It is looking more and more like we are going to have our first (half) Black President. Although I don't personally believe this will do much for race relations in America, I do believe that it is a step in a direction different from the one we were going in. I will leave whether it is a good or bad direction out of this, but I'd like to think it's for a better one. That being said, I have decided to post an essay that will drop some history for you hip-hop fans. The essay discusses Black Nationalism in America and its strong relation to the beginning's of hip-hop, as well as how it helped shape hip-hop today. Read on!



Black Nationalist thought has been something deeply rooted in the emergence of Hip Hop and Hip Hop culture. This emergence has slowly evolved into what the market refers to as “the underground.” This essay will discuss not only how Black Nationalism spawned in America and Hip Hop, but the deeper meaning behind its gender roles and other themes in Hip Hop music.

In order to create a context for Black Nationalism in Hip Hop music and culture, one must define Black Nationalism in the context of how it arose in America. Black Nationalism is a diasporic connection between blacks; one that rejects the ideas of the White Supremacist America. It is also the idea of wanting a nation, as Malcolm X defined it. Land is the basis of freedom, and one must obtain a land of their own; a nation of their own. This Diaspora created the post-civil rights idea of Black Nationalist thought that emerged so greatly in Hip Hop music.

Black Nationalism was a backbone for Hip Hop music in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the context of Hip Hop and America, this thought stemmed from the Black Power movement of 1966 in an attempt to redefine, or recreate, black masculinity. The woman’s role was unfortunately very small, if any role at all but to give birth to more black men, which also is rooted in the religion of Islam that is very closely related to Black Nationalism. As Charise L. Cheney discusses in her articles "Brothers Gonna Work it Out" and "Ladies First", Hip Hop was ultimately “born in the school of hard knocks at the crossroads of black Atlantic migrations, rap music [was] a form of black and urban expression that was forged as a truly New World, or diasporic, music.” This Diaspora and rejection of a White Supremacy is the roots of one form of Black Nationalism in Hip Hop. The discussion of the urban, of violence, of the poor, is this rejection. Cheney refers to this Black Nationalism in Hip Hop as raptivism. This raptivism holds a more “political trend reflective of a collective black mood” and does this through highly political lyrics, as seen in the music of Ice Cube, Public Enemy, and more Black Nationalist artists. For example, the music video for Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” represents Black Nationalism in Hip Hop perfectly. The video consists of Public Enemy performing at what seems to be a rally…opening with footage of Civil Rights movements in the 1960s and Chuck D proclaiming they aren’t going to do it like that anymore. Cheney says something similar when it is mentioned, “the modern Civil Rights movement failed to produce substantial change in the economic and social lives of black Americans.” This is also what Chuck D is claiming; that the Civil Rights did not necessarily do anything for black Americans, which is why they are using more liberal and outspoken methods…or, Black Nationalism in Hip Hop. These methods also hold very Afrocentric ideas, as seen in the songs “Acknowledge Your Own History” by the Jungle Brothers and “Raise the Flag” by X Clan. Both songs talk about blackness in the roots of Africa; how their fathers were kings, or representing the colors of the “motherland.” These Afrocentric ideas were one form of Black Nationalist thought in Hip Hop music.

This movement also held more ideas than simply a nation for blacks…but more so a nation for black men, and a remasculizing of the black man. This idea stems from the Nation of Islam, making roles for women very minute. Cheney discusses that although many find the sexist material offensive in Hip Hop, “hardly any critics have placed this issue within its proper context: the social-political struggle for the remasculization of black men.” She goes on to discuss that during the post-Civil Rights movement, many black, male children were raised in female-headed households, while many black men were being imprisoned. These conditions called for black men to step forward in attempts for remasculization. As Too Short explains, it wasn’t about degrading women; it was about being a black man. It seems that in Hip Hop music, the space for women runs very small. Even in Queen Latifah’s song “Ladies First,” a pro-feminism song, the lyrics show no real separation from black male space. She simply raps that women can rap…but does not claim anything to herself aside from the fact that, as a woman, men cannot be born without her…which is already in the ideas of Black Nationalist thought. This evolved into what Cheney describes as a fear of the black woman, as well. This fear revolves around the idea that the black women are out to steal black men’s power, their wealth, to demasculize them. Because of this, many Hip Hop lyrics degrade women..

In the modern separation of mainstream and underground, underground is seen as a safe place that is free of misogyny and hate; however, this essay shows how this is not necessarily true. Hip Hop has only separated into these two subjects by means of a marketing tool for more record sales. As seen in the song “I Used To Love H.E.R.” by Common, an “underground” artist, he still deeply sexualizes the woman and treats her as “less than,” as he does in many songs. This dims the line between mainstream and underground, claiming that either “style” of music has equally problematic issues dealing with women and other offensive material. The mainstream and the underground are nothing but simply, Hip Hop.

Themes in Hip Hop vary on so many different levels. It is hard to distinguish in this day and age one particular thematic element relevant in all of Hip Hop music. What is not hard to distinguish is Hip Hop's roots, and this essay was meant to do that; partially, at least. Black Nationalism was not only a significant and positive movement, largely forgotten with the help of COINTELPRO and the Reagan Administration, but it was an inspiring movement that bled into the very soul of Hip Hop.