Essay On Chicago Hip Hop

Ever since its creation, hip-hop has been a widely controversial topic with regards to its effect on American culture and its effect on the youth. With the new growing popularity of Chicago hip hop culture, there arguably hasn’t been a resurgence of rap this sizable since the days of Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, NWA, and Nas spreading the message of gang violence and the appalling conditions of ghettos in the USA. However, accompanied with the recent rise in popularity of Chicago hip hop, also comes a recently growing awareness and activism surrounding police brutality and the astronomically high, and still increasing, murder count in the streets of Chicago. Promising and talented Chicago rappers, such as Chance the Rapper, Mick Jenkins, Vic Mensa, and a plethora of other recognized gifted rappers have been detailing …show more content…
Some of us ain 't seeing summer, some of us have passed.” Referring to school he remarks about student seeing summer after passing classes, then grimly references the students who don’t see summer after passing away from violence in Chicago. Lyrics can make or break a song for many listeners, more importantly, their meaning and relevance to society. Chance and much of the other promising Chicago rappers are a product of their time, akin to all famous musicians. The increased presence of Chicago rappers on the musical scene logically correlates with the high rate of violence in Chicago. Furthermore, much of these rappers would not be rapping, and spreading awareness of the high violence rate, if Chicago were the least violent; the point being that, music is a cultural and societal response to systematic problems in our modern society. Intriguingly, this is the case in a lot of music throughout history, such as gospel, 90’s hip-hop, and folk music, all addressing flaws in society in some