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Article: Hip-Hop: A Roadblock or Pathway to Black Empowerment? (Arts & Entertainment).(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Black Collegian
- Article date:
- October 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 IMDiversity, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the early 1980s, a highly percussive, cadenced, and repetitious musical form seeped from the inner city streets of the South Bronx to a virtually exclusive African-American audience. Harbingered by originators such as Run DMC, the Sugar Hill Gang, Public Enemy, Afrika Bambaata and others, the medium was a simple reflection of the daily lives of its creators with topics ranging from the trivial, such as the style of one's new Adidas sneakers, to the significant, like the infuriation spurred by police harassment.
Rap music, as it came to be known, lacked major commercial support in its early stages, and, as a result, it was authentic and unaffected; it was truly ...