Reflection Of Racial Inequality In African-American Community In Rap Music

Crime and violence, should these words be the first description of African Americans, or they are misplaced within the superficial discussion of racial discrimination in America. Unfortunately, American President Donald Trump agrees with the former as his tweet in in 2016 states that “African American communities are absolutely in the worst shape they've ever been in before. Ever, ever, ever …You go into the inner cities and you see it's 45 percent poverty, African Americans now 45 percent poverty in the inner cities…you walk down the street and you get shot”. In a country where the Black community has had traumatic experiences with racial segregation due to the legacy of slavery, Trump’s facile remarks only reflect on the most apparent issues while neglecting the underlying cause. Auspiciously, American Hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar moves beyond the superficial discourse of racism; he seeks to tackle and expose how African Americans are ostracized and oppressed through systemic racism. Lamar’s music focuses on issues that plague the mental health of African Americans, especially the cycle of gang brutality and the power of self-actualization. Through Kendrick Lamar’s lyrical preeminence, he distinguishes from inauthentic communities represented in rap industry and reveals the true Hip-hop culture to a global scale, thus creating a space for deeper confrontation with the tragedy of racial inequality in African-American community.

Originated in an economically disadvantaged area named Bronx, NY in the late 1960’s, Hip-hop existed for a few years as a subculture. It was not until 1979 when Hip-Hop entered the mainstream as a rap group named Sugarhill Gang released first rap hit, “Rapper’s Delight” (independent. co). Fast-forward to today’s society, the music that Hip-Hop artists compose are not just some beats that provide rhythm sensation, but it is a particular genre of music that emphasize and negotiate the conceptualization of African American’s culture under a prejudiced society. In the book The Africanist Aesthetic in Global Hip-Hop, Dr. Halifu Osumare (scholar of black popular culture) upholds the idea that “Hip-hop culture on both commercial and street levels is creating what [she] sees as a global hood, where local subjectivities dance with a global culture that primarily exists virtually; however, this globality does truly manifest within transnational capital that uses local sites as exploitable ‘landing stations’” (Osumare). Evidently, the culture created by Hip-hop evinces in communal forms of knowledge, circulating through global media, the internet in the most place. Deriving from this, Hip-hop enables the audience to be conceptually correlate and transformed with each other over contemporary impulses from within and without these networks of knowledge. Furthermore, the focal point of Hip-hop is the interchange between conceptual apprehension and day-to-day, palpable practice.

Kendrick Lamar’s music perfectly resemble with this idea as most of his songs consist of theoretically heavy lyrics comprising controversial political topics. In particular, To Pimp a Butterfly and good kid, m. A. A. d city are arguably the two most important records that Lamar produces as he the lyrics of both albums offer multi-faceted views on the social and community issues exist within his hometown-Compton. Before analyzing the lyrics, we first must understand the narrative of both albums: good kid, m. A. A. d (acronym for my angary adolescence divided) city was released in 2012 and it is about a non-chronologic story of how Lamar’s younger self struggles to escape the destitute, dangerous, and the sinful ghetto that he grew up from. Lamar evokes different ideas of his hometown, giving an insightful perspective on the place he is from. While Lamar portrays Compton as an area of violence, crimes and sins in which innocent individuals feel difficult to maintain his purity in order to survive, Compton is identified as a place and space that hold materials, believes and most importantly, people that Lamar loves. These two thoughts may appear to be conflicting, but Lamar portrays them as co-existing instead in his lyrics. This can be demonstrated by 1` albums expostulate his early days in his hometown Compton and simultaneously…. . allow him to would be focus on This is how Lamar pushes Hip-hop on to a global scale, attracting audience from all social economical classes with different diversity. is one of the most famous and influential rap artists today due to his theoretically heavy lyrics comprising controversial political topics.

Peace and love, the everlasting ideology that anchor Hip-hop’s musical and social status. While the persuasion of love exists throughout this stylized rhythmic music, peace is undoubtedly an understatement of the progression of rap music. Originated in an economically disadvantaged area named Bronx, NY in the late 1960’s, Hip-hop existed for a few years as a subculture. It was not until 1979 when Hip-Hop entered the mainstream as a rap group named Sugarhill Gang released first rap hit, “Rapper’s Delight” (independent. co). Fast-forward to today’s society, the music that Hip-Hop artists compose are not just some beats that provide rhythm sensation, but it is a particular genre of music that emphasize and negotiate the conceptualization of African American’s culture under a prejudiced society. Kendrick Lamar is one of the most famous and influential rap artists today due to his theoretically heavy lyrics comprising controversial political topics.