Political hip-hop

Political hip hop (also known as political rap and conscious hip-hop) is a subgenre of hip hop music that emerged in the 1980s as a form of political expression and activism. It typically addresses sociopolitical issues through lyrics, aiming to inspire action, promote social change, or convey specific political viewpoints. The genre draws inspiration from earlier politically conscious artists, such as The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, as well as movements like the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party from the 1960s and 1970s.

Notable early political hip hop artists include KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions, as well as Public Enemy, both of whom were influential in establishing political rap in the late 1980s with albums that addressed social and political concerns. Other artists, often labeled as part of the "conscious rap" movement, such as X-Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers, Paris, and Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, followed in subsequent years, expanding the genre's focus on political messages.

The genre has long been intertwined with political activism, providing a platform for artists to address issues such as police brutality, racism, corruption, and economic inequality. Some well-known examples of politically charged hip hop songs include: "The Message" (1982), "Fight the Power" (1989), "Fuck tha Police" (1989), "Changes" (1998), "Mosh" (2004), "Minority Report" (2006), "The Blacker the Berry" (2015), "Snow on Tha Bluff" (2020), and "The Bigger Picture" (2020).

Conscious hip-hop (also known as socially conscious hip-hop or conscious rap) is a subgenre of hip hop that challenges the dominant cultural, social, political, sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic consensus, and/or comments on or focuses on social issues and conflicts. Conscious hip hop is not necessarily overtly political, but the terms "conscious hip hop" and "political hip hop" are frequently used interchangeably, and conscious hip hop may often be implicitly political. Conscious hip hop began to gain traction in the 1980s, along with hip hop in general. The term "nation-conscious rap" has been used to more specifically describe conscious hip hop music with certain strong political messages and themes, especially Black empowerment themes. Some themes of conscious hip hop include social conscience, Afrocentricity, religion, culture, the economy, depictions of the struggles of ordinary people, and aversion to or commentary on crime and violence. Conscious hip hop often seeks to raise awareness of social issues, sometimes leaving the listeners to form their own opinions rather than advocating for certain ideas and demanding actions like political hip hop. Conscious hip hop artists often use their music to express their views on a wide range of topics, including politics, race, poverty, and the environment.

Before the emergence of political hip hop, the Black Power Movement and the emphasis on black pride arising in the mid-1960s inspired several commentaries incorporating Black Power ideological elements. Songs expressing the theme of black pride include James Brown's "Say it Loud (I'm Black and Proud)" (1969) and Billy Paul's "Am I Black Enough for You?" (1972). The proto-rap of Gil Scott-Heron is an early influence on political and conscious rap, however, most of his earlier socially conscious and political albums fall within the jazz, soul, and funk genres. Following Ronald Reagan’s election as President in 1980, conditions in inner-city African-American communities worsened, and hip hop political commentators began to increasingly address worsening social problems such as mass unemployment, police brutality, incarceration, inadequate public schools, political apathy, and oppression. One of the first socially conscious hip hop songs was "How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?" by Brother D with Collective Effort. One of the most successful early hip hop conscious rap songs was Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message", an influential political and conscious hip hop track, decrying the poverty, violence, and dead-end lives of the urban poor of the time. The 1985 film Rappin' saw a more political dimension to hip hop, including some verses of Ice-T's rap Killers, his first political record. Furthermore, the complex socio-political issues before hip hop and during all of its stages severely influenced its birth and direction.

Early gangsta rap often showed significant overlap with political and conscious rap. Pioneers in the gangsta rap genre such as Ice-T, N.W.A., Ice Cube, and the Geto Boys blended the crime stories, violent imagery, and aggression associated with gangsta rap with socio-political commentary. Using the now standard gangsta rap motifs of crime and violence, they were able to comment on the state of society and expose issues found within poor communities and society as a whole. These early gangsta rap artists were influenced in part by the bleak and often "revolutionary" crime novels of Iceberg Slim as well as hip hop groups such as Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions; groups that mixed aggressive, confrontational lyrics about urban life with social-political commentary and often radical political messages. The controversial debut album Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A, released in 1989 brought gangsta rap to the mainstream, but it also contained harsh social and political commentary, including the confrontational track "Fuck tha Police." Ice-T's work would sometimes focus on other topics: for example, he rapped about free speech on his third album, and about drunk driving, domestic violence, and Nelson Mandela on his fourth album.

After his departure from the group N.W.A in 1989, Ice Cube embarked on a solo career and released socio-political and conscious rap with gangsta rap elements in his 1990 debut album Amerikkka's Most Wanted and the companion EP Kill at Will; the 1991 album Death Certificate; followed by the 1992 album, The Predator. Furthermore, Ice Cube produced and appeared on the controversial and radical political rap/gangsta rap album Guerillas in tha Mist by Da Lench Mob in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Though Ice Cube would continue to sporadically insert political and social commentary into his music throughout his career, he once again focused on conscious and political rap with his 2006 album Laugh Now, Cry Later and 2008's Raw Footage, featuring the single "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It", a song dealing with the perceived correlation between music and global issues (e.g. the Iraq War, school shootings, etc.).

Underground rap, also known as underground hip hop, is a subgenre of hip hop known for its political and socially conscious lyrics. Unlike mainstream rap, which often focuses on themes such as money, power, and fame, underground rap addresses more serious and often controversial topics, such as racism, police brutality, and social inequality.