Is the legacy of political rap going to live on?
| 7:55 AM on 06/19/2010 |
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Flavor Flav, left, and Chuck D. of the rap group Public Enemy, pose for photographers upon their arrival for the MTV Music Awards at New York's Radio City Music Hall, Sept. 8, 1994. (AP Photo/Malcolm Clarke)
By Davey D
AllHIpHop.com
Whenever we talk about hip-hop and politics it's always done from the standpoint with us going to the ballot box as the ultimate goal. Don't get me wrong, voting and participating in the electoral arena are important, but hip-hop is so much bigger and so is politics.
For many of us politics is more than us voting for a particular candidate or having a catchy slogan that everyone chants at a rally. At its core, politics is about empowerment. It's the social, economic and political control of our communities with voting and political education being among the important steps we take to reach that goal.
Hip-hop is more than a "Hot 16," "fresh new gear" or "swagger devoid of substance." At the end of the day hip-hop like politics is also about empowerment. It's about giving voice to the voiceless and helping remove both ourselves and the community from a position of being maligned and irrelevant with respect to the larger society. Like voting, knowledge and understanding of self and our communities is critical.
It's important for us to have a firm understanding about the political and social conditions that existed at the dawn of hip-hop's birth in the early 70s. It's important to note that our communities were under serious attack and the expressions associated with hip-hop was one way in which we responded and ultimately coped.
The pioneers to this culture came up seeing how the FBI under the leadership of J Edgar Hoover and his COINTELPRO, went all out to destroy the symbols of resistance and liberation from earlier generations including; Malcolm X who was killed, Martin Luther King who was killed and the Black Panther Party which was destroyed with many of its members jailed. Among those incarcerated during the dawning of hip-hIs the legacy of political rap going to live on?
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