Rap Music's Societal Impact

Music is an integral part in how our society has evolved and grown today. One such genre of music which indicates this more than others is rap or as some may call it hip-hop music. It is often considered the most diverse style of music with its inspiration towards issues such as politics, police brutality, and even social abnormalities. This paper will examine the social evolution of rap music in the USA and its effects on society in its life cycle.

In order to understand the social evolution of rap music in the United States of America one must first define both social evolution and rap music. Social evolution is defined as a series of peaceful stages which that gradually develop society, social norms, and institutions (Random House, Inc. 2018). Rap music is defined when a vocalist uses a beat pattern that is insistent and reoccuring and provides a background for slangy, rapid, and boastful rhyming (Random House, Inc. 2018).

Rap music can be traced back to thousands of years ago located in Africa.

African village storytellers who told stories of their experiences with their families or events happening around them over handmade instruments they had created or better known as griots were the first true origins of rap music in history (Mize, 2014). This tradition was continued or carried over when Africans were kidnapped and forcefully sold into slavery by the Whites to the United States of America (Mize, 2014).

It wasn’t until August 11th, 1973 a few years after the civil rights movement occured where DJ Kool Herc was about to transform the music industry by evolving the same premise that had been set by the griots (Mize, 2014).

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His real name is Clive Campbell and he is from the bronx (Rhodes, 2018). DJ Kool Herc first immigrated in 1967 from Jamaica to the Bronx and used his knowledge of jamaican music and sound systems the help mold hip hop to what it is today (Rhodes,2018). What he did on August 11th, 1973 was he used two turntables and James brown record “clap your hands” was playing and the when the first turntable would finish he would switch over to the next turntable to extend the song. He did this to continuously play the record for as long as he wanted to (Minz, 2014). Almost all producers now use this technique when using beats and it is referred to as looping (Minz, 2014).

It wasn’t until around 1979, where the first successful hit in hip hop was created and produced. It was called “Rapper’s Delight” and created by the rappers of the Sugarhill Gang (Blanchard, 1999). This song took the local MC battles, DJ turntables, and Park jams from the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and other ghettos into the successful mainstream (Zhou, 2017).

The inexcusable violent history of slavery, reconstruction and Jim Crow is considered the root of the rolle of melody as a tool for survival, expression, and rebellion (Zhou, 2017). This can be found in all different types of music such as gospel, folk, blues, jazz, R&B and most notably rap and hip-hop (Zhou, 2017). There was a political rap group called the Public Enemy and its lead musician states “Rap is Black America’s CNN” which can be traced back to the griots (Zhou,2017).

Rap has been created the strain of struggle and survival (Zhou, 2017). The black youth from the inner-city of New York created this genre. Most of which were from minority neighbors (Zhou, 2017). This also involved influencing Puerto Ricans because they lived in the same or similar ghettos (Zhou, 2017). This can be seen in the critical race theory where prejudice, racism, and discrimination are woven into the fabric of American Society (Phillips, 2018). Rap is used in the same way that critical race was used in that it is used to in response to inequalities and suppression post-civil rights era (Cummings, 2010). They both have the same goals and want to change the United States of America for the better and create equality throughout (Cummings, 2010). The youths from these ghetto communities were called B-Girls and B-Boys. These youths used fast paced story-like rhythms which incorporated graffiti artists and DJ’s such as Funkmaster Flex, Pete Rock, MC Lyte, and Afrikka Bambatta (Zhou, 2017). Slick Rick da Ruler was the first of which to use this.

It wasn’t until the 1986 were rap became the mainstream with the creation of the group Niggaz With Attitudes or NWA for short (Lindores, 2015). A founding member of the Group Easy-E earned an estimated $225,000 from being a drug dealer in Compton and decided to reinvest the money into the hip hop game and founded Ruthless Records along with Jerry Heller (Lindores, 2015). Easy-E being a drug dealer can easily be linked also to the Strain Theory which is the American Dream but doing it by illicit or illegal means. With the creation of Ruthless Records, Local MCs Ice Cube, DJ Yella, Easy-E, Dr. Dre, and MC Ren teamed up to created and start collaborating as NWA (Lindores, 2015).

All these members had been in a situation of discrimination and prejudice when growing up in their minority neighbors such as Compton where police brutality was rampant (Lindores, 2015). Ice Cube stated they named themselves Niggaz With Attitudes because “We were taking a word that had been derogatory to black people for years and deciding to use it instead of allowing ourselves to be abused by it.” (Lindores, 2015). Ice cube went on to say “When we started out doing music, it was an underground thing. We never thought it would be on the radio or on the TV. We thought that we were just making music for our homies. We thought we’d be ‘hood stars; that a guy on our block would play it and tell his friend and he’d dig it and word would get around that way. That was as far as we ever saw our careers going.” (Lindores, 2015).

Their debut album was called ‘Straight Outta Compton’ and talked about the brutal realism in the lyrics. This was all done over loops, beats, scratches, sirens, and a cacophony of samples (Lindores, 2015). The album was released to numerous controversies from it explicit and outspoken lyrics. This was not tolerated by anyone from the FBI all the way to the President of the United States who all would later accuse them of inciting or provoking violence against police officers (Lindores, 2015).

The Mass Media went on to discuss such tracks such as “Gangsta Gangsta” and “Fuck Tha Police” inciting that they “glamorized gang violence and profanity” which the group would later refute stating that their lyrics were not endorsements but rather descriptions of past experiences (Lindores, 2015). NWA would go on the break numerous record sales with this record as it depicted the lifestyle of black kids living in those types of conditions (Lindores, 2015). The albums ability to horrify or shock parents through its aggression and rebellion was appealing to those of white middle-class audiences (Lindores, 2015).

The group was often targeted by police because of such records as ‘Fuck Tha Police’. Ice cube stated “The police harassed us a lot, especially on tour. They’d constantly pull us over, read the city ordinances, obscenity laws of what we could and couldn’t say and tell us if we didn’t comply we were going to jail. There were incidents all over the country.” (Lindores, 2015). This indicates the racism that was going on during the mid to late 1980’s.

Tupac Shakur would lead a movement of rap in the 1990’s that had been rarely seen. Tupac was known for bringing light to issues such as poverty, his mother’s drug addiction, and violence (npr.org, 2016). He used his music career as a podium for others in such songs as “Keep Ya Head Up” which is a song that about him being pro-choice, and against harassment of women on the street (npr.org, 2016). He talks about growing up in the inner-city of America and being a young black man in this song also. He was able to paint a picture with each one of his raps and use them in many different and unique scenarios. (npr.org, 2016). He would eventually die on September 13, 1996 due to a drive-by assassination. He would go on to put rap into one of the most predominantly listened to music genres and become an inspiration for many others in the music industry (ngr.org, 2016).

Rap would evolve into something that wasn’t just for people of color. One such person who succeeded in becoming a white rapper was Eminem or Marshall Mathers. It was often a stereotype up until that point that only people of color could rap. His raps were more focused on himself rather than society problems going on around him (Daley, 2015). He rapped about his poverty, drug problems. Living situation, and struggles with his family. He was known for being extremely blunt and straightforward with his raps (Daley, 2015).

With the technological advances of the internet and social media and with the creation of music streaming services such as soundcloud and spotify, this would lead rap to become one of the top listened to music genres (Finn, 2014). These websites such as tumblr and facebook, would ask music artists to create their own individual personas rather than be pulled in one genre of rap (Finn, 2014). One of the more recent creations from this individuality is the creation of emo rap subgenre. This subgenre includes artists such as XXXTENTACION and Lil Peep both of which are not deceased.