..I’m not the one that’s runnin’..But they got me one the run..Treat me like I have a gun.. 14The Black man though innocent is constructed as the bad man. “All I got is genes and chromosomes..Consider me Black to the bone..All I want is peace and love..On this planet..(Ain’t that how God planned it?)..Excuse us for the news..You might not be amused..But did you know White comes from Black..No need to be confused..Excuse us for the news..I question those accused..Why is this fear of Black from White..Influence who you choose?”15 Another group ‘Niggers with Attitude ( N.W.A)’ in their song “Niggaz for life” state that they would call themselves a nigger because thats the identity that has been given to them.“Nigger, this Nigger, that …The actual fact is that I’m black…And bound to attract…The attention of another …I mean the other....I call myself a nigger ’cause my skin won’t whiten…16 N.W.A point out at the hypocrisy of the white men who want to civilize the black and also discriminate against them. He states that he need not be white in order to attract but he already is the white man’s centre of attention. The rapper prefers to assert his blackness rather than escape his identity.
The Government policies failed to ensure equality in social and cultural realm. The African-American is still called a nigger even after the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment17 Tu Pac in the song “ I wonder if heaven got a ghetto” questions the Government about the rights of the black man in a “democratic” American society . “I see no changes, all I see is racist faces..Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races..We under I wonder what it take to make this ..one better place, let’s erase the wait state……It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other…And though it seems heaven-sent…We ain’t ready, to have a black President, huh…It ain’t a secret don’t conceal the fact…” 18In spite of different Government policies against racial discrimination, the the black man suffers poverty . Poverty forces them to resolve to criminal activities in order to fill their empty stomachs. ..”Is life worth living should I blast myself….I’m tired of being poor and even worse I’m black….My stomach hurts so I’m lookin for a purse to snatch….19”. Socially the black man stays at the foot of the social ladder irrespective of his educational or economical background You’re a nigger ’til you die ….If you’re a poor nigger, then you’re a poor nigger …If you’re a rich nigger, you’re a rich nigger..But you never stop being a nigger ..And if you get to be educated, you’s an education nigger …It’s plain to see, you can’t change me…’Cause I’m a be a nigger for Life …”
Racial violence is another issue that rappers focus attention on. Lynching was a practice that white Americans followed to punish blacks ,by executing them in public.20 The practice of lynching, though not seen anymore in modern America, is still continuing in a new form. Police brutality and oppresion is still common in the Ghettos. “Cops give a damn about a ne-gro…..Pull a trigger kill a nigger he’s a hero…Mo’ nigga mo’ nigga mo’ niggaz….I’d rather be dead than a po’ nigga…Let the Lord judge the criminals…If I die, I wonder if heaven got a ghetto…Just think, if niggaz decide to retaliate…(Soldier in the house)..I wonder if heaven got a ghetto”21. Youths are killed , and booked under false cases22. This leads to more violence and riots . Racial politics of the police leads to violent behaviour of the Black community. “Why do I call myself a nigger, you ask me?..Because police always wanna harass me..Every time that I’m rollin..They swear up and down that the car was stolen ..Make me get faced down in the street …They throw the s*** out my car on the concrete..In front of a residence ..A million white m*****f****** on my back like I shot the President …..Nigger. Nigger. Nigger ..Nigger. Nigger ..Nigger, please..I’m treated like a f***** disease” 23The black man would rather commit a crime then be booked and killed under false accusations. Hence police violence leads to the their retaliation by involving in gang wars and drug menace. “Don’t wanna be another statistic, out here doin nuttin…Tryin to maintain in this dirty game, keep it real…and I will even if it kills me, my young niggaz..24
In the essay “The Fact of blackness”Frantz Fanon25 states that a black man has to objectify himself as the white man has in order to understand his own identity.Rappers subvert the stereotypes to assert their black identity..’ In one of his albums, “Loyal to the Game”, Tu Pac Shakur says a “N.I.G.G.A. is Never Ignorant About Getting Goals Accomplished”” Tu-pac subverts the derogatory term “nigger” which is often associated with laziness and immorality to present the nigga as a hardworking person who does not rest till the goal is accomplished. The Gangsta becomes the image of the black man. The Gangsta fights for black freedom and against police oppression .The gangsta appropriates the stereotype of the black man as evil , an anti social menace.”And for a youth to survive a nigga gotta be a gangster..And I’m a nigga you can’t remove.”26 …..As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I take a look at my life and realize nothings left..Look at the situation, they got me facing I can never live a normal life, I was raised by the stripes So I gotta be down with the hood team..Been spending most of our lives living in the gangstas paradise .Keep spending most of our lives living in the gangstas paradise27 The rappers intentionally use profanities such as “m***** f*****” to appropriate an animal image. 28“I call myself a nigger ’cause the s*** that I’m writing …Hypes me, hypes other m***** f***** around me..And that’s the reason why they want to surround me….29 Guns, drugs and women become symbols of black masculinity.While the west coast rappers resolved to assert their gangsta image, East coast rappers dealt with social issues and put forward the thought of a united syncretic America.”United minds of the Americas..minds of Africa and the Caribbean and the Europeans and the Asians and Australians..it’s not just race we’re all in this together! ”30 They insisted that America can’t claim a homogeneous white identity for it occupies a syncretic space wherein all ethnic groups live together.They suggest the black American to let go of all the violence and negativity and to assert their African roots “Lets play a game of jeopardy what’s the question?..Social Medicines the answer..I try to eat healthy to avoid the cancer..one ounce of prevention beats 100 pounds of cure..pure ways of living is not hippish..it’s not white not black it’s just conscious..conscious of your health, conscious of your self..instead of being so damn conscious of your wealth..(or lack of so…).DO you know about the Panthers,..the MOVE organization, Kwame..Nkrumah, the Zulu nation or just Nikes and Pumas..or your fascination with the so-called B-Boy fashion nation…If you can please recycle..even the people in the hood please recycle..I know it wasn’t our fault that they went psycho..they meaning industry exec’s who flex for profit!..Traditional societies and islanders..please retain your culture and don’t give up!..Don’t you understand we must understand this..if we want to live in bliss..”31
Traditionally, Africans have been given the lowest social order. They have been stereotyped as animalistic, uncivilized, living in the body, impure, savage etc. In the Post-Colonial Era one expected to see changes in the attitudes of the White population in America, Though measures have been taken by the Government of United States of America to curb racism by introducing various laws , they are ineffective due to the corruption, red tapism and other such reasons .In such circumstance the black American continues to be an out-caste and suffers oppression. The history of subjugation in the name of race and colour continues. Rap and Hip-hop have become cultural movements, popular all around the world for their usage of slang, the fashion , tattoos and graffiti. They have become synonymous with African-American Culture in the past decade. The Rappers of America who are predominantly black, use music as a medium to express their angst against this oppression
References:
1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_music accessed on Oct 10, 2006.
2Rap Music in the beginning was a music genre with mostly black artiste’s. It is only now in the 21st century that white artiste’s like Eminem , Fergie, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears etc have adopted the rap and hip hop music forms . The popularity of Rap amongst White people could be seen as an expression of white anger against the society
Music Making History: Africa Meets Europe in the United States of the Blues. In Nikongo Ba’Nikongo, ed., Leading Issues in Afro-American Studies. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 1997, pp. 189-233. Copyright © 1997, Carolina Academic Press. http://asweknowit.ca/evcult/USBlues.shtml accessed Oct 10, 2006.
“For, as relentlessly black as rap has been, since the mid-eighties its largest audience has been white, and male (Samuels, 1991, cf. Harrington, 1992, pp. 376-382). One is reminded of Gerald Early’s (1989, p. 138) remark about a passage from Norman Mailer’s account of the Ali-Forman bout in Zaire where Mailer “expresses a very simple and very old idea here, namely, that the black male is metaphorically the white male’s unconsciousness personified.” The hidden psycho-social logic of racism has operated so that the anger black rappers express on their own behalf, and against whites, matches the anger white males feel–perhaps about themselves, or their elders, or both– but are not so willing to express. The anger which drove the rapper to create something which is, among other things, ethnically his, allows whites to feel their own anger though the rappers’ performance while getting the vicarious thrill of an imaginary trip to the archetypal exotic Black Jungle Ghetto much as, half a century ago, their grandparents went to the Cotton Club to view erotic stage shows danced to hot jazz.”
3 “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Renaissance accessed on 10 Oct 2006.
“The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of art, literature and music in the United States led primarily by the African American community based in Harlem, New York City. Most of the participants in this African American literary movement were descendants from a generation whose parents or grandparents had witnessed the injustices of slavery and the gains and losses that would come with Reconstruction after the American Civil War as the nation moved forward into the gradual entrenchment of Jim Crow in the Southern states and in its non-codified forms in many other parts of the country. Others were Africans and people of African descent from the Caribbean who had come to the United States hoping for a better life. Characterizing the Harlem Renaissance was an overt racial pride that came to be represented in the idea of the New Negro who through intellect, the production of literature, art, and music could challenge the pervading racism and stereotypes from the larger white community of that era to promote progressive or socialist politics and racial integration and social integration. The creation of art and literature would serve to “uplift” the race. This became known as racial political propaganda. There would be no set style or uniting form singularly characterizing the various forms of art coming out of the Harlem Renaissance. Rather, there would be a mix of contradictory styles embracing European standards, celebrating a Pan-Africanist perspective, “high-culture” and the “low-culture or low-life,” the traditional form of classical music to the blues and jazz, traditional and new experimental forms in literature like modernism and in poetry, for example, the new form of jazz poetry. For blacks, their art was a way to prove their humanity and demand for equality.”
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues accessed on 10 Oct..2006
“An early form of blues-like music was a call-and-response shouts, which were a “functional expression… style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure.”A form of this pre-blues was heard in slave field shouts and hollers, expanded into “simple solo songs laden with emotional content”.The blues, as it is now known, can be seen as a musical style based on both European harmonic structure and the West African call-and-response tradition, transformed into an interplay of voice and guitar.” Jazz is an original American musical art form originating around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans, rooted in African American musical styles blended with Western music technique and theory. Jazz uses blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation.”
5 http://www.answers.com/topic/griot accessed on Oct 10 2006
African tribal storyteller. The griot’s role was to preserve the genealogies and oral traditions of the tribe. Griots were usually among the oldest men. In places where written language is the prerogative of the few, the place of the griot as cultural guardian is still maintained. In Senegal, for example, the griot-without resorting to fantasy-recites poems or tells stories of warriors, drawing on his own sources of inspiration
6 I wonder if heaven got a ghetto, Are you still down ( I remember). Tu Pac Shakur, Death Row Records. Nov 24, 1998
7 http://www.answers.com/topic/toasting-1 accessed on Oct 10 2006
Toasting has been part of African American urban tradition since Reconstruction as part of a verbal art tradition, dating back to the griots of Africa. African American stories usually lauds the exploits of the clever and not entirely law-abiding trickster hero (not always human) who uses his wits to defeat his opponents. Toasters continue the oral tradition by recounting the legends and myths of the community in venues ranging from street corner gatherings, bars, and community centers, to libraries and college campuses. As with oral traditions in general, and with other African American art forms as the blues, toasting uses a mixture of repetition and improvisation.
8http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_school_hip_hop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_hip_hop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rap_music accessed on Oct 10, 2006
9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American accessed on Oct 10, 2006
An African American (also Afro-American, Black American) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa The majority of African Americans are the descendants of enslaved Africans transported via the Middle Passage from West and Central Africa to North America and the Caribbean from 1609 through 1807 during the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
10http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws accessed on Oct 10.2006
11http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miscegenation#United_States accessed on Oct 10.2006 Vermont was the only state to never introduce such legislation. These laws were not completely repealed until November 2000, when Alabama became the last state to repeal its law.
12 Fear of the black planet, Fear of the Black Planet, Public Enemy Def Jam Records July 26. 1994
13Ibid.
14Ibid.
15Ibid.
16Niggaz for life,EFIL4ZAGGIN. Niggers With Attitude. Priority Records.May 27, 1991.
17 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation accessed on Oct 10, 2006
The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential order on January 1, 1863 declaring the freedom of all slaves in those areas of the Confederate States of America that had not already returned to Union control. Amendment XIII (the Thirteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution officially abolished slavery and, with the exception of allowing punishments for crimes, prohibits involuntary servitude.
18 Ibid.
19Ibid
20http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlynching.htm accessed on Oct 10.2006.
21Ibid.
22There are many cases of racial brutality by the police, registered in America. The links below provide information about a few such incidents .
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/oct2005/nola-o13.shtml accessed on Oct 10 2006.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/feb2004/nypd-f25.shtml accessed on Oct 10 2006.
http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/oct1998/ai-o27.shtml accessed on Oct 10 2006.
http://www.newyouth.com/archives/usa/usa_today_police_brutality_20000623.asp accessed on Oct 10 2006.
23Ibid
24 Young Niggaz, Me against the world. Tu Pac Shakur. Interscope Records. March 14.1995.
25 http://www.nathanielturner.com/factofblackness.htm accessed on Oct 10.2006.
“What? While I was forgetting, forgiving, and wanting only to love, my message was flung back in my face like a slap. The white world, the only honorable one, barred me from all participation A man was expected to behave like a man. I was expected to behave like a black man—or at least like a nigger. I shouted a greeting to the world and the world slashed away my joy. I was told to stay within bounds, to go back where I belonged. They would see then! I had warned them, anyway. Slavery? It was no longer even mentioned, that unpleasant memory. My supposed inferiority? ……. I was resolved, since it was impossible for me to get away from an inborn complex, to assert myself as a BLACK MAN. Since the other hesitated to recognize me, there remained only one solution: to make myself known. “
26Nigga with a gun, The Chronic. Dr Dre . Death Row Records.Dec 15. 1992
27Gangsta’s Paradise, Coolio Rhino/ADA. Nov 25. 1995
28Profanities are common to most west coast rappers who are recognized for their overt masculine image, their overtly sexual music videos and graphic lyrics.
29Ibid
30 United minds, Arrested development Greatest hits, Arrested Development. EMI Gold (UK).May 14,2001. Original year of recording not found
31Ibid.
soultrot 
Nice posting, very in-depth.
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