A Specter is Haunting the Hood: Traces of Socialism in Rap Music
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47941/jcomm.237Keywords:
Hip Hop Culture, Rap Music, Black Freedom Movement, Socialism, Black Panthers Party, Immortal Technique, Public EnemyAbstract
This article aims to demonstrate the links between the Hip Hop Culture -especially rap music- and the ideas of philosophers, politicians and activists of the left view. Although rap music has turned into a multi-million dollar industry in United States, Hip Hop artists maintain the revolutionary world view of the black freedom movement, which has not ceased since the early days of slavery. Starting from the mid-20th century, the movement became much more organized and aimed to equip black people with socialist ideas, hoping to create an extremely educated and self-sufficient community. The ideas formed by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Mao Tse-tung, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and especially Black Panthers Party are still embraced by the Hip Hop Culture and can be traced in various songs and performances. This paper tries to draw attention to such examples, especially in rap songs.
Downloads
References
Pac, 1995. Dear Mama. Out Da Gutta, Interscope Records.
Abu-Jamal, M., 2004. We want freedom: A life in the Black Panther Party. South End Press.
Adams, Luther J., 2005. The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement, Journal of Social History, Volume 39, Number 1, Fall pp. 254-256
Afrika Bambaataa and Johnny Lyndon, 1984. World Destruction. Time Zone, Virgin.
Alridge, Derrick P., 2005. From Civil Rights to Hip Hop: Toward a Nexus of Ideas, The Journal of African American History, Vol. 90, No. 3, pp. 226
Breitman, G., 1967. Myths about Malcolm X: two views. [online] https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/breitman/1967/03/speech.htm [accessed 20.06. 2018]
Cannon, T., 1970. All power to the people: the story of the black panther party, Peoples Press.
Cone, J. H., 1991. Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.
Peralta, S., 2008. Crips and Bloods: Made in USA. Verso Entertainment.
Davis, A., 1998. Masked racism reflections on the prison industrial complex. [online] http://colorlines.com/archives/1998/09/masked_racism_reflections_on_the_prison_industrial_complex.html [accessed 20.06. 2018]
Dead prez, 2000. We Want Freedom. Let's Get Free. Loud Records.
Dead prez, 2004. Walk Like a Warrior. RBG: Revolutionary But Gangsta. Columbia.
Dead prez. 2003. Scared to Die. Turn Off The Radio: The Mixtape Vol. 2. Landspeed Records.
Duke, B., 1992. Deep Cover. New Line Cinema
Elgot, J., 2016. Beyonc unleashes Black Panthers homage at Super Bowl 50. The Guardian [online] https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/08/beyonce-black-panthers-homage-black-lives-matter-super-bowl-50. [accessed 15.06.2015]
Eligon, J., 2015. [online] One Slogan, Many Methods: Black Lives Matter Enters Politics. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/19/us/one-slogan-many-methods-black-lives-matter-enters-politics.html [accessed on 15.01.2016].
Eminem, 2002. Cleaning out my Closet. Aftermath Entertainment, Shady Records, and Interscope Records.
Eminem, 2004. Mosh. Encore. Interscope Records.
Engels, F., Marx K., Lenin, V. I., 2002, Kadin ve Aile. Sol Yayinlari.
Hebdige, D., 2003. Kes Yapıştır: Kültür, Kimlik ve Karayip Müziği. Ayrinti Yayinlari,
Immortal Technique 2003, Homeland and Hip Hop feat Mumia Abu-Jamal. Revolutionary Vol.2. not on label.
Immortal Technique, 2001. Poverty of Philosophy, Revolutionary Vol.1. not on label.
Immortal Technique, 2001a. Dance with the devil. Revolutionary Vol.1. not on label.
Immortal Technique, 2008. That's What it is, , Lick Shots, the Third World, Viper Records.
Immortal Technique, 2008. Lick Shots, the Third World. Viper Records.
King, M. L., 1963. I have a Dream. [online] http://www.archive.org/details/MLKDream [accessed 20.06. 2018]
Klein, A., 2016. Kendrick Lamar's Unapologetically African Grammy Performance Was One For The Ages. Okayafrica [online] http://www.okayafrica.com/kendrick-lamar-grammy-awards-performance-2016/. [accessed 15.06.2015]
Malcolm X, 1965. Alabama [online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znQe9nUKzvQ [accessed 20.06. 2018]
Malcolm, X., 2015. The autobiography of Malcolm X. Ballantine Books.
Marx, K. and Engels, F., 1848. Demands of the communist party in Germany. Marx and Engels collected works, 7.
Marx, K. and Engels, F., 1970. The Communist Manifesto. 1848. Trans. Samuel Moore. Peking: People's Publishing House.
McGuire, D.L., 2010. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movementfrom Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. Vintage.
Mos Def, 1999. Mathematics, Black on Both Sides. Rawkus.
Osslon, G., 2011. Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, Louverture Films.
Public Enemy, 1988. Black Steel in The Hour of Chaos, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, Def Jam Records.
Public Enemy, 1990 Fight the Power, Fear of a Black Planet, Def Jam Records,
Singleton, J. (1991). Boyz n the Hood. Columbia Pictures.
Talib Kweli and Hi Tek, 2000. Name of the Game, Reflection of the Eternal, Rawkus,
Tse-Tung, Mao, 1937. On Guerilla Warfare, [online] http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/1937/guerrilla-warfare/ch05.htm
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Ali Cagil Omerbas
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
