Black culture also known as African-American culture has played a decisive role in the political struggles of the blacks for equality among the whites in USA. in this essay Ved Prakash deals with rap music and its overtly political nature.
“I start to think and then I sink
Into the paper like I was ink
When I’m writing, I’m trapped in between the lines
I escape when I finish the rhyme” (Eric B & Rakim “I know you got the soul”)¹
Music has always been an integral component of a society. Music is just not about the sound, beats or lyrics but infact it delineates the culture and subsistence of a society. one can essentially contest that music works as a mirror of a culture. if one scrutinizes the whole contextual setting of music within the historical and socio-political context of African-Americans then it would not be an exaggeration in claiming the fact that music for them has been much more than just music. Music rendered a sense of space, tolerance and credence for African-Americans in a world where the colour black was never considered beautiful in comparison to white. Music has served as an apparatus of both resistance and power to blacks.
However, there have been various facets of African-American music such as Slave Protest music, Gospels, Jazz, Blues, and Rap and each genre of music gave a socio-cultural identity to them. the music of African-Americans has travelled far from cotton fields to the streets of America and then from the streets it moved to the studios but this voyage of music has not been very pleasurable and effortless.
However, as far as Rap is concerned, one needs to delimitate Hip Hop to identify with Rap as there has always been some kind of perplexity regarding the categorization of Rap and Hip Hop. Hip Hop is a larger umbrella term which encompasses ‘Rap’, ‘Graffiti’, ‘DJing’, ‘MCing’, and ‘Break-dancing’. in the present scenario more often than not Rap and Hip Hop are used as synonyms of each-other. there is no ambiguity with regard to Rap’s indispensability to Hip Hop culture. in fact one could deduce that Rap emerged out of Hip Hop. beyond general cataloguing, I propose that streets or ghettos are also a requisite part of Hip Hop culture.
Hip Hop is a youth movement that evolved in the Bronx, New York. from these origins, it has developed in a popular music phenomenon in United States and all around the world. it is claimed that the term Hip Hop became renowned after the release of Sugar Hill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ in 1979. this song created an immense impact because of its straightforward and captivating pattern of beats. it made music lovers in America apprehend that Hip Hop had some form of vivacious energy which was not exceptionally simplistic to be overlooked. it is believed that the lyrics of the song “What a hip, hop, the hipit, the hipidipit, hip, hop, hopit, you don’t stop…”³ made the term ‘Hip Hop’ popular and relevant amongst youth. ‘Rapper’s Delight’ (1979) is perceived as the marker which made the beginning of Rap in popular imagination.
According to Russell Simmons, who is the co-founder of the pioneering hip hop label Def Jam remarks that Hip Hop is the musical medium through which the story of life in America at the end of twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries is being told. the most captivating characteristic of Rap is that it created something out of the old music records, a microphone and two turntables. Initially, before Rap reached its culmination point in terms of popularity; gigantic speakers and loud music played by DJs could be heard across the streets of American ghettos. when boom boxes which are also known as ghetto blasters were popular, there was always a difference of opinion about claiming or re-claiming the public space amidst Hip Hop artists but as Emcees started to take over loud music of ghetto blasters by their verbalfluency, the focus began to shift from DJs to Emcees and that is how Rappers came into the forefront.
As far as the origin of Rap is concerned, it is claimed that Rap emanated from sixties lingo, the word ‘Rap’ meaning conversation. in the 1960s and 70s, people would have Rap sessions as opposed to group counselling. Rap music consists of chanted street poetry that is often extemporised. the progression of Rap has been a prospicient and remarkable excursion; Rap was not invented all at once but it was the overgrowth of years of musical expressions, excogitation, experimentation, and innovation. Rap retains traces of the folk songs and vocal and musical rhythms of Africa and the Caribbean that often served as a means of communication for African people forcibly transported to America under the realm of slavery. during the time of slavery and brutality, African-Americans used to share their narratives amidst each-other, the partaking and exchange of stories and experiences also contributed a lot in the evolution of the Rap art.
Rap music does provide an insight into the soul of blacks. it takes us to the streets and ghettos where Rap was originated and later on it disseminated across numerous cultures. according to some, Rap is all about a person signing a song without a rupture, while others think that Rap is all about Rapid beats and Rappers do not really care whether people can follow this art or not. of course, Rap is about fast beats but there is so much more which give a sentience of significance to this art. At the present moment Rap music has crossed countless boundaries from Television, Radio, and Commercials to Fashion, Magazines, and Advertisements and so on.
As far as Rap being an art of resistance is concerned, it had become overtly political during late 1980s – early 1990s. this was the epoch when an entire new generation was getting inclined towards Rap and this was the time when Rap music was at its pinnacle and hence it is considered to be the golden era of Rap. Ice T’s ‘High Rollers’ (1988), N.W.A’s ‘Express Yourself’ (1989), Public Enemy’s ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back’ (1988), ‘Fight the Power’ (1989); Queen Latifah’s ‘Ladies First’ (1989), and Sister Souljah’s ‘Slavery is back in Effect’ (1991) led a sense of revolution and struggle amongst blacks in America. More often than not blacks were not allowed to perform Rap in public places because it was never accepted as a serious form of art of any worth. after the advent of Rap, there were speculations that it is a form of music which will not subsist for too long.
However, when Rap is studied in context of the African-American experience, one should not pretermit the fact that it has been a movement against exploitation, slavery, subjection and the catalogue can go on further. it functioned as the solitary source of strength and power for blacks at a time when not only black voice but black psyche as well was suppressed but more than strength and power, it furnished a cognisance of collectiveness and integrity within blacks. it connected African-Americans to each other and to their own selves regardless of their class, colour, religion and social prominence. Moreover, it helped blacks to ameliorate their social and economic eminence. in capitalist America, money is a sign of influence and accomplishment and Rap gave a sentience of both to blacks. some might remonstrate here by pointing out that Rap did facilitate in generating money but it was confined only to a group of people? though, it is factual but what in actual fact matters is that, this affluent group managed to communicate across a sense of recognition and identification.
[1] the Rap group Eric B & Rakim is from New York, America. during mid 1980s and early 1990s this duo was ranked amongst the top hip hop artists
[2] http://www.beatz4life.com/ Image accessed on 17 December 2011 at 13:39
[3] the lyrics are from the song called “Rappers Delight”.
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