SRO om hiphop og identitet

Abstract

The main focus of this article is the relationship between conscious hip-hop music and the identity of the black population in USA. It seeks to walk the reader through the first steps of the history of rap and continues on to explore the development from early to modern conscious rap. To acquire a better understanding of the design and goal of both early and modern music the author has chosen to analyze and interpret Public Enemies’ Fight the Power (1989) and Mos Def’s Mathematics (1999) respectively. Both pieces are gone through by means of a literary and a musical analysis, although the first is more thorough than the other. Literary analysis elements are e.g. references, theme, rhythm, rhymes and flow. Musical elements are e.g. groove and sound. In the light of these two analyses and bringing in external examples and opinions it is discussed whether modern hiphop still plays a part in relation to the identity and rights of black people. The terms pro-black and post-black are drawn in and compared. It is concluded that because of the increasing individuality the collective black identity has become too broad to be affected by hip-hip as a whole. It is also concluded that the increased globalization causes hip-hop to have the same overall influence on the rest of the world – black or not – as on the black society of USA.

Opgaveformulering: MU – EN

1. Redegør for hip hop som

musikgenre, dens opståen og

tidlige historie i USA.

2. Foretag en musikalsk og lit-

terær analyse af to selvvalgte

hiphop numre.

3. Diskuter hip hoppens funkti-

on i forhold til sortes vilkår

og identitet i USA.

Hiphoppens fædre

Hiphop er en subkultur, der opstod på gadeplan i New York-bydelen Bronx i 1970’erne. Hiphoppens musik er kendetegnet ved ét gennemgående mikset beat, og et overvejende indhold af rap i stedet for sang. Rap er en videreudvikling og/eller sammenblanding af to forskellige elementer; først og fremmest en undergenre af blues, hvor man talte i en rytmisk strøm i takt til musikken, der logisk nok bliver kaldt talking blues; og dernæst den såkaldte toasting der har rødder i Jamaica. Deejay er det jamaicanske udtryk for en reggae- eller dancehall-musiker som taler til et beat. Dette bliver både kaldt toasting og deejaying.

Clive Campbell bragte denne festtradition med sig, da han immigrerede fra Jamaica til Bronx.