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The State Of Rap Time And Place Summary

Decent Essays

Jason Chanthorn
Christopher y West
African American History from 1865
Journal Article- The State of Rap: Time and Place

Hip hop is a form of art that has been popular for the past twenty years. Although people in recent years often mistake rap music as vulgar and ill-mannered, the hip hop community continues to provide a great way to channel emotion and soul into their music. In his article, “The State of Rap: Time and Place” Jeffrey Louis Decker illustrates the black nationalism within the hip hop community by exploring how Black Nationalism can be accounted for within the hip hop music. Before hip hop was introduced into the American culture, the black community felt as if their place of origin was Africa. This was the time …show more content…

Eventually hip hop artists later regarded themselves by the name "hip hop nationalists". In the sixties, self proclaimed hip hop nationalist rapper Paris debut his album, The Devil Made Me Do It, which sent a message on how he plans on building the black nation. From his tracks "Panther Power" to "The Hate That Hate Made", Paris made sure that his audience knew he associated with the Black Panther Party. During 1988, hip hop marked a landmark on rap music history ever since MTV promoted their hip hop program called "Yo, MTV Raps!" and within the same year a hip hop group, Public Enemy, released their second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, which gave the black nationalist its first publicized expression for two decades. The multiple times the black community was socially mistreated, hip hop artists continued to voice their opinions. I believe hip hop is great to voice an opinion and promote self worth. Ordeals such as the Rodney King case sparked a huge outrage within the black community. Decker mentions in the article that during the Rodney King trial, the white officers from LAPD have been acquitted by an all-white jury charged for the brutality of Rodney King (Decker 2008, 55). Ice Cube was called in for an interview, yet he declined because of the ties he has made with the black community. Situations such as the Rodney King trail provided a

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