{"id":21353,"date":"2020-07-16T22:25:59","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T22:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=21353"},"modified":"2020-07-19T13:59:48","modified_gmt":"2020-07-19T13:59:48","slug":"hip-hop-is-the-soundtrack-to-black-lives-matter-protests-continuing-a-tradition-that-dates-back-to-the-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/hip-hop-is-the-soundtrack-to-black-lives-matter-protests-continuing-a-tradition-that-dates-back-to-the-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Hip-hop is the soundtrack to Black Lives Matter protests, continuing a tradition that dates back to the blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tyina Steptoe<\/a>, University of Arizona<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The sound of Public Enemy\u2019s 1989 song \u201cFight the Power\u201d blared as face-masked protesters in Washington, D.C. broke into a spontaneous rendition of the electric slide dance<\/a> near the White House.<\/p>\n

It was the morning of June 14, and an Instagram user captured the moment, commenting: \u201cIf Trump is in the White House this morning he\u2019s being woken up by \u2026 a Public Enemy dance party.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Coming amid widespread protests over police brutality and structural racism in the United States, the song is an apt musical backdrop. It opens with a quote from civil rights activist Thomas \u201cTNT\u201d Todd<\/a> before going into a sample-laden funk rap track referencing past black protest songs from the Isley Brothers<\/a> and James Brown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators in other parts of the country similarly used hip-hop as a form of sonic protest. In New York, protesters chanted the hook to Ludacris\u2019s 2001 song \u201cMove B\u2014-\u201d<\/a> as they were penned in on the Manhattan Bridge by police officers.<\/p>\n

Footage of the crowd singing, \u201cMove b\u2014-, get out the way. Get out the way b\u2014-, get out the way\u201d to uniformed officers seemingly got the approval of Ludacris, who reposted a video on his Twitter account accompanied by a raised fist emoji<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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No one who has listened to hip-hop since its origins in the 1970s<\/a> should be surprised that rap music has become the soundtrack to protests in the wake of George Floyd\u2019s killing in Minneapolis on May 25<\/a> while in police custody.<\/p>\n

Hip-hop artists have protested police violence in their music for decades. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, rappers from different corners of the United States described the brutal and discriminatory police tactics they witnessed in their communities.<\/p>\n

Most famous perhaps is N.W.A.\u2019s \u201cF\u2014 tha Police\u201d<\/a> from 1988. Fellow Los Angeles rapper Ice T faced backlash<\/a> after his metal band, Body Count, released \u201cCop Killer<\/a>\u201d in 1992.<\/p>\n

In the Geto Boys\u2019 \u201cCrooked Officer<\/a>\u201d from 1993, the Houston rap group bears witness to racial profiling and police violence in the so-called Dirty South<\/a>, before asserting: \u201cMr. Officer, crooked officer, I wanna put your ass in a coffin, sir.\u201d In the same year, New York\u2019s KRS-One referenced the racist origins of American policing<\/a> in \u201cSound of da Police<\/a>,\u201d connecting the violent tactics used against enslaved Africans to the NYPD of the late 20th century and referring to an officer as a \u201cwicked overseer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minneapolis goddam?<\/h2>\n

As a cultural historian who studies connections between race and music<\/a>, I know that the rich history of protest in Black American music started much earlier than hip-hop. The tradition is as old as Southern blues and continued through jazz and rhythm and blues.<\/p>\n

Take, for example, the \u201cJoe Turner Blues<\/a>,\u201d a song that likely originated in the late 1800s. According to folklorist Alan Lomax<\/a>, Black residents of the Mississippi Delta used the earliest versions of the song to describe a white sheriff named Joe Turner who sent Black men to chain gangs or to work on building levees.<\/p>\n

The lyrics recount a lover\u2019s tale of loss: \u201cThey tell me Joe Turner\u2019s come and gone. Got my man and gone.\u201d References to police officers in songs like \u201cJoe Turner Blues\u201d also link that tradition to the songs of enslaved Africans who warned about the slave patrols who combed the South<\/a> in search of runaways.<\/p>\n

As with hip-hop, protest against law enforcement came from communities of color in different parts of the country.<\/p>\n

From east Texas, blues musician Texas Alexander describes false accusations of murder and forgery in \u201cLevee Camp Moan Blues<\/a>.\u201d He laments, \u201cThey accused me of forgery; I can\u2019t even write my name\u201d \u2013 a statement that indicts both the segregated public school system of Texas and corrupt law enforcement officials.<\/p>\n

Soul rebels<\/h2>\n

In the 1950s and 1960s, jazz musicians contributed to the emerging civil rights canon<\/a> through songs like Charles Mingus\u2019 \u201cOriginal Faubus Fables<\/a>\u201d and Nina Simone\u2019s \u201cMississippi Goddam<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black musicians also made direct references to racial profiling and police brutality. Marvin Gaye tackled police violence on his 1971 album, \u201cWhat\u2019s Going On.\u201d \u201cTrigger happy policing\u201d is one of the many social problems mentioned in \u201cInner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)<\/a>,\u201d and he demands, \u201cdon\u2019t punish me with brutality\u201d on the album\u2019s title track<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Protesters also co-opted seemingly nonpolitical Motown songs as part of their struggle against police brutality. As uprisings against violent police tactics erupted in places like Watts, Detroit and Newark between 1965 and 1967, \u201cDancing in the Street<\/a>\u201d by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas became part of the soundtrack for urban protest<\/a>.<\/p>\n