To perceive the impressive history of hip-hop and activism, you will have to recognize that if music can throw gentle of injustice, it cannot, just cure the wounds of oppression. Not everyone waiting for this best hymn to save the day. Who is effortlessly samples and anger, resilience and distrust, and perhaps even hope to be discovered in the black community.

It is vital to recognize that even if hip-hop is its own entity, it is still a component of a greater movement when it comes to denouncing these injustices. Nothing and no one can be in this fight.

People have long tried to explain why with oppression. They tried to shout it, throw bottles, curse their call and soften the streets in the chimney below. Hip-hop is in the right aspect of things because it is idea and emotion, not a violent action. He is inspiring and can galvanize. You can open other people’s eyes and succeed in them in a way that words are gloriously composed and are passionately shown: it crosses the sound of politicians and experts who think they know what other people are and what other people need to listen, even if they rarely are face to face with the street.

The rhythm penetrates and breaks down the barriers. Poetry sustains you and can be sent to the global doors of the form of oppression, as well as a shout of recovery that can progress little progress when it is related to hobby and a controlled non -violent anger. But the sign wants a kind from time to time.

Today’s hip-hop artists have Megaphone as Rap is the center of pop music, but that has not been the case. For a long time, socially conscious hipp was a marginal segment in a marginal genre. However, in the gentle of this rise of social relevance, there are several questions that establish an answer: are those artists in a position to take the merit of their popularity that are not gained little to profits to denounce the implacable cycle of violence without response and police brutality, systemic racism and a caustic economic genuine? Can you comply with the impressive socially conscious elder of hip-hop, even if that means alienating listeners and fans? And, above all, can those efforts help not only to arouse consciousness, but also to a genuine change?

We have tried the long history of hip-hop and activism, we have tried its ability to be a strength for good, and we talk about the legend of Hip-Hop Talib Kweli, the artist and hip-hop activist in St. Louis Tef Poe, and with the activist and co-founder of the zero campaign Johntta Elzie.

Hip-hop culture was born through shouts in the 1970s as an exit for the young blacks and brown of New York, other people who were disproportionately affected through racism, classenism and poverty. With the merit of an undeniable influence, and an innate ability to speak with other young people, the genre has temporarily become a form of global expression. But their roots go beyond the road.

Music has been there. At the time of slavery in the United States, blacks used hymns and spiritual to continue oral traditions because they did not have a written language to tell. Some songs were occasionally used to transmit encoded messages that helped other people escape from freedom. The connection continues around the history of the era of blacks here in the United States, of “strange fruit” through Billie Holiday Protestant opposite to the lynchages in the early 1900s to “say strong” through James Brown that fits an unofficial anthem for the black power movement of the last 1960s and the beginning of the 70s.

Gil Scott-Heron and the last poets are rightly considered ancestors with the political hip-hop. They were given importance in the 1970s after their words, which was promoting the policy of the Nixon era and caused damage to drugs that have disproportionately affected their own people. Then they passed the torch.

“We left the black network with this thing called Rap music, which was necessarily black men shouting in the most sensible of their lungs about what we love and what we don’t like,” said Chuck D, from Public Enemy in a 2005 interview with The Progressive. “It was disturbing for the prestige Quo. He trembled. And those who were in force did not know what to do with us. “

Released in 1990, “Fight The Power” through Public Enemy of his concern of an album on the planet Black is now an eternal anthem and a muscular call to all those who this time in the end will erode the oppression tools. But the organization had a long history of weaving social messages in their songs before this escape and were far from the hip-hop ambassadors at that time.

The first lines of the first song through Run-D. M. C. , “It is so”, talks about unemployment and poverty, and the burden they can position in a community. This was published in 1983. Three years later, Boogie Down Productions (BDP) was born in the South Bronx, first as a collaboration between Krs -one and Bronx, which has become the DJ Scott the Rock (Sterling), Rock would be killed in August 1987.

“In some aspects, the music of rap and violence seems to go hand in hand,” said Scotty Morris [in the New York Times], Mr. Sterling’s manager, who in the Jeep when the shooting occurred. “But it is not music itself, it is the environment. Violence here long before hip-hop. “

The violent loss of rock and a death in an enemy / public concert of BDP led the two teams to the action in the form of the Violence Motion (which stores a call with the BDP album in 1988, through all the mandatory media, a remarkable album for the song, “My Philosophy” that asked to be a window window). The main result of this alliance was “self-destruction”, a socially conscious single that brought in combination a wide diversity of hip-hop forces of the east coast to denounce the rise of black violence in darkness in the community.

In a way, it is the “we are the world” hip-hop equivalent, absent from Huey Lewis and Cyndi Lauper. On the other hand, Big Daddy Kane, Mc Lyte, Doug E. Fresh, Just-Ace, Heavy D and others served as a collective voice of reason, but according to a Krs-one interview with the atmosphere, the label considerations with JAM and the concerns about the advertising profile of other artists outside the track. What is a shame, given that these movements would possibly have limited the scope of the hard message of the song, which sought to announce a replacement of the mentality of “one or two dredgages, ignorant brothers / seeking to fly and fly” that created a stain that stained rap audience as a whole.

The Stop The Violence Movement followed the All-Stars of Rap from the west coast, a hip-hop organization founded in California for a similar use that met to explain themselves in opposition to gangs and violence and published their own song, “we are all on the same gang”, in 1990. Michael Conception, a member of the organization of the Michael, the members of the organization of the organization Ice members. Spot, as a rape of Ruat N. W. A. , Tone Loc, MC Hammer, Digital Underground and several others.

The two movements were essential because they demonstrated that hip-hop artists who ran in combination to deliver unified messages to the listeners at a time when no one seemed out of door the network seemed involved on the proliferation of drugs and weapons that were headed in the hands of young minorities. As Amiba issues, “Heal Yourself” and “Close The Crackhouse”, launched respectively in 1991 and 1993, followed this same plan and presented several of the same stars to pontify opposite to the spread of AIDS, sexism and crack.

Once again, a song alone may not stop the wave of negative changes, however, what those efforts have made to repel and create the feeling that Rap music did not fear negative stereotypes. These musicians have spoken to them and encouraged young listeners to decide on another way, encouraging them to open books instead of opening fire.

Unfortunately, those socially aware organization efforts occurred almost at the same time that two hateful and visceral moments: Rodney King expires 4 L. A. P. D. The officers (who were taken in a video still acquitted) and the riots of Los Angeles of 1992 that followed, who spoke with the tensions between the black network and the application of the legislation that were for years and that had been presented through N. W. A. In 1988 with the song, “F * CK Tha Police”, from his album Straight Outta Compton.

N. W. A. ICE Cube member talked about this in a 2015 interview with Billboard:

“We seek to show the community that affected us, however, we had an effect on the community. We wanted to show that when we made a song like” F * CK Tha Police “that is not just from us, not only happened to us. It is more a hymn for people.

While it was stopped, violence was introduced, in part, through the death of one of their own in the Hip-Hop network (Scott La Rock), the hip hop for the allocation of respect introduced after the death of Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old street dealership that killed on February 4, 1999 at its entrance door through 4 NYPD officials in the simple times.

Diallo’s death aroused the outrage of New York City, the country and the artistic community, partially reinforced through intense attention of the media that, although banal now, seemed new in the last decade of 1990. Bruce Springsteen was encouraged to write the song, “American Skin (41 shots)”, Wyclef came out here the cries of ” Injustice while the police were acquitted.

Released through Rawkus Records [which co-founded through the editor and co-founder of Uproxx Jarret Myer] in January 2000, Hip-Hop for respect an original concept of Rawkus Devin Dress and presented Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey in addition to several key votes.

“We had a lot of MC,” Kweli told Uproxx. “We did some songs that we had too much MC.

Although the task was not considered as a good advertising fortune, which Kweli attributes to the lack of help for the industry, the message has passed through other channels and had a global positive impact.

“A boy arrived here in the street and told me how I had replaced all his rap taste,” Kweli said. “The idea that only a gangster rapper can be until he heard this album. I realize that it is vital for me to listen. “

Unfortunately, Kweli does not believe that the music industry is much more welcoming for music on the political theme in the beyond 16 years, at least advertising. In fact, he considers “We Are The World” as a lonely exception, and it is basically thanks to the magic of Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie. Without this magic, Kweli feels that making music connected to a social movement, which other people like to pay attention, is a genuine challenge.

The rapper and activist Tef Poe in Ferguson in 2014, while other people walked in the streets and discovered face to face with a police force that has reevaluated a clearer army. Since then, he continued his paintings in fundamental activism in his neighboring hometown of Saint-Louis, has published music that reflects his reports and has met other activists around the world.

“I come from a slave state, a very separate state,” Poe to Uproxx told the long history of Missouri racism. “I sprinkled this kind of thing in my music just for cats that are not going to take a book, or I will not see CNN, or, you know, other people who will not even have problems to reach a manifestation to perceive what it is. “

Poe’s activism took him to Geneva, Switzerland as a guest to the United Nations and the pages of Time magazine, where he wrote that “the racial profile in Northern County has become a challenge of monstrous proportions. Young blacks and unfortunately learned that the police are here to do more damage than well. “

Like many of his contemporaries, Poe has a very idea about being classified as a “conscious rapper. ” As an independent artist, he has much more flexibility than the maximum and can act without worrying about the loss of commercial support, however, it has also become a simple objective for the right-wing media, such as Breitbart, who lately has an article on Poe in the brain “Anti-Trump Black Lives Matter is” Infernal invented our brains to inspire disturbances “for the effects of studies on Google.

“Rapeo conscious of something great. This is something intelligent. It is also a component of my identity at a safe level,” Poe explains. “But after a type of safe power and a certain type of commitment is mandatory in those streets, the conscious rap can become cheesy. “

For Poe, it is more than to launch a protest track.

“It’s a bit scarter,” he said. “Because you will be like” in spite of everything damn it. Fam launched 8 albums talking about this imaginary revolution that was going to arrive, and now that customers of something as if they took place and stand out in the streets, those are the other main people you do not see. “

While some activists and artists are from their days of walking the streets, Poe is still there.

“The average activist will not have this connectivity point with the city from which they come,” Poe said. “In fact, in the maximum cases, it is quite the opposite. So for me, use that is an honor badge. Way; people hide. Somewhere, or it is a construction too busy with your stick on Twitter to be relevant. ” “

While Ferguson has a cornerstone of the modern social justice motion and the formation of the Black Lives Matter coalition, Poe witnessed first -hand of the dozens of activists, members of the media and celebrities running to the region.

“When J. Cole in Ferguson, I got excited,” he said. “I was excited because it came out without security, the maximum of them. I saw it in box 0 in the middle of the same shit as I am in the middle of, and it is not a cartoon. So I told myself” shit. “His head can explode. Relationship.

Regarding participation in the media, it is a double -edged sword. On the one hand, the exhibition is good. People will not have to forget that injustice persists and that other people will not settle for silence. But, on the other hand, the philosophy “if you bleed, leads” from the client’s press is completely effect because we see an almost consistent policy of disturbances compared to the small policy of non -violent manifestations.

Since the complex scope of hip-hop coincides with a recurring public concentration in cases of police brutality and expanding fears (which, in some cases, higher following the electoral victory of Donald Trump), one (erroneously) or erroneously) that there is only one opportunity for hyp-hop-hop to use its influence on social justice spaces, it still has an obligation.

“I think this is one of the things that comes with a platform, a power and having a privilege,” Elzie said. But Poe believes that we will have to separate the art of the artist.

“I think as an artist, you can go where you need to pass with your music because your art is your art,” he said. “I think that as a user, like a black user who lives at that time, knowing that the other people who resemble me are in danger, not only in the United States, but in the world, so we do, we have the human duty to stay as we can. “

Although Talib Kweli also believes that he is guilty for restoring his community, he also thinks that there are others who are aware of this need.

“People’s duty is based on the amount of wisdom they have and where they grew and how they grew,” Kweli said. “I think I have a duty as a member of my network to give back to my network. The explanation of why I think it is because my parents taught me. If my parents did not show me that, I would not know. ” It also resolves that many celebrities are still young and have not been raised to be aware of social justice and language. “People who do not know Ititray . . . I don’t think we can keep them guilty for what they don’t know. You can only be guilty for what they know. “

Kweli also warns that we have to be of people’s motivations.

“While some of these other people are other people who care about blacks, they care about the motion, they have their own non -public demons of patriarchy and others and their own shortcuts,” he said. “I do the most productive to succeed in other people like that. Sometimes you have other people who are in motion because they are jealous of the oppressor and need to copy the oppressor. “

To expect the vocal participants of the corporate to carry out adequate studies seem to be a naked request from the minimum, however, given the emergence of social networks and the incidents of the celebrities interviewed in their position on the Black Lives Matter movement and the choice of Donald Trump in turn, it will be surprised with the frequency in which those first steps have not been taken.

“Just because you have something to say that you deserve to say anything every time,” said Elzie. “Especially if you don’t know what you are talking about. The reaction is horrible. I think it’s just [a consultation of] being more informed. “

The preference for the informed speakers and the booming leaders is perfectly embodied through the murderer Mike, who went from an acclaimed solo artist to a best friend of the candidate for Democratic President Bernie Sanders this last electoral season. Since then, Mike has used his voice and this high platform to inspire blacks, adding the hard as Michael Jordan, to put himself in the bank in his own communities, led other people to exploit his voting power, and he was a strong voice in the opposite combat to police brutality. Mike has also combined his movements with the words through the opening of two hairdressing rooms in his birthplace in Atlanta to open another 150 to create spaces where black men can find themselves, talk blatantly and socialize in a comfortable place.

But while the murderer Mike is a committed, passionate, committed and positive force that can exist at the intersection of hip-hop and activism in 2016, there are other examples in which it does not come from this mentioned cultural scope.

Kanye West is, without a doubt, Frank’s maximum voice of Hip-Hop and someone who used his soap box in the beyond to explain for the members of the black network who were in danger, however, he recently encouraged the indignation after having explained his by Donald Trump and hinted that blacks deserve to succeed over racism.

Lil Wayne is some other hip-hop star who chose not to use his influence for evil when he moved away from the Black Lives Matter movement after having said in the past similar things about ignorance or wonder of racism. And he is taking it right now: not everyone supplies to do what Chuck D and Krs-one did. Some other people are too afraid that their careers will break and that others simply do not need to speak or are too moving to bring many benefits when they talk about social issues. They can even do more harm than good.

Kweli, Poe and Elzie imply separately and together that for hip-hop and unique activism this important moment and the basin of our culture, artists want more than a hard anthem that will be lost in confusion, or that will be reduced to difficult statements from beyond as “combat power” and “f * ck pool tha. “

The preference of being a leader of the movement, not just a pop star that passes, will have to be there, the wisdom of the stage and the cases will have to be there, and the determination to remain with a cause will have to be there. At this time there is an exceptional opportunity for other people to use their microphone and make a difference, but only if they commit themselves.

As has the case, the most powerful voices are the ones that must be heard. Everything else is noise.