A Revolutionary Generation: The Social Activism of Hip Hop in the 80s and 90s, and the modern day co-option of the message

My thesis examines how the hip-hop movement of the late 80s and 90s represents both the entrepreneurial New Negro, in coordination with Baldwin’s classification, and artistic, correlating with Locke’s perspective of the New Negro, in its methods.  It served as a way for Black people to make a living in an oppressive society while simultaneously creating a profitable and marketable message that was easily able to be relayed to the Black community.  It was also a method in which the Black population could voice the issues plaguing their neighborhoods and communities and the racial discrimination they faced on an every-day basis.  I contrast the the socially progressive and radical agendas of hip-hop artists during this time, with the commercialized artistic expression of today's hip-hop generation.  I argue that today's music is becoming a privatized commodity by corporate America, pushing specific agendas that undoubtedly reinforce and normalize many of the stigmatic racialized stereotypes and understandings of Black people.  It has come to be seen as a career, a method of making a living, rather than the artistic expression of the community. In this sense, it does not encompass the New Negro ideologies that lyrical expression in the 80s and 90s did.  It has, in a way, backtracked from its original intent of community representation.   In order to frame my argument I use Paul Butler’s theory on the dichotomy of hip-hop music, and the division between the “political” and the “pleasurable."  


For this blog, I will use some of the lyrics I have been analyzing in my paper, to show the political agenda of the 1980s and 90s.  


In Revolutionary Generation, Chuck raps about the social inequalities between Black and White people in America, beginning with “Day to day America eats its young and defeats our women/ There is a gap so wide we all can swim in.”  He continues on to speak on the particular injustices of Black women, the exclusion they often feel within the community, and the destructive divide this creates within the revolutionary movement.  Throughout history, Chuck argues, the nation has “taught us how to dis our sisters.”  Instead of treating women as if they are not a part of the movement for equality he raps that if everything came together the power would be much greater against the oppressor.  “R-e-s-p-e-c-t my sisters, not my enemy/ Cause we’ll be stronger together and make this sucker say, Damn this generation”  He continues, stating that what the Black community needs in the face of oppression is a new generational attitude.  “The fingers pointed to us in out direction/ the blind state of mind needs correction/ word to the mother we tighten connection, to be a man you need no election/ sister to you we should not be rude, so we come together and make ‘em all say Damn this generation.” 


There are many songs by Public Enemy, KRS-One and Big-L that reveal the progressive and prideful element of the New Negro attitude (that I will expand on in the thesis).  Even the radical lyrics of N.W.A., often superseded by the public's and government's tendencies to brush them off as militant and counterproductive to the movement for social justice, were compelling in the sense that they revealed what life really was like growing up in the ghettos of American society.


Something I find interesting, and I would like to share with you, are the efforts made by many artists in the 1980s and 90s to address the issue of the hip-hop dichotomy I argue has consumed the generation of musicians today.  It would be false to state that the presence of the "pleasurable" aspect of hip-hop as a viable career, able to give you cars, money, a way out, and a lifestyle you had never dreamed of, didn't exist.  It was always present and lingering over the heads of artists.  What is interesting to me is that the lyricists of the 80s and 90s made it a point to demand of Black artists that they refrain from the politics of the music industry.  Succumbing to the demands of corporate America would compromise the very essence of the movement.  In the song Express Yourself by N.W.A., a member of the group raps about the hypocrisy of many artists, and the importance of staying true to the meaning of hip-hop as a means of artistic expression and community representation.  “Others say rhymes that fail to be original/ or they kill where the hip-hop starts/ forget about the ghetto and rap for the pop charts/ Yeah they want reality, but you won’t hear none/ they rather exaggerate, a little fiction/ but you know it ain’t about wealth, as long as you make a note to express yourself.”  Even though N.W.A. was obviously making money from their musical productions, it was crucial to the movement to understand what hip-hop was about, and the importance of its service to the community.  


Co-opting their views and agendas would be a conscious participation in what Orlando Patterson refers to as "social death."  Artists today address the issues of corporate domination of the music industry, such as Jay-Z in “Dope Man.” “ I grew up where you hold your blacks up/ trap us/ expect us not to pick gats up/ where you drop your cracks off by the Mack trucks/ destroy our dreams of lawyers and actors/ keep us spiralin’ goin backwards.”  While he is not specifically idolizing the criminal lifestyles of African Americans, he is addressing the governmental system that limits the social mobility of black people, and therefore drives them into the lifestyles they so often ascribe to.  They turn to drugs as a way to survive, ironically, the drugs placed in the projects by white America, and then are demonized by society as being drug dealers and criminals.  Many turn to rapping and hip-hop to get out, but like Jay-Z, then end up rapping about drugs and the lifestyle of “hustling” to achieve the dream, because that is popular demand for mainstream music.  What is not addressed however, is the reinforcement of stereotypes about black criminals when these rappers choose to adhere to the mainstream demands.  It provides the government and white hegemony with a sense of justification for the social positions of blacks in America.  These lyrics are internalized as the truth for all black people, and therefore shape social understandings about African Americans in general.  


I know I kind of touched on a couple of different sources, however I think it was important to mention the theory of a hip-hop dichotomy in order to provide the context in which I am framing my argument.