If you look back at hip hop in the mid 90s, you might notice a political theme.
Rappers like Ice Cube transcended music and began to tell the story of the ghetto through
film.
Lauryn Hill was preaching gender equality in songs like Everything is Everything.
[More powerful than two cleopatras, bomb graffiti, on the tomb of Nefertiti, emcees ain't ready
to take it to the serengeti, my rhymes is heavy, like the mind of sister betty (el Shabazz!)]
Rappers like Tupac, Nas, and Biggie Smalls who made music that uplifted and educated
young people from the projects
But somewhere around the turn of the decade, things changed.
Politically conscious hip-hop gained steam underground, but began to exit pop-culture.
Underground artists like Mos Def stayed true to to conscious rap.
But the rise of crunk & gangster rap made hip-hop look more like a rowdy party scene.
But in 2015, Hip-Hop returned to politics.
Kendrick Lamar spearheaded the return with his grammy nominated album To Pimp a Butterfly.
The title itself is commentary on the role of black artists in commercial music.
President Obama named a song from the album -- How Much A Dollar Cost -- as his favorite
of the year.
In it, Lamar disregards a homeless man who turns out to be god.
The lyrics weigh the literal value of a dollar against that of helping someone in need.
And Kendrick isn’t the only one who made a statement last year.
[Borders, what's up with that?]
Killer Mike gained notoriety on the strength of the anarchy-themed Run The Jewels project.
He also endorsed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
[And you make sure that when they leave, they are on fire, because they have felt the Bern]
And for four weeks straight, Straight Outta Compton topped the box office.
It tells the story of NWA, the 1980s rap group known for criticizing the police.
But the forefathers of hip hop have always been sociopolitical.
[Fight the Power]
They were influenced by protest music that came before theirs.
So, why is now different?
Over the past couple of years, several cases of police brutality against unarmed black
people have drawn the nation’s attention.
Groups like #BlackLivesMatter are meeting with presidential candidates; And conversations
about injustice travel faster than ever through social media.
If you look at this chart of public opinion on whether racism is a “big problem” - you
see it was pretty high in 1995.
By 2009, when Obama took office, it had dropped to 26%, but has since spiked back up to 50%.
Since 2013, the number of Americans saying race relations are “good” has dropped
by 15 percentage points among blacks and 27 points among whites.
Public awareness has clearly shifted.
And in many ways, the success of political hip hop reflects that change