The University of Utah’s Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion hosted monthly “Reframing the Conversation” events.50 years of hip-hop’s influence on culture and social movementsas part of EDI’s Black History Month. event series on wednesday.
“When we talk about hip-hop as a genre, I think it’s really important to reflect its components to the culture as a whole,” said Keith, co-host of KRCL’s hip-hop radio show Friday Night Fallout. McDonald said. “So hip-hop is not just rap music, it’s also breaking, graffiti art, DJing, and cultural knowledge.”
The event, held in the Hinckley Caucus Room, included moderator and Black Cultural Center Director Meliga Garfield, Associate Professor of Race and Communication Rachel Alicia Griffin, and Black Cultural Center Program Coordinator Ephraim Kum. Mr. Luis Lopez, Deputy Director of First, attended. Ascent Scholars Teresa Martinez, associate professor of sociology, and McDonald.
Implications for race, identity, and social justice
When discussing how hip-hop has contributed to discussions about race, identity, and social justice, Griffin notes that hip-hop is “not separate from counterculture and activism; It’s a principle and a protest.”
Griffin added that for a music artist to be a hip-hop artist, they must somehow address power dynamics, protest, and resistance through their art. According to Griffin, this characteristic of hip-hop allows various hip-hop songs and albums to contribute to changing social consciousness.
But Griffin argues that when hip-hop is stripped, often intentionally, of its countercultural critique of power dynamics, it is itself a moment of appropriation, whether by the artist, the audience, or “just beyond. [Utah] Jazz performance. ”
“It’s an appropriation of hip-hop culture because it negates the core elements of the hip-hop genre itself,” Griffin said.
Kumu cited Joey Bada$$’s “All American Badass” and Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” as specific albums that embody the core elements of hip-hop. .
“‘Are you okay’ [by Lamar] It became one of the anthems of black joy, at least for me and my friends,” Kumu said. “And I think of the song ‘i’ and all the backlash he received because he directly referenced police brutality in that song.”
Hip-hop and the evolution of white audiences
Griffin argued that throughout the hip-hop genre’s 50 years, it has consistently revealed a “lack of real, tangible structural change,” all in an interconnected way.
As an example, she said some of the lyrics of famous ’90s rapper Tupac Shakur echo, in some ways, Utah’s HB 261, which has now been passed and signed into law. This bill would ban DEI-based programs in public institutions like the United States and would result in action. She wrote this as a “widespread setback in diversity efforts across all public education and government in the state.” salt lake tribune.
“Because it’s a bill about the destruction of Black and brown communities and the places where we gather,” Griffin said. “You can trace the genre of hip-hop back in time to a present where the past is no longer the past. How sad is it that Tupac Shakur can lecture at the Utah State Capitol and still do the right thing? ”
Another topic Garfield brought up was the fact that the majority of people who listen to hip-hop music are white, especially as hip-hop has become mainstream in the last decade.
In response, Lopez wrote, “Hip-hop vs. ‘Rap’ by KRS-One, a rapper who was popular in the 80s and 90s. “Rap is what you do, hip-hop is what you live for.”
“These industries realized they could do this, they could promote stereotypes of black and brown coded ‘urban communities,’ and they could monetize this,” Lopez said. Told.
the future of hip hop
Hip-hop will continue to be the “soundtrack of resistance” and “the voice of those who didn’t have a platform, as long as we protect it and care about things like:” Deaf Lewis said. Hand-picked and authentic sources from our community. ”
Griffin emphasized that it is important to remember that hip-hop as a genre and movement, and some of its leaders, are inadequate and incomplete.
“The people who come to mind as defining the genre and being at the tipping point are usually black men, and that in itself shows that there are barriers within the genre,” Griffin said. “…I struggle with hip-hop’s sexism and its homophobia, and the way the black community has built a politics of exclusion that doesn’t sound all that different from its desire to protect itself and the origins of hip-hop. I also suffer from racism.”
But that doesn’t mean people should dismiss the genre, Griffin added.
“It means this genre and the people within it need to grow, they need to learn what to do, and they can do it if they want. We have the potential.” said Griffin.
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