Part I of the music as social justice series - a closer look at hip hop and rap as social justice. In what has been called a “post-racial” and “post civil-rights” America, we continue to witness the deaths of unarmed black citizens like Trayvon Martin and Freddie Gray at the hands of police officers. Like grassroots social justice movements, music has the incredible power to mobilize and inform people. However, music has a way of bringing people together in ways unlike that of conventional activism. Hip-hop in particular has historically been used to take back spaces occupied by a white majority which marginalized and gentrified said black spaces. Let's examine some of the more popular - and the more powerful - hiphop/rap anthems of the last three decades and the impact they've made!
2. Sound of da Police - KRS-One (1993) Give it a listen! 3. Formation - Beyonce (2015)Those of us in the Social Justice community were shaken to the core when Beyonce released the first single from her hit album Lemonade, and dawned Black Panther-esque attire at the Super Bowl the following day. Formation is an unapologetic and literal reclamation of space by black folks. In the video Queen Bey stands atop of a sinking police care in post Katrina Louisiana, and eventually drowns with it. Rap as a genre has been used through history, and is still being used, to vent frustration about black experiences in a predominantly white society, raise awareness to these issues, and present narratives of blackness. The songs mentioned above have done just that, and continue to do so today! Self actualization and control of one’s own story through music is a form of social justice, and especially social justice consciousness. Rap is often associated with the promotion of violence, drug use, misogyny, etc. While this is true of the more contemporarily popular rappers of this generation, only 1% of rappers, actually promote that type of culture. (Kaufmann) Rap has predominantly served as a vessel for (mostly) nonviolent social justice within black communities throughout history into the present.
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