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A Voice for the Voiceless: The Story of Rap and America

On July 13, 1977, the city of New York died. The great lights illuminating the city were
out, and power was unavailable. The city descended into a mad chaos, with many rioting and
panicking, mobs formed, and stores were looted en mass.

The power came on the next day, but
4500 had been arrested, and $61 million worth of property was damaged or
destroyed.(Tornquist) Out of this chaos, though, came a new face for many. While hip-hop had
existed, it wasnt until the blackout that many were able to acquire (albeit illegally) any of the
recording equipment they would need to make music. Said rapper Kurtis Blow "The next day
there were a thousand new D.J.'s." (Rosen)

Through the years, hip-hop has stayed true to its
chaotic and faced paced roots. This being said, American culture as a whole has followed this
same chaotic path. Rap has closely been impacted by changes in American culture, and has itself
caused some of these changes, whether it related to gang violence, race relations, uniting a
people, or rising up against fears in America.
To understand the intertwined nature of rap and American culture, one only has to look at
the milestones in rap and the world that surrounded each of them. Looking chronologically, one
must look at the beginning. DJ Kool Herc is generally considered to be the first one to rap. It
was said of his early music Kool Herc's music made everybody happy. Even street gangs
wanted to dance, not fight. (Publishers Weekly)

In 1975, when Herc first started rapping, this
quote was more relevant than one could imagine. (Jenkins) The Bronx, Hercs hometown, has
been mapped out to have contained over 130 different points of important gang battles or
headquarter. (Bronx)

This new music, which had been picked up on by other Bronx musicians
like Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, allowed some amount of relaxation from the
rough, gang-ridden existence that was a reality at the time. (McLeod)

Similarly, other artists tried to use rap as a form of expression and positivity originally.
Rap allowed African-American music to have a voice again. After disco died, there was no real
black music in the mainstream, and even during discos heyday, many felt their voices were not
represented by the disco movement. Rappers Delight is generally heralded as the first song to
launch rap into the mainstream. Said journalist Steven Daly of the track, Rappers Delight was
a futuristic re-assertion of black pride, combining as it did the cultures oral traditions with its
eternal drive to modernismeven if it was made for $750 by a cobbled-together group akin to
the Monkees. (Daly)

The renewed power of black music allowed for other rap artists, like the
group Run-DMC, to make an impact on the black youth of America. DMC spoke out about gang
involvement and became role models for many troubled youths. (Benson)

Despite their middle
class roots, DMC were able to speak to the poor youth, and their 1986 album, Raising Hell,
allowed them to jump into mainstream success. They spoke to such important issues as drug
abuse on this multiplatinum album. (Run-DMC) Their mainstream success, combined with their
ability to comment on social challenges eventually lead to their induction into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. (Hall of Fame)
The same year as DMC released Walk This Way, a rock/rap crossover featuring a
sample of the Aerosmith track of the same name (Run-DMC), rap made one of its first large
changes. The Beastie Boys, a rock band, had formed in the midst of a white music movement
which had largely mirrored the hip-hop movement, that being the hardcore punk movement. The
hardcore punk rockers felt that their voices were stifled by the existing punk movement, much as
the hip-hop community felt that disco didnt represent them. (Brockmeier)

What set The Beastie
Boys apart from other hardcore bands, however, was their adventures into rap. By 1983, The
Beastie Boys had made a unique style of rap with hardcore elements. In 1986, they released their

first album, Licensed To Ill. Unlike the rap scene before them, this album mocked the style of
hip-hop, and used obnoxious yet humorous lyrics as its basis for success. (Beastie Boys)This
shift in rap would take the genre from being a thing to look up to for youth, into a strange period
mixed between optimism, comedy, violence, and overall obnoxiousness. An additional shift
can be seen in 1987s Paid in Full by Eric B. and Rakim, which did away with raps old style of
simply rhyming the last syllable of each line. (Huey)


This new lyrical structure, combined with Licensed To Ills new style of lyrical content,
set the stage for the explosion of Gangsta Rap, a new style of violent and lewd rap. Public
Enemys 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was accused of everything
from encouraging violence to muslim extremism. (Public Enemy) The album also accused the
CIA of killing MLK and Malcolm X, and attacked the reputation of wholesome celebrities
such as John Wayne and Elvis. (Abrams) NWAs 1989 debut Straight Outta Compton may have
been even more controversial, accusing the police of racism and brutality, and suggesting
retaliation. One reviewer stated that it was a diatribe thatwallows in gangs, doping, drive-by
shootings, brutal sexism, cop slamming and racism. (N.W.A.)

The F.B.I. even had to mail and
monitor the group, as they were afraid that this new style of music and lyrics would lead to
violence against police. (Boucher)

This new violence and anger in rap led to hip-hop cultures
bad reputation in America, and reinvigorated old racist fears. While albums like 1989s 3 Feet
High and Rising by De La Soul kept the new humor without revolving around violence, the new
cool had already been established. (Bush)
A Tribe Called Quests 1991 album Low End Theory, a throwback to the jazz age, tried to
be funky and fun without stirring up the same political controversy other albums had been.
(Batey)

However, as can be seen by the successes of Dr. Dres The Chronic, which launched

Snoop Doggs controversial and drug ridden career (Dr. Dre), and Wu-Tang Clans Enter the
Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), which glorifies everything from unprotected sex to shootings
(Lipshutz), gangsta rap was the new cool. This movement revived racial tensions. Gangsta
culture painted a picture of African-Americans as loving violence, drugs, and sex. This,
combined with longstanding racial tensions, would lead to the beating of Rodney King in 1991.
King, a black man, was pulled over after a police chase, taken out of his car, and beaten by
police officers. King survived but with nerve damage, skull fractures, and a severe concussion
which led to permanent brain damage. (Zook)
After the King incident, the black community, and many communities at large, needed a
uniting force. For many, this was found through the rapper Nas. One critic said of his 1994
album Illmatic that it "captures the ailing community he was raised in--the random gunplay, the
whir of police helicopters, the homeboys hanging out on the corner."

It took the topics gangsta
rap glorified and presented them as the gritty truths they are. Nass lyrics approached serious
topics not to make his listeners angry, but rather to make them think. (Nas) Kevin Coval
discussed the importance of his as not just hip-hop, but poetry. (Mansbach)

Such wholehearted
lyrics as What's up kid? I know s*** is rough doing your bid/ When the cops came you
should've slid to my crib ... no time for looking back it's done/ Plus congratulations you know
you got a son showed the hard and complex lives of the black youth on the street. (Bin Olu Dara
Jones)
After Nas reminded the public that hip-hop could be intelligent, rap changed to be more
easily accessible for whites and blacks. Jay-Zs 1996 debut Reasonable Doubt started this trend.
His first gold record and extensive air time on the radio shot him into the public eye. Jay-Z
glorified neither violence nor drugs, but rather riches, and how it was money that ought to be

glorified. (Jay-Z)

His style was mirrored by such funkier Southern rap acts as Outkast, who in
1996 released the hit pop single Elevators (Me and You). (Outkast) This pop friendly style was
not without its own controversy. After gangsta rap, hip-hops bad reputation had become
widespread, and some DJs refused to play Jay-Zs songs. (Jay-Z)

After this poppiness of the mid 90s, Black Stars Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star
was a needed change. After the pain of Rodney Kings beating, as well as the shootings of hip-
hop heroes Tupac Shakur (Tupac)

and Notorious B.I.G. (B.I.G.), fear had built in the black
community. Black Star returned to hip-hops roots, channeling Run-DMC and even earlier jazz
roots in an album pushing optimism, nonviolence, and the idea that its OK to be black.
(Kaufman), (Astronomy), (Definition), (Brown Skin Lady) This black empowerment helped
unite a struggling community through such simple but empowering lines as Black people unite
and let's all get down/ We got to have what? We got to have that love. (Astronomy) On the
complete other side of the spectrum, white rapper Eminem emerged the same year as Black Star,
with his highly controversial album The Slim Shady LP. Eminems style, featuring the same
comedic style as The Beastie Boys, but a more genuine anger, was well received. Eminems My
Name Is, featuring the lyrics Hi kids! Do you like violence? (Yeah yeah!)/ Wanna see me stick
Nine Inch Nails through each one of my eyelids? (Mhm!)/ Wanna copy me and do exactly like I
did? (Yeah yeah!)/ Try 'cid and get f***** up worse that my life is? (Huh?) spoke to people
about the serious effects that music and violence were having on our kids in an easily digestible,
comedic fashion. (Mathers, My Name Is) The controversial single took home a grammy in
2000. (Spear)
As rap entered the new millennia, it, like much of America after the Y2K scare (Feder),
had no clear trajectory, and some were worried. The first real guiding voice for hip-hop in the

21st century was Gorillaz. Gorillaz was the 21st century band - really just Damon Albarn of Blur
and an animator making a fictional, computerized band. Their very first single, Clint
Eastwood,

a track featuring rapper Del The Funkee Homosapien, suggested a world of brave
new possibilities for music (N.M.E.), and was called the anthem of Generation Y by SPIN
writer Gabriella Geisinger, both for its digital origins and lyrical content. (Geisinger)
Unfortunately, it would only be a few months until this newfound footing was lost.
On September 11, 2001, the city of New York appeared to have died once again. Its
iconic towers crumbled as the city was attacked. The whole country, including the rap
community, was unsure how to respond to these horrendous attacks. That morning, a new Jay-Z
album had come out, and even in the chaos and pain, had sold in massive volumes, as people
wanted some stability in the new chaos. (Johnson)

Much as President Bush gave the American
people strength and confidence, Jay-Z was able to do the same, penning such lyrics shortly after
9/11 as Bombers, Bin Laden/ I'm still crackin'/ I will not lose, I simply refuse/ I drop the same
date as the twin towers/ I show power/ Still I show compassion for others, sent money and
flowers/ Devote hours (Carter) and It's the home of 9/11, the place of the lost towers/ We still
banging, we never lost power, tell 'em. (Carter and Giles)
After an uninspiring and single driven period of rap, the 2010s came around, bringing
with them new calls for social change. In 2011, for the first time ever, a majority of America
supported the idea of gay marriage. (Newport)

Hip-hop cultures homophobia had been as long
lived as Americas, as was well shown in the documentary Paris is Burning. (Ebert)

Homophobic lyrics such as Eminems comparison of having two men elope to hump[ing]
dead animals and antelopes (Mathers, The Real Slim Shady) had been common in rap. Things
changed quickly, alongside the publics opinion. In 2012, after a slew rumors, hip-hop artist

Frank Ocean came out as bisexual. (Ocean)

This mayve been helped by rapper Lil Bs 2011
album Im Gay, which sought to dispel the negative stigma regarding the word gay and
homophobia as a whole. (Godfrey) Later in 2012, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis hip-hop anthem
Same Love became the first Top 40 song in the United States to be pro-gay rights. (McKinley)

The song was released to show support for a bill in Washington that would allow gay marriage
(Winner),

and in November the bill was passed due largely to the support and campaigning of
Macklemore. (Referendum 74) The song also encouraged rapper Mike Epperson to come out as
bisexual in song, stating (Ay, cuz, how you gonna be a gay thug?)/ I'll smack a n**** with a
signed copy of Same Love. (Epperson)

Although hip-hop gets a bad rap and is known by many as a thing which is enough to
make the most foul-mouthed bigot blush (Winner), it has had a profound and important impact
on American history. While some albums in the gangsta rap genre are offensive and violent, hip-
hop is at its roots a form of empowerment. One can see through its evolution, from representing
black youth to standing up for gay rights, rap has served as a voice for the voiceless. It has led to
social change and addressed social problems, be it gang violence, police brutality, or an event as
large as 9/11. Hip-hop has changed the face of America as much as it has been changed by
American history, and by providing an outlet for anger, pain, sadness, or fear, has become a
support for the black community and the American community at large.




















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Additional Thanks
Additionally, Id like to extend a special thank you to Kool Keith Sweat, drakonium, skinny,
sp4cetiger, and RepoMan for their musical suggestions. An additional thanks goes to Puncture
Repair for encouraging me to stick with this paper despite its challenges, and his suggestions as
to where to look based on his own paper on African-Americans and music. While I didnt
actually use any direct information from any of them, their advice and encouragement helped
form the skeleton of what I even ought to be looking for in this paper, and although there is no
proper way to cite these forum posts on a music blog, I felt it important that they be thanked and
credited nonetheless. I knew very little of hip-hop going into this, and there are a surprisingly

small number of timelines of hip-hop history, so I really needed some sort of experts to help me
through a general chronology.

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