'There Are a Thousand Hip-Hop Songs
That Share [Civil Rights] Themes'

By William Jelani Cobb

October 2004

In America, the perpetual quest for democracy and social justice has come with its own soundtrack – a means of literally listening to one’s history. Migration, labor, anti-war and racial justice movements each found their sentiments expressed through “movement” songs and popular music. Such protest music was so integral to the Civil Rights Movement that they became almost inseparable. Indeed, the culture of civil rights spilled past the boundaries of the politics. Soul and rock musicians like Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan echoed the messages and causes of the 1960s. Nina Simone, known primarily as a jazz vocalist, released her caustic indictment of racism, “Mississippi Goddam,” in 1963, highlighting the degree to which popular music had become fused with the political tenor of the times.

It would be easy to believe that those traditions have expired in the current era of pre-fabricated, shock-value music, but they have not been totally lost. Since rap’s inception in the early 1970s, hip hop artists have been using the form to protest poverty, mass incarceration, drug abuse, war and racism. In a genre that has rightfully been criticized for its sexism, materialism and violence, rapper and native Brooklynite Talib Kweli is quite possibly the most prominent artist today in the tradition of socially conscious music.

This morning I woke up feeling brand new/I jumped up feeling
my highs and my lows /And my soul and my goals.

The lyrics are from “Get By,” a populist anthem praising the heart and resilience of everyday people. The song appears on Kweli’s album “Quality.” In the opening verse, Kweli urges his listeners to become politically active: Even when the condition is critical/and living is miserable/your position is critical.

“I definitely feel like hip hop artists have more musical knowledge than any generation before us because the nature of hip hop is to build on the past,” he says in his trademark raspy voice and deep-Flatbush accent. “The more you get invested in hip hop the more you learn about other music.”

"Protest music was so integral to the Civil Rights Movement that the two came to be almost inseparable."

In Kweli’s case, the musical education began early, as he delved into his father’s extensive record collection. “My father was a DJ when in college, and after that he became a teacher, but there was always records all over the house—and he was into everything: funk, jazz, soul, R&B.” As a genre, hip-hop’s instrumentation is built upon “samples” or snippets of older records, and it is those borrowed notes that helped fuel Kweli’s appreciation for Simone, a lifelong musical influence. Her social commentary influenced Kweli’s own developing artistic sensibilities. “I loved that she was injecting activism into her music; she was talking about social topics, doing hip-hop style things with her voice. For her to make a song like ‘Mississippi Goddam’ [a denunciation of racism and violence against blacks, particularly in the South], or to do a song like ‘Four Women’ [a look at the implication of skin tones among four black women] was like hip-hop to me.”

Talk to him for a moment and Talib Kweli cites the importance of the political movements that inspired artists like Diego Rivera—and lament the current climate of social apathy. “People don’t realize that the political context spills over into the music. Artists have always painted the picture of what’s actually going on. And that’s what hip-hop does,” he says. “Because of the breakdown in communication between the generation of the ’60s and now, there’s certain fundamentals about music and life that just weren’t passed down. There’s no longer an idea of solidarity among poor and oppressed people—it’s like, if you’re poor, you’re doing something wrong.”

Still, Kweli is not a sole voice of conscience in the musical wilderness. Grammy-winning rappers OutKast recently released “War,” a song protesting both terrorism and the invasion of Iraq. Mos Def, a rapper and acclaimed Broadway actor, released “New World Water,” a song criticizing the waste of natural resources and challenging corporations Who pollute the whole shoreline/Have it purified, sell it for a $1.25. And Wyclef Jean released “Diallo,” which protests police brutality in a song that asks, Have you ever been shot/41 times?/Have you ever screamed/and no one heard you cry?

"Songs of conscience may not come to mind immediately when one hears the words ‘rap music,’ but hip-hop is making an important contribution to…the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement."

Songs of conscience may not come to mind immediately when one hears the words “rap music,” but hip-hop is making an important contribution to the tradition of protest music and the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. “There are a thousand hip-hop songs that share those themes,” Kweli points out. If anyone believes differently, he says, “they just aren’t listening.”

William Jelani Cobb is an assistant professor of history at Spelman College. His work focuses on post-Civil War African American history and 20th century American politics.