The Rise Of The Revolutionist Rappers

Hip Hop was a product of  an extremely polit­ic­al era, how­ever the strong and opin­ion­ated nar­rat­ives that are rooted in some of  our earli­er favour­ites some­how dis­ap­peared and over the years got out­shined by what I like to call Hip Pop… But could there be a change? I’ve noticed that there is yet again an appre­ci­ation for rap­pers with sub­stance, know­ledge­able dia­logue, and who just give a damn about what is hap­pen­ing in the world.

While we have always had our polit­ic­al rap­pers like Immor­tal Tech­nique, who choose not to opt for the com­mer­cial fol­low­ing, con­scious rap­per Common’s 2011 comeback was huge, and exem­pli? ed Hip hop fans need for intel­lec­tu­al lyr­i­cism. The appre­ci­ation of  Rap­pers like Phar­oahe Monch, Talib Kweli, Com­mon, and the more recent Kendrick Lamar, who received a lot of  love in 2011, takes us back to the earli­er days of  the genre, and reminds us of  just how import­ant of  a tool music is when it comes to express­ing our views.

Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Sec­tion 80’ has got to be one of  my per­son­al favour­ite albums of  last year, and a favour­ite of  many judging by its digit­al chart suc­cess.

His social com­ment­ary and deep lyr­ics addressed the issues and hard­ships of  a strug­gling gen­er­a­tion.
In the U.K the polit­ic­al sounds of  Lowkey and Akala, has giv­en their music a pass­port to travel over­seas. Lowkey who is also a polit­ic­al act­iv­ist, often appear­ing in the media voicing his opin­ion on cur­rent a airs, uses his music as anoth­er plat­form to con­vey his con­scious views. His 2011 album ‘Soundtrack to the Struggle’ was not only qual­ity hip hop, but was an intel­lec­tu­al account full of  facts from 16^th cen­tury colo­ni­al­ism to today’s occu­pa­tions, identi­fy­ing his need to inform his listen­ers and urge them to think as an act­iv­ist. Hav­ing col­lab­or­ated with like-minded prom­in­ent interna-tion­al rap artists like Immor­tal Tech­nique and M1, Lowkey’s
over­seas fol­low­ing has allowed him to be a strong rep­res­ent­at­ive from the
UK in the con­scious rap scene.

Should the remainder of  2012 bring us anoth­er year of  the cor­rup­tion, inva­sions, riots and revolu­tions that we wit­nessed last year, it’s good to see more appre­ci­ation for the rap­pers that seek to kick some ser­i­ous know­ledge.

Read More:

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