what if hip hop/rap got political

So Alex Jones just proved he is an out of touch old, white guy. Rap has always been political. Tupac's last album was called The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. I'm sure that name is right up Alex Jones' alley.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

he is a bit but some of these artists are hard to find. But you are right.

One of the more famous artists doing this kind of stuff is Immortal Teqnique.

Plenty of people know about him.

originally posted by: American-philosopher
a reply to: the owlbear

right but I am more talking about current and modern

Something that will attack the youth and get them thinking

Yeah... (people of color) just dont understand.
Cube makes family movies. Dre sold out. Easy got the AIDS,
Who did I miss?

Nobody mentioned KRS-One yet?

Even better... Zack de la Rocha (RATM) and KRS-One (though his support of Ron Paul is eye-rolling)!



Alex Jones is an ignorant troll who is in it for the money. It doesn't surprise me that he's completely unaware of the long tradition of political/socially conscious rap.

Knowledge rules supreme over nearly everybody.

Of course TPTB knew rap could mobilise inner city youth, so they invented "gangsta rap" to drown out the conscious rapper. Remove the politic from the discourse and make it all about ego.

I hear Rakim and Dig Daddy Kane may be doing an album together...

a reply to: American-philosopher

I know this contributes very little to this post but Alex Jones sucks

Folks should listen to the temptation's ball of confusion...it is relevant now just as it was back then...

Immortal technique
Lupe fiasco
Talib kweli
Mos def
Canibus

All incredible lyricist with political rhymes.

And a song that i think will definitely change your mind about rappers being bad lyric writers is Wordsmith by Chino xl.You can find it on youtube

After listening to this a few times I feel that this album was produced by the United States Department of Defense.



SecDef is a politician, right?

I think rap has always had political leanings depending on the artist and song: (Warning Explicit lyrics ahead)


Eminem - Mosh partial lyrics:

Maybe we can reach al queda through my speech
Let the president answer a higher anarchy
Strap him with an Ak-47, let him go,
fight his own war
Let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil,
we got our own battles to fight on our own soil
No more psychological warfare,
to trick us to thinking that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country,
we're patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes its all lies
The stars and stripes, they've been swiped,
washed out and wiped
And replaced with his own face,
Mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you know why,
Cause I told you to fight.

Eminem - Square Dance partial lyrics:

The boogies monster of rap,
Yeah the man's back
With a plan to ambush
this Bush administration,
Mush the Senate's face in and push this generation,
Of kids to stand and fight for the right to say something you might not like,
This white hot light, That I'm under, No wonder, I look so sunburnt,
...
Yeah you laugh till your mf'n ass gets drafted,
While you're at band camp thinkin' the crap can't happen,
Till you f around,
Get an anthrax napkin,
Inside a package wrapped in saran Wrap wrapping,
Open the plastic and then you stand back gasping,
Fin' assassins hijackin' Amtracks crashing,
All this terror America demands action,
Next thing you know you've got Uncle Sam's ass askin'
To join the army or what you'll do for there Navy.
You just a baby,
Gettin' recruited at eighteen,
You're on a plane now,
Eating their food and their baked beans.
I'm 28,
They gonna take you 'fore they take me

a reply to: American-philosopher





Yeah, I think we have demonstrated that rap is political.

what if hip hop/rap got political

That's fine, as long as they will do it in English so can keep up.

After all, all genera's of music can be politicized.

Well, I heard rumors that it is no coincidence that hip hop's main topics nowadays are drugs, money and 'girls'. In the early nineties there was (allegedly) a meeting of many industry insiders, where it was decided to basically 'get black men into the private prison system to make money'.

www.viewzone.com...

Its ATS so we should deny ignorance and acknowledge that the first rap music video is about ALIENS THAT EAT CARS!!!!

originally posted by: American-philosopher
a reply to: stargatetravels

and tell me some artist I am always trying to hear new good music. But I also know I can't go up to somebody and say check out this person you never heard of he has this track "whats really in the water". as oppose to have you heard T.I.'s new song "whats really in the water" or 2chainz "government lies."

A few to get you started.

Immortal Technique
Sick Since
Lost children of Babylon
Sage Francis
Looptroop Rockers
Atma
The Narcicyst
Talib Kweli
Jedi Mind Tricks

a reply to: American-philosopher

I know it's been pointed out already. It's amazing that anyone can be unaware of the politics in hip hop! Alex Jones saying this is like someone saying it'd be a good idea to melt cheese on toast. Where has he been? What music does he listen to?

There are books and theses written about politics in rap and the spoken word.

When Alex Jones interviews rappers, aren't they the political minded?

The KRS ONE interview was on point. The teacher owned AJ. You really could tell who has diplomacy through experience, and who has a podcast sponsored by the same people that are denounced on the program.

All musical cultures have activists.

The reason Hip Hop's activists seem non-existent, is due to technology. Every talentless solo ego with a device, can record their tripe and post it. Usually without practice, surrounded by "yes" men. For every good song you find, you need to pass on 200 songs you feel dumber for having listened to.

With other cultures, it's more expensive to record. So more crap is filtered out, sooner in the game.

a reply to: DrumsRfun

My fingers and hands aren't built to play anything but the drums, so i'm quite glad i can click a mouse to input notes using my knowledge of music theory.

Wow....just...this thread....

Rap has always been political from its roots in groups like The Last Poets right up to modern day conspiracy rappers.
Alex Jones is an absolute moron, like others have said... this is just stupid.
You might as well say "What if Rock Music had Guitars in it" ... it really is that stupid and ignorant.


KRS One, Public Enemy, Common, Dead Prez, The Roots, Mos Def, Killer Mike, Hopsin, Immortal Technique, Saul Williams + many, many others that have been mentioned.

so lets think of the 5 most influential rappers that are currently alive and still going in our time. kind of the leaders if you will. Jay-z T.I. Lil wayne, Enemien and I guess fill in the blank with your choice and I realize Jay-z is a whole nother topic.

But if we say that some of these artist are the so called standard bearer for rap and hip hop. what are they rapping about?

I mean this is kind of what I meant. T.I. is one of my favorite rappers and I know what most his songs are about.

I can go on and on...