Political Rap: The Music of Oppositional Resistance

Abstract

Music is a medium of popular culture wherein group identities are explored and linked to larger social forces. Previous research portrays political rap music as an oppositional African-American cultural form that critiques and encourages resistance to cultural and socio-economic domination. Political rap lyrics haue expressed themes associated with a re-conceptualized Black family as a racial community, lost economic opportunities, educational bias, health care inequality, criminal justice discrimination, police brutality, mass media misrepresentations, and the existence of a racial genocide conspiracy. Using ethnographic content analysis, we empirically detail the nature and frequency of the expression of oppositional resistance and related themes in a representative selection of political rap music lyrics from the twenty albums released by the six most prominent political rap artistes between the years of 1988-1992.

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