Hip Hop And Hip-Hop Culture

Steve Stoute, a music executive and entrepreneur best displays what the hip-hop movement is about when he said “Hip hop culture has done more for race relations in American than anything since Martin Luther King. And I really believe that.” In the state of New York, it was rough for the youth growing up during the 1970s who were residents of the working-class areas and the housing projects. There was high crime rate and the gang mentality was at its peak. Much of the youth growing up in these areas were uninterested in joining gangs but still were searching for a sense of belonging in their community. This need for belonging caused the creation the clubs or groups of people that share the same love of a curtain art form. For example, there …show more content…
The major idea or perspective that American hip-hop and rap is trying to expose, is the oppression African Americans and other minorities face on a day to day basis. Hip-hop’s growth caused the idea of fighting back against the oppressor a reality. Rappers in the 90s took the ideas and were inspired by the original rappers in the 70s and used it to fight against their common oppressor, their society. For example, when N.W.A. said “F*ck the police” , the decision of making and performing a song about racial based police was a huge controversial event. The performance of this song aided the formation of many protests against racial based police brutality, the rappers aided their community to come together and fight against social injustice. But it does not stop here, throughout the history of Hip-hop many “SPC”(Socially and Politically Conscious) rappers use their platform of music production to “ [articulate] the post-civil rights generation’s ideas and response to poverty, drugs, police brutality, and other racial and class inequities of the postindustrial [United States] society”. Hip-hop was birthed by the youth community living with oppression and is now a tool used by the youth living with oppression to fight against their