The Hip Hop culture evolved in the apartment of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the west Bronx by Clive Campbell. Clive Campbell’s contribution to the Hip Hop culture is the fundamental foundation of a groundbreaking movement that would one day change the world. Hip hop progressively became a political and cultural response to African American oppression and racism. In the memoir A Long Way Gone” Memories of a Boy Solider Ishmael Beah recounts the disturbing story of a young boy from Sierra Leone in love with rap and hip-hop music that gradually transformed into a ruthless child solider out to avenge his family’s death. While the documentary film Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes simultaneously highlights the new cultivation of the “new” rap and hip hop …show more content…
Artist’s lyrics became conscious of their treatment and questioned government and their role in society. Rapper 2Pac in Changes exposes society continues to oppress the African American community. He begins to question the value of his own life: “I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself. Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?” Lupe Fiasco’s song Hip-Hop Saved My Life epitomizes the struggle of a young man striving to become a successful artist in a world of hardship: “Got a daddy serving life and a brother on the Row. Best homie in the grave, tatted up while in the cage”. The lyrics illustrate how Fiasco utilized hip hop music as a survival mechanism to escape his destitution. Corporations have commercialized the rap and hip hop culture by stripping the political nature to appeal to the suburban demographic. The documentary film Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes reveals 70% of mainstream hip hop is consumed by the white audience. Music executive producers have become ignorant to the traditional rap and hip hop culture by glorifying materialism, violence, and sex. The new image of current artists reinforces the