Politicisation
As it knocks down borders between musical styles, absorbing every [possible] type of music, rap crosses the national borders of the world, becoming the key [part] of global culture. Rap is currently rocking the casbah1 and the ghetto, rolling across the mountains and the deserts, hopping across oceans, and becoming hip to cyberspace and the new technologies, bringing sound and attitude into digital space.2
From its very beginnings Hip Hop has been used as a powerful voice for political and cultural messages – called the ‘CNN of black people’ by some, and referred to as their ‘satellite communication system’ by others. It has become a ‘cultural virus, circulating its images, sounds, and attitude’ throughout the world.3
In this section, we will look more closely at the politics of Hip Hop – where it fits within the long history of music as a political act, and how it can be used as a means to ‘read’ what is going on in the larger world.
We’ll also look at the kinds of messages that keep emerging – what they are saying, who is doing the ‘talking’, and whether they should be allowed to speak. We’ll discuss the connections between the big global issues facing the planet, and the more personal everyday concerns in people’s lives.
In order to properly understand, account for and explain Hip Hop’s global appeal, the study of Hip Hop [both] needs to be global and localised in focus…4
1 The Arab quarter near a citadel (fortress) of a North African city.
2 Best, S. & Kellner, D. Spring 1999, ‘Rap, Black rage, and Racial difference’: ‘Enculturation, Vol 2, No.2.
3 Ibid.
4 Richardson, J. E. ‘Towards a theory of Hip Hop’
http://www.vanguardonline.f9.co.uk/roots/roots02c.htm
