Can Hip-Hop Save The World?
2015 was the year of hip-hop.
Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late was the first album in 2015 to sell a million copies, the legendary Dr Dre returned after 16 years with Compton, and Spotify reported that seven out of the 10 most streamed records were hip-hop. There was no genre mightier than hip-hop last year — even the reigning pop princesses wanted a slice of that hip-hop pie. Taylor Swift roped in Kendrick Lamar for her cameo-laden single Bad Blood, while Selena Gomez featured A$AP Rocky’s laidback rap style on Good For You.
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2015 saw kids on the street looking like a walking billboard for Culture Kings, dripped in “sick” and “fresh” threads, while grown men bought into the worldwide Yeezy pandemonium, queuing for days on end trying to cop a pair from Kanye’s exclusive collaboration with Adidas. But beyond the hypebeast frenzy, the rise of the hip-hop culture has also shone a spotlight on more significant social issues.
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“Hype beasts” are often clad in a mix of streetwear labels ranging from Supreme and Stussy to more extravagant options like BAPE. A pair of highly-coveted sneakers is a staple to complete every outfit.[/caption]
Never before has Nicki Minaj been admired beyond her well-endowed derriere. The female rap icon has faced her fair share of slut-shaming comments and criticisms on the “hypersexualised” content of her videos — both of which she frequently speaks up against, but it was not until recent times that we looked back at her past speeches and interviews and started giving her a little more credit.
Nicki is a firm advocate of feminism (the actual kind, not the petty “free our nipples!” version commonly heard from the privileged population of the world) and this is apparent in the things she stands up for. After dropping the music video for Anaconda and the equally NSFW cover art for the single, she was hit by a slew of hate. The most notable anti-Anaconda sentiment came in the form of an op-ed by Chuck Creekmur, who, get this, is the founder of AllHip-Hop.com. In it, he berates Nicki’s choice of concept for the single, stating he “can appreciate (her) perfect posterior as a man” but the fatherly side of him “is not a happy camper, particularly now that his lil girl is transitioning into a young lady”. The site routinely posts videos of male rappers that objectify women but when it’s Nicki Minaj, it’s suddenly a problem.
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The cover art of Anaconda was deemed inappropriate and drew flak for its “hypersexualised” nature.[/caption]
That’s the reality of the world — it’s almost impossible for a woman to celebrate her curves without getting jeered at. The Grammy-nominated rapper took the high road and graciously defended women’s sexuality in an interview with Vogue magazine in which she said, “I feel empowered sometimes by being sexy and being comfortable enough to be sexy on camera — a lot of women struggle with that.” In the midst of society’s rush to achieve magazine-worthy perfection, Nicki’s focus on empowering females inspired young, impressionable teens to embrace all body types.
Rap, as we know, started out as a channel for young African-Americans to speak up about the struggles and oppression faced by the community living in the various projects in New York. The beauty of rap lies in its honesty. Whether it’s Tupac, Biggie or Nas, the message is the same; life lessons are unconventional and never sugarcoated.
To assume that the people of the United States regard African-Americans as equals with other ethnicities because they elected a black president would be completely idealistic. A quick look at the past three years would reveal a number of high profile shootings which cost the lives of innocent African-Americans. Kanye West acknowledged this problem and took to the stage to address the Charleston church shooting, in which nine parishioners were killed. Kanye spoke out about the alleged racism-fuelled attack through a freestyle which he performed at the anniversary party of a US-based radio station. Over a melancholic piano piece, Kanye spat See that’s the magic of racism, it works on itself / We hate each other, screw each other, kill each other / when we can’t kill nobody else.
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Fellow rapper J. Cole also shared his two cents by addressing the late Michael Brown’s case, in which the black teen was shot dead by a white cop even though the former was unarmed. He took a gentler approach to this issue by dedicating Be Free to Brown and writing the statement “I pray that one day the world will be filled with peach and rid of injustice” on his SoundCloud page.
With such influential rappers shedding light on the ongoing racial prejudice, the movement #BlackLivesMatter was given greater attention from the general public. Fans are no longer just people who listen to rap music; they’re evolving to be members of the society who are actively raising awareness to fight against the injustice and making a change.
While a lot of us are fortunate to be sheltered, it’s still a harsh reality for many communities out there. It is the actions of such prominent figures of African-American entertainment that push us to be more conscious of the problems in the world. The late Tupac Shakur wrote Changes specifically to shed light on these concerns and he’d be proud to see how far hip-hop has come in fulfilling his mission.
