UK Hip Hop is in its most popular era, with young people becoming more engaged in the genre and its other sub-genres. Can this or has it sparked change in young minds? With British politics getting more and more messy and indulged in corruption and corporate greed, Hip Hop is a way of combatting political turmoil and motivating society to become more conscious of sociology.
Hip Hop has always been a politically charged form of music. If we look at the origins of Hip hop and how it was born in the USA, we can see how it was used to liberate and inspire feelings of freedom and activism. we look at artists like Public enemy, N.W.A, X Clan, and Run-DMC who all are examples of 1980s Hip Hop artists who made music with sociopolitical context. In 1970-80ss America topics in Hip Hop tended to surround poverty in American suburbs, and the social inequalities that were targeted at ethnic minorities or working class people. But from the onset, it was always seen negatively by the media and the powerful people in society. It was in the 1990s where more radical political ideologies were densely being integrated into Hip Hop music.
Public Enemy’s ‘Fight The Power’ music video.
This was similar as Hip Hop started to grow in the UK. Even the origins of garage and grime show us how the music was often made by people who felt overlooked in society. Since the early days of UK Hip Hop to now, it has only grown to be more outwardly and overtly political, freely commenting on the governments frequent flaws. We see this in contemporary grime artists like Stormzy who made his political opinion quite clear with the iconic line ‘fuck the government and fuck Boris’, this is exemplified in his brits performance when he raps ‘Yo Theresa may where’s the money for Grenfell, what you thought we just forgot about Grenfell’ once again showing how UK Hip Hop only points out the lack of movement from the British right wing government. We also see this very clearly in one of the most popular modern day UK Hip Hop artists Dave. In 2017 he released ‘Question time’ arguably one of the most outwardly political UK Hip Hop songs with the opening lines ‘ A question for the new prime minister . How do you have a heart so sinister?’. Even though the most famous of his politically aware songs, his album ‘Were all alone in this together’ doesn’t fail to incorporate current, social themes such as poverty, immigration, racism and hierarchy. Hundreds of UK rappers, to the OGs like Skepta, Kano, Wiley, Dizzee and Ghetts to the new
contemporary artists like Loyle Carner, Knucks, and Joe James all have this common political consensus weaved through their music. Despite the different styles and sub-genres of UK Hip Hop we can agree they all started on this basis of inclusion and cultural, social and political awareness.
When exploring this there are immediately links to Marxism. The Marxist belief is based on the idea of revolt. Marx himself believed that capitalism holds the key to its own destruction as the proletariat will increase and eventually become aware of their exploitation and start a revolution. On the other hand, he also argued that the bourgeoise and the hegemonic ideologies in our society control us and push us into a false consciousness. This is reflected in how capitalism is woven into media, education, the judicial system and peoples everyday lives. More modern Marxists would continue this argument and suggest this is also true with other intersections, for example how institutionalised racism and patriarchy is so deeply embedded into society. Marx outlines how we aren’t at all in a meritocratic ‘equal’ society and at the root of this is the capitalist divide. Hip hop is an example of a Marxist devise. It encourages the listener to become aware of the hierarchal, oppressive regimes that are set by our government and pushes them to revolt, to fight back. This is often why Hip hop is portrayed by the privileged and powerful as ‘angry’ and ‘violent’. This view is based on racist, classist and simply wrong stereotypes in order for the powerful people in society to make sure we stay submissive and don’t revolt against the oppressive government.
So, not only is Hip hop political but a new form of Marxism. I make this blog post with no intention to make my own opinions seem fact, but instead share the wonders of Hip hop and how it can be a cultural and emotional endeavour as well as an artistic journey.