The Appropriation of Hip Hop as a Weapon Against the Poor. Part 1

I am a huge fan of Hip Hop.

When I say Hip Hop I mean the original and traditional form of it.
Not just its music, but all the elements that eventually came to be known as one multi-faceted subculture.

That being said, I have a belief.

The original concept of Hip Hop beween the early 70s after the Civil Rights Era and the early 80s was created by those living in conditions that were typical of inner city areas across the United States. Poor, abandoned, left in slummy deteriorating conditions with failing school systems, etc.

When it was found that even in those conditions people could excel, create, and even come to  accomplish acheivements and certain things that were not so during the not far gone Civil Rights era, something was sown in the fabric of society that would send the culture from 'creative inner-city phenomenon' in the biggest city in the country, to an 'outlet to vent' the catastrophic wreakage that occurred in the Black urban community for a ten year span. This catastrophe wreaked havoc on the community itself.

 This catastrophe was a sub governmental sociological and psycho-chemical experiment called "crack".

The government was realizing that those who were still mourning the deaths of Dr Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement (whos deaths largely effected the urban blacks) was starting to actually "overcome". There was a fear that if the culture and movement got too big, the model the poor of New York City created would spread to other major cities and create a group of oppressed citizens (think Black Panther Party) powerful enough to progress, uprise and even rebel against the government. 


By 1989 music artists like NWA were rapping about the violence and effects on the community and even influencing mind states one must have to live and survive in the new conditions.

The record companies then began to systematically reject music acts that inspired and even influenced positivity.  This lead not only to the influence of the youth in urban communities, but even to the sub conscience idea that violence, crime and poverty is acceptable and even fashionable...


Brite Idiot