Conscious Rap Research Paper

America is a nation of the violent, the racist, the corrupt, the land of the once was free but now tied down. Please, stop the violence, get educated, love one another, or Bring the Noise. Public enemy seemed to recognize these problems that this nation faced and still faces today. They made songs soulie focused on fixing political and social issues. Turning rap into an alternative genre, or also known as conscious rap. Conscious rap is a subgenre of Hip-Hop that puts awareness and knowledge on cultural, political, philosophical, and economic issues we face (Reference). It seemed like at the time, many rappers were taking this responsibility by bringing these topics into their versus and getting their fans to wake up. It swayed and moved the
The Ku Klux Klan and other groups took drastic measures to terrorize anyone of color. This rise segregated colors, putting those with enough money in predominantly white suborn neighborhoods and those with not enough money were forced to stay in the hood. Poverty grew and lower class minorities started to envy middle to upper class minorities. This stirred up the rise of illegal drug selling, black on black crime, and criminal violence. Prisons doubles with inmates mostly of the African dissent (Knowledge, 2009). Groups like Public Enemy made it their mission to remind colored people that it is not unfortunate events that just seem to happen to their community. There are reasons why we are where we are and it is because no one wants to see colors succeed. That at the end, we need to stay together and not let events like these tear us apart. Spreading these messages was a challenge for artist since the media and any form of entertainment like radios and television channels would not allow this type of music. Some artists were even kicked off labels like Mc Paris who was dropped from Tommy Boy Records because of this song Sleeping with the Enemy. So, because of this new up rise of rebellion rap, labels turned around and refused to sign artists making conscious rappers go underground. (Forman, 2010). From here more artists and genres
Political rap is more understood as a genre that influences actions towards the government (What is Political Rap, 2010). It is clear to see where the confusion would lie in understanding the difference between the two genres considering the definitions intertwine. But political rap is more specific, focusing on just political issues and not others as well. An example of a political rapper would be Dead Prez, a duo group always aiming towards politically unfair issues. Their album RBG Revolutionary but Gangsta, talks about police brutality and the system. A line from the song W4 says “Aint nobody in the hood got no hope in this fucked up system and that’s why we don’t vote”. They are expressing the fact that no matter what we do, whether it is who we vote for, or how hard we work, the system will always push us back down. It is and has always been difficult for colored people to strive because forces are against us. Dead Prez wanted to be the face of revolution against the man. They do have some songs that are made to please their fans, but their political versus stand out the most. If Dead Prez spoken on other topics such as social, economic, and or philosophical, then they can be considered a fully conscious