Lexis Withers
Both Rock and Roll as well as Hip Hop have been able to truly capture the essence of music and grasp the attention of their own audiences. Something that I think is important to acknowledge is that a lot of powerful songs have come from these two genres that also embody songs that were written when crucial societal events were happening every day. When thinking about Hip Hop, I would argue that it is known for telling the stories of minorities and the different trials and tribulations that many of them have to endure. For example in an Interview that was done by Theresa Riley called “Still Fighting the Power”, Jeff Chang mentions “Hip hop’s breakthrough during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s coincided with the rise of a new generation and what we have called the war on youth...You have songs like NWA’s “F the Police,” you have songs like Boogie Down Productions...That come out and galvanize people into protest, and express this new rage at these new conditions” (Chang question 3). There has been a constant war on black and brown youth and you can see that being depicted in many hip-hop songs during that era as well as in the current day hip-hop as well. Growing up and listening to hip-hop, I could relate to a lot of the experiences that were being depicted and if I couldn’t completely relate, I knew my dad could or other people in my family. The social issues that happened nearly 40 years ago are still happening today but are just being told by different artists. Those social issues created those personal connections for the audience and gave Hip-Hop the support it needed to become a powerhouse genre. On the other end, Rock and Roll does a similar thing. In the article, “How Rock and Roll Became White”, Jack Hamilton goes into detail about the experience/rising stardom of the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones really started to gain a lot of listeners and become popular during the Vietnam war which their songs gave them the ability to express the pain and trauma from the war that had been experienced by ultimately everyone at that time. Hamilton included lyrics from one of the more popular songs from the Rolling Stones at that time, ‘Gimme Shelter’, “War, children it’s just a shot away, it’s just a shot away” (Hamilton Paragraph 18). Those lyrics created a double image which could either allow you to imagine the Vietnamese children who were being killed on the daily or being able to view oneself as a child of war or ultimately viewing both of those two different points simultaneously. The Rolling Stones used their ability and popularity to bring attention to a horrific event that was occuring. The only difference between those Vietnamese children and US citizens is merely luck, anyone could have experienced the war on their own land but that didn’t happen. Both Hip Hop as well as Rock and Roll (as well as all of the other genres) are able to strengthen or even achieve the ability of expressing the daily trauma or societal issues to further their lyricism.
Wale - Sue Me.
The video itself portrays a world completely opposite of the one we currently live in forcing many people to question the authority or current hierarchical system that is at play against Black and Brown people.
Tupac - Changes
His pointed meditation on police brutality and the war on drugs that waged in black communities is poignant and painfully relevant decades past its release. Take the line: "The penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks."
Many of the things described in the song are still occuring in the Black community today as well as other communities of color.
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