Ethnic Studies Review
Orginal Publication Date
2012
Journal Title
Ethnic Studies Review
Volume
35
Issue
esr/vol35/iss1
First Page
157
Last Page
175
Abstract
Many argue that political or message rap no longer exists. Scholars and critics point to rap music as a genre that is completely negative and only diminishes the progress of the Black community by offering and supporting stereotypes of African Americans (Johnson, Jackson and Gatto 1995; Carpentier, Knobloch and Zillman 2003). On the contrary, I argue that all rap music is not the same and that in fact, there is a subgenre in rap music, political rap, that discusses political issues and candidates exclusively. In this article, I proffer a criterion for identifying political rap music to demonstrate a distinction between the subgenres of rap and the prevalence of political rap within mainstream radio. Finally, I examine the lyrical content of political rap for the assertion of Black Nationalist ideology. Keywords: Rap, Black Nationalism, political rap, Black political attitudes, popular culture, public opinion
Rights
Copyright ©ESR, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 2012