Sign ya NAME over to d'EVIL!!!!! - Part IV
One of hip hop’s most important roles was examining the effects of oppression on the lives of black people and discussing ways to combat and overcome oppression. Like spirituals and jazz music, hip hop wasn’t just a form of music or entertainment, but a strategy blacks developed to survive in a world that was continually impeding their survival. Sometimes the talk of oppression was overt, sometimes it was subtle, but it was always there. But art will always serve the aims of the people who control it. And as control of hip hop culture and rap music shifted from the black community to white corporate executives, consumers and journalists, the aims and purposes of hip hop and rap shifted from black self-expression, empowerment and activism to the protection of white wealth, power and privilege through the spread of negative black stereotypes. In this way, mainstream rap is sort of like winning the white profit-power-privilege lottery.* WE still defending HIP HOP bu...
