Introduction:
-Ice Breaker: Name and what is your favorite music artist? (preferably hip hop artist)
-When you hear the term hip hop, what comes to mind?
What is hip-hop?
A culture and form of ground breaking music and self expression with elements that consisted of the elements of graffiti art, DJing, MCing, and breaking. It began in the 1970s as an underground movement in the South Bronx area of New York City. Hip hop is used as an outlet for the youth to express their beliefs and ideas. There are many different sub-genres of hip hop that are often formed as a response to different perceived political and/or social injustices.
Many rappers focus on topics such as drugs, sex, alcohol, and objectifying women. While the lyrics in these songs may be fun to sing along with, they do not always provide positive messages for the audience. Some artists have taken a stand against this and have decided to rap about important and relevant issues such as racism, homophobia, consumerism,etc... Nas, Mos Def, and Macklemore are three examples of this.
1) Mos Def Mos Def, whose real name is Dante Terrell Smith, has been ranked as one of the top 50 MCs of our time. He has spent a lot of his time being active in different social and political causes. One of his main causes is speaking out against racism. His lyrics also place emphasis on how every human being is capable and valuable, and how it is so important for everyone to be able to realize that. In his song Fear Not of Man, he expresses this: “If hip hop is about the people, and the hip hop won’t get better until the people get better, than how do the people get better? Well, from my understanding, people get better when they start to understand they are valuable. And they not valuable because they got a whole lot of money or because somebody, think they sexy. But they valuable because they been created by God, and God makes you