I saw the movie Straight Outta Compton last weekend. In the late ′80s and early ′90s many believe that music and pop culture were revolutionized by the rap group NWA as they provided a stronger voice for the hip hop generation. Others are critical of the group for their abuse of women off the stage and their tendency at times to stray from revolutionary lyrics to ones that glorified drug and alcohol abuse, rape, and violence as the primary means to solve conflict. More socially conscious Rappers from the same era, such as Speech of Arrested Development, have provided blog posts to offer a better take on the true revolutionary hip hop groups at the time.
As a member of the hip hop generation, I found myself very connected to socially conscious and revolutionary hip hop groups during the ′80s and ′90s. My favorites at the time included Public Enemy, Last Asiatic Disciples, Poor Righteous Teachers, Brand Nubians, and De La Soul. I was also drawn to Christian Hip Hop artists such as D-Boy, SFC, I.D.O.L. King, GRITS, and Preachers in Disguise. I never saw NWA as part of the real revolutionary hip hop movement. I actually thought that NWA member Ice Cube provided a more revolutionary side of himself with Lench Mob, the group he formed after leaving NWA. I don’t want to take away from a few revolutionary leaning songs that NWA put out, but they seemed to be confused on what type of hip hop group they really wanted to be. They also came along during a time when White-owned record labels were catching on to the idea that rap music could make a lot of money. Money making at the highest level of the music industry seems to be the death nail for revolutionary hip hop groups. Not only will “the revolution not be televised,” in many cases it won’t even be recorded.
Rap as a money making music industry came after Run D.M.C. collaborated on the remake of “Walk This Way” – the music video that finally put rap music into regular rotation during primetime on MTV. I loved Run D.M.C., but I wouldn’t consider them a revolutionary group when it came to socially-conscious hip hop. Their revolutionary work was more about bringing rap into the mainstream. Notice I didn’t state bringing hip hop into the mainstream, but rap into the mainstream. Now, NWA is a revolutionary group in another way. They laid the foundation for gangsta rap coming into the mainstream. Those rappers with tattoos all over their bodies and faces, sagging their pants, and glorifying strip clubs and weed in their lyrics should thank NWA. If there was no NWA and Ruthless Records, there would have been no Chronic Album from NWA member Dr. Dre’ on Deathrow Records.
Now, I won’t state that NWA wanted to go down as a revolutionary group by launching the gangsta rap movement, but they played this role all the same. At the same time that NWA became popular, Luke and the 2 Live Crew was bringing their pornographic version of rap into the mainstream. The mainstream music industry was more than happy to take the worst of rap music – or at best a stereotyped Black cultural rap portrayed as real Blackness – put it on steroids, and in turn silence real revolutionary hip hop. NWA West Coast rap also brought a glorification of gang culture. The movie Straight Outta Compton deals with this by showing scenes featuring the portrayal of members of both The Bloods and The Crips. This is the beginning of a violent culture within the rap industry that would take the lives of rap icons, Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. This is all the foundation of today’s commercial rap music industry to a significant degree.
Today’s mainstream and commercial rap music is not only un-revolutionary, it’s not even real hip hop. There are some artists such as Common and Kendrick Lamar who work to keep socially conscious hip hop alive, but it’s very much on life support. Many hip hoppers of my generation miss real hip hop culture with the principles of love, peace, community, having fun, and knowledge of God, knowledge of self. We miss the original elements of the emcee, the deejay, the b-boy and b-girl, and the graffiti artist. We miss non-violent house, roller skating, and community center parties. We miss being educated about our African, slave, and civil rights movement past through hip hop. We miss the commentary on our urban situation through words such as, “It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under,” from The Message. Before The Message was a Bible version, it was the story of urban youth and young adults.
I remain hopeful for real revolutionary hip hop, though. There is another possibility for the resurgence of revolutionary hip hop and it’s coming from a renewed version of holy hip hop. What Christian hip hop artist LeCrae is doing right now is very revolutionary indeed. Here is an evangelical, African-American hip hop artist whose music sales can be compared with the best secular versions of the music genre. He is also socially conscious, recently he has made off-stage comments regarding racial profiling and the murders of unarmed African-Americans by Police Officers via social media. He doesn’t provide a broad attack against the police force but instead offers words of reason, reconciliation, and justice. He provides a Biblical framework for #BlackLivesMatter. He has also had words about the tragedy of Black-on-Black violence and murder. He is truly a hip hop revolutionary. I don’t believe he is alone. Could there be an army of revolutionary Christian hip hop artists who could point to liberation and revival? I hope so. For a breakdown of the impact of hip hop on the broader culture and a history of holy hip hop, check out the book I wrote with Pastor Phil Jackson a few years ago entitled, The Hip Hop Church (Intervarsity Press).