Monday, December 05, 2005
Beautiful Union
The following is an excerpt from an essay I am currently working on...Hip Hop and democracy are two things which may not conjure up images of each other. While there has always been a political consciousness within hip hop, it alone does not directly translate as a connection to a particular form of government. A closer look, however, reveals more commonality than some may think.
Hip Hop and democracy share a vital and crucial element- both are sustained through participation. If the people cease to become involved and cease to care about themselves and their surroundings, both hip hop and democracy die. The cry for freedom echoed by the Founding Fathers bellows louder and deeper in the soul of hip hop; the culture is in large part a culminating spawn of the struggle for freedom following the grand victories and disappointments of the 20th century Civil Rights movement.
It is no coincidence that the United States is the birth country of hip hop culture, for it is the very duality of freedom and oppression that conceived hip hop culture. Finding themselves in continually oppressed circumstances, young blacks and Latinos in New York City used their freedom of speech and freedom to peaceably assemble to express themselves and highlight their conditions. The four pillars of rap, artistic graffiti, DJing, and breaking set the foundation for a new forum of free speech, while rooted in a timeless ideal.
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