Rap and Hip Hop: Crash Course Black American History #47

hi I'm Clint Smith in this crash course black American history and today we're talking about the origins of rap and hip hop the streets of Harlem and the south Bronx in New York City in the late nineteen seventies rap and hip hop emerged as a direct response to two things one the rampant economic and political inequality of the post nineteen sixty civil rights era into the

black arts movement in the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies performers tackled a range of subjects from pure braggadocio the parties to race class gender and the unfolding political crises in the black community how the nineteen nineties hip hop counterculture emerged into the mainstream and in doing so created upward mobility for individual artists through the fame and wealth and subsequently lifted many of them out of poverty

many artists also embedded social and political analysis into their work in an attempt to critique different aspects of American society and disrupt the status quo they use their lyrics and platform to explore issues like state surveillance drug addiction crime unemployment and racism soon became a billion dollar industry the pioneer new forms of musical production that continue to evolve and revolutionize the music industry to this day

so as we learn about the rise of hip hop and rap we'll look at the resulting cultural conversations this important genre of music inspired let's get started rap and hip hop began in the nineteen seventies on the streets of New York City specifically in the Bronx I started as a form of pure showmanship at block parties or other social gatherings at places like recreation centers and

parks disc jockeys more commonly known as DJs emcees will compete with each other by layering and remixing beats at the turn tables and rhyming over the beats well friends battled it out in informal break dancing competitions after the civil rights victories of the nineteen sixties but the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four and the voting rights act of nineteen sixty five black communities experienced decreased

interest in the political and economic well being from the government and policy makers the result was a lack of investment in black communities and the social infrastructure resulting in staggering poverty rates increased police surveillance and ambiguous messaging from former allies of the black liberation struggle at the same time the country was seeing the burgeoning black arts movement of the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies which emphasized

radical visions of re imagining blackness the music visual art poetry theater and literature K. pop was in many ways an extension of this artistic project in the years that followed black communities turn to HIPAA counter culture as an outlet for self expression and freedom dreaming the origins of hip hop can be broadly categorized by four main pillars although we should note that contains multiple forms of

DJs to become sort of orchestrators basically using the turntables I could conduct you would use the baton the second pillar is wrapping or making rhythmic vocal rhymes over the piece created by DJ both DJing and rapping have diasporic roots within the black community drawing on traditions of African American gospel call and response west African storytelling and Jamaican remixing music sampling just to name a few the

third pillar is graffiti paint %HESITATION V. like wild Stalin B. street helped to popularize the connection between hip hop and graffiti sometimes graffiti gets a bad rap is tied to images of social decay and urban blight but the truth is that many graffiti artists are incredibly talented and some of the work they create serves as a direct challenge to the idea that beautiful art can only

be found in a fancy museum or a gallery the fourth and final pillar is break dance style of dance that encompasses attitude style and often times acrobatic agility now real life Clinton would never dare try this on camera because my knees would be paying for tomorrow in a medically doesn't have to worry about stormy it is always down to break it down thanks double now we

can't talk about hip hop and rap without talking about the people and personalities that made music groups like grandmaster flash and the furious five were pioneers of the genre and they laid the groundwork for folks that will come after with their lyrical dexterity and social commentary one of the most politically charged music groups in history Public Enemy came onto the scene in the late nineteen eighties

B. employ the rhetoric of black nationalism and black militancy and embrace revolutionary ideas overthrowing the government their hit single fight the power was released in nineteen eighty nine and featured in director spike Lee's classic film do the right thing the song tackled racism head on and called on black people to challenge and fight back against white supremacy other groups and artists that were contemporaries of Public

Enemy include run DMC Eric B. and Rakim salt and pepper Beastie Boys LL cool J. queen the T. for a tribe called quest each of these artists but a complex mix of style lyrical prowess and artistry to their work they look to challenge social norms and these artists brought further innovation to the airwaves by pioneering new forms of music sampling and mixing early hip hop and

rap stage competitions also often sparked heated rivalries that sometimes took on the form of gang rivalries for example who Tang clan brought together artists some of whom were formally affiliated with rival gangs to represent their neighborhoods in competitions against other rap groups from hubs like Harlem Brooklyn and the Bronx %HESITATION tank painted vivid pictures of urban life using the language of the streets but this was

more than just lying for them they created a new lexicon that weave together rhetoric with diverse influences including the five percent nation an offshoot of the nation of Islam philosophy Asian cinema and food so these groups and artists were engaging in a complex next intersecting identities and influences even as they were pioneering their own new forms of expression I say pop began to take over the

mainstream as Dominic countercultural voiced by the nineteen nineties some rappers and black record label owners became millionaires seemingly overnight rap artists like the Tories B. I G. two pox a core and they're supporting record labels bad boy records led by Sean puffy combs and death row records bye bye should night epitomized the infamous east coast first west coast rival Iggy and baboy represented the original New

York City centric groups of hip hop what to pack in death row represented the expansion of hip hop outside of its regional New York roots by offering a distinctly California sound in the late nineteen eighties rappers too short NWA and iced tea it already pioneered hip hop on the west coast coming out of economically depressed areas in Los Angeles and Oakland their lyrics often reflected personal

experience some of NWA's most popular and most controversial songs served as a direct response to the police brutality they witnessed in their own neighborhoods and question the very legitimacy of policing an institution that many felt was only there to surveil and harass black people regional differences played a major role in the evolution of rap styles and content but the coast to coast rivalry center largely on

to pock M. biggies interpersonal conflict the rivalry had much to do with competition among the record labels media coverage and two talented lyricist with a pension for quick and rhythmic comebacks on their records which in Italy the conflict between them ended in tragedy and the still unsolved murders of two box score in nineteen ninety six and a Tory is B. I. G. in nineteen ninety seven

as hip hop move further and further into the mainstream older Americans both white and black often viewed it as a symbol of everything that was wrong in black working class communities this negative association affected all aspects of black America some of the animosity toward hip hop in the nineteen nineties center on discomfort with the controversial lyrics which painted an explicit picture of what many people called

get a life in addition to hypersexuality violence and misogyny that denigrated women while simultaneously glorifying the image of gang life one of the strongest opponents of rap music was longstanding civil rights activists and politicians C. Delores Tucker who campaigned against what she saw as the threat of hip hop music to black communities even more discomfort grew out of the lyrical use of the N. word and

unrestrained profanity and hip hop songs parties work to reclaim and repurpose the N. word in their songs by replacing the E. R. at the end of the word within a as an act of rebellion against the racial slur but this argument of reclamation and re purposing wasn't always persuasive particularly to older black communities could witness the words you use as a much more common slur and

early half of the twentieth century in fact in two thousand seven the end of lease E. P. but even stage an actual funeral for the N. word pushing to eliminate it from the American lexicon altogether but rap and hip hop in the nineties wasn't entirely focused on battles of the coast or hyper masculinity of male emcees it also saw significant output and innovation from black women

emcees black women stepped into the male dominated genre and offered fresh perspectives and musical revolutions of their own they shifted the tone of rap music away from antagonizing objectifying women to foregrounding black feminist message and bringing those revolutionary politics to a broader audience female rappers like MC Lyte yo yo queen the T. foot the brat in eve all of all the artists are refuting and denying

the sexist and misogynistic scrips offered to them by their male counterparts the articulated fresh perspectives on sexual racial and class politics through their music for example Queen Latif was nineteen ninety three you went I. T. Y. was a commentary on the state of black women in society and gender politics the lyrics focused on sexism sexual harassment and the public pressures that women in hip hop were

often forced to conform to similarly sister soldiers hate that hate produced in nineteen ninety two evoke black power rhetoric and call for the eradication of white supremacy while some black women rappers focused on a radical politics of unity and community engagement others revolutionized the way that black women were viewed as sexual objects by taking control of their own hyper sexualized representation in popular media rappers like

Lil Kim and Foxy brown focused on a more sexualized feminine image but projected an aura of dominance control and lyrical prowess that kind of flipped the script a black woman being passive receivers of the male gaze into one of being in control of how that gaze was directed and deploy an artist like Missy Elliott offered an even more complex and cleared image of black womanhood at

the turn of the twenty first century like their male counterparts black women emcees also garnered widespread commercial and critical acclaim hip hop artist Lauryn hill formerly of the rap group Fuji's became one of the most well known examples of hip hop and black feminisms wide reach her first solo album the Miseducation of Lauryn hill released in nineteen ninety eight one critical acclaim worldwide sales five Grammy

awards from the coastal wars to the culture wars of the nineteen nineties hip hop and rap had a lasting influence on American popular culture and music as well as on diasporic expressions of blackness throughout the world it's hip hop and rap evolved to encompass other demographics outside of black community in New York City the art form became expensive language that encompassed a variety of cultural critiques

and ships from his days on the streets of the Bronx to its place as a global cultural juggernaut today this continue to evolve and expand it's now a global phenomenon that has been adopted and embraced by a wide variety of cultures it is gone from the fringes of society to the center of American culture with hip hop artist even headlining the Super Bowl halftime show for

the first time in two thousand twenty two today I support becomes even more mainstream it's important to remember its cultural roots as a method of self exploration rebellion anti white supremacist advocacy and while the genre continues to grow and evolve we shouldn't forget its origins and how black rappers use the art form to fight against social ills and races all while highlighting the creativity innovation and

activism within the black community and is these lessons and forms of self expression they still carry over to many artists today who explicitly see themselves as a part of that revolutionary hip hop lineage thanks for watching I'll see you next time crash course is made with the help of all these nice people and %HESITATION animation team is talk affect crash course is made possible by all

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