Rap

C

Politically Conscious Rap and Gangsta Rap

During the mid-1980s, rap moved from the fringes to the mainstream of the American music industry as white musicians began to embrace the new style. In 1986 rap reached the top ten on the Billboard pop charts with “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” by the Beastie Boys and “Walk This Way” by Run-DMC and Aerosmith. Known for incorporating rock music into its raps, Run-DMC became one of the first rap groups to be featured regularly on MTV (Music Television). Also during the mid-1980s, the first female rap group of consequence, Salt-N-Pepa, released the singles “The Show Stoppa” (1985) and “Push It” (1987); “Push It” reached the top 20 on Billboard’s pop charts.

In the late 1980s a large segment of rap became highly politicized, resulting in the most overt social agenda in popular music since the urban folk movement of the 1960s. The groups Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions epitomized this political style of rap. Public Enemy came to prominence with their second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), and the theme song “Fight the Power” from the motion picture Do the Right Thing (1989), by African American filmmaker Spike Lee. Proclaiming the importance of rap in black American culture, Public Enemy’s lead rapper, Chuck D, referred to it as the “black CNN” (Cable News Network).

Alongside the rise of political rap came the introduction of gangsta rap, which attempts to depict an outlaw lifestyle of sex, drugs, and gang violence in inner-city America. In 1988 Straight Outta Compton, the first major album of gangsta rap, was released by the Southern California rap group Niggaz with Attitude (N.W.A). Songs from the album generated an extraordinary amount of controversy for their violent images and inspired protests from a number of organizations, including the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). However, attempts to censor gangsta rap only served to publicize the music and make it more attractive to both black and white youths. N.W.A became a platform for launching the solo careers of some of the most influential rappers and rap producers in the gangsta style, including Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Eazy-E.

IV

Current Trends

In the 1990s rap became increasingly eclectic, demonstrating a seemingly limitless capacity to draw samples from any and all musical forms. A number of rap artists have borrowed from jazz, using samples as well as live music. Some of the most influential jazz-rap recordings include Jazzamatazz (1993), an album by Boston rapper Guru, and “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)” (1993), a single by the British group US3. In the United Kingdom, jazz-rap evolved into a genre known as trip-hop, the most prominent artists and groups being Tricky and Massive Attack. As rap became increasingly part of the American mainstream in the 1990s, political rap became less prominent while gangsta rap, as epitomized by the Geto Boys, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Biggie Smalls (The Notorious B.I.G.), Tupac Shakur, and Puff Daddy (P. Diddy) grew in popularity. In the late 1990s some rappers—such as Master P in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Puff Daddy in New York City—became entrepreneurs as well, starting highly successful record labels as well as myriad spin-off companies. Popular rappers as the 21st century began included Jay-Z, Ja Rule, Eve, Eminem, Outkast, and Mystikal.

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V

Social Significance

Since the mid-1980s rap music has greatly influenced both black and white culture in North America. Much of the slang of hip-hop culture, including such terms as dis, fly, def, chill, and wack, have become standard parts of the vocabulary of a significant number of young people of various ethnic origins. Many rap enthusiasts assert that rap functions as a voice for a community without access to the mainstream media. According to advocates, rap serves to engender self-pride, self-help, and self-improvement, communicating a positive and fulfilling sense of black history that is largely absent from other American institutions. Political rap artists have spurred interest in the Black Muslim movement as articulated by minister Louis Farrakhan, generating much criticism from those who view Farrakhan as a racist. Gangsta rap has also been severely criticized for lyrics that many people interpret as glorifying the most violent and misogynistic (woman-hating) imagery in the history of popular music. The style’s popularity with middle-class whites has been attacked as vicarious thrill-seeking of the most insidious sort. Critics note that violence has been more than just a popular subject for rap lyrics; Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls were both gunned down in separate gang-style killings in 1996 and 1997. Defenders of gangsta rap argue that the music is a legitimate form of artistic expression and accurately portrays life in inner-city America. Whatever one’s stance on these issues, rap music inarguably has carved out a space for the expression of inner-city black culture that is unprecedented in American history.

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