¨Gay rights are human rights, there is no separation.¨-Macklemore
¨A young ***** got it bad cause iḿ brown.¨-Ice Cube.
These quotes are both related to politics. The first one from macklemore is supporting gay rights and the second one from Ice Cube is saying that black people are treated unfairly. Rap is often looked at by a bad way because of the bad language and often negative lyrics about drugs and alcohol, but does all rap deserve a bad wrap.
How it began
Political rap started in the 1980’s by a group called N.W.A. The group had a song that is still popular today called **** the police. The song talks about how black people are treated unfairly by police. The song was against police so the FBI sent a letter against the group saying, “encourages violence against and disrespect for the law enforcement officer”. What about freedom of speech? At the time rap was dominated by the east in NYC. People like LL Cool J were famous. Their movie called “Straight Outta Compton” was nominated for multiple Oscars.
Their song “express yourself” is not political, but in Compton as a form of protest for the song “**** the police” being banned from public play. It was played 360 times in arrow for 24 hours!!! The man who did this goes by triple j born with the name Zan Rowe. Overall, this is how political rap started!
Two Types
Political rap is split into two main sections. One of these is about gay rights and how it should be fine. The other type is about racism which is what NWA did.This was brought famous when Macklemore released his song Same Love in 2012 with the lesbian singer in the song named Mary Lambert. She said to the Seattle Times that, ¨I am a gay Christian. I am comfortable.¨ This relates to what she said in Same Love. She said, ¨And I can't change Even if I tried Even if I wanted to And I can't change Even if I tried Even if I wanted to My love, my love, my love She keeps me warm” This is saying that she is lesbian and she can not change that.
The other main type of political rap about racism is more common. Macklemore, j-cole, logic and kendrick lamar have made political rap music about racism. Recently logic released a song called everybody. It was released 3 days ago april first 2017. He says, ¨And some black people look ashamed when I rap” In this line he says he is treated unfairly because he is a white rapper.
If you look at the song white privilege II by macklemore a follow up to his first white privilege. He talks about exactly what the title says that white people have a privilege and it’s wrong. In the song a voice says, “"So, they feel that the police are discriminating against the... the black people? — I have an advantage? Why? Cause I'm white?
There is even black rapper like j-cole discriminating against white rappers. In fire Squad released in 2014 he said, “History repeats itself and that's just how it goes
Same way that these rappers always bite each others flows
Same thing that my ***** Elvis did with Rock n Roll
Justin Timberlake, Eminem and then Macklemore” All these people are white and he says that they are biting each others flows. He goes even farther by saying, “ white people have snatched the sound” This proves logics point when he says that he is treated unfairly as a white rapper. These are the two types of political rap and examples of them.
How itś Changed
Now political rap has changed from the time of NWA to 2017. Political rap changes as politics changes. A good example of this is in 2012 mac miller released a song titled Donald Trump talked about him in a good way. The song says, “Take over the world when I'm on my Donald Trump ****” This shows that he thinks he is a good person.
Also Rae sremmurd released a song called, “Up Like Trump” Even the title refers to Trump in a good way. Then everything changed when Trump decided to run for President. People started to make songs against Trump. An example is FDT which stands for “ **** Donald Trump” The song got over 20,000,000 views on youtube!
With this wild success YG made a second one “FDT part 2” with Macklemore and G-Eazy. Saying “Your politics are like a Starburst pack (why?) Nobody *****with the orange one” This line is against Trump talking about his orange face. Logan Paul a famous youtuber, former viner, movie producer and music video director made a song called “2016” talking about all the bad things in 2016 and you guessed it he talks about Trump. He says, “Trump elected president, you really ******* blew it” With all these changes In Politics changes in the music also happens. That is how political rap changes with politics.
Who Cares?
So have your views on rap changed or do you understand more about the music. If so great. So who cares, well Barack Obama does. His favorite song of 2015 was “How much a Dollar Cost” a political song by Kendrick Lamar. Old political rap, different types of political rap and how it’s changed is making a difference in politics now and that is why!
Credits:
Created with images by sffoghorn - "Macklemore" • possan - "ice cube poster" • maxcady808 - "Phife Dawg, Rasta Roots and me" • zzellers - "Rasterized image" • marybettiniblank - "tolerance demonstration gay" • sffoghorn - "Macklemore" • jordanuhl7 - "DSC_0215" • thecomeupshow - "richie blackz" • DonkeyHotey - "Donald Trump- Caricature" • EWatson92 - "Kendrick Lamar 15"