RAP IN THE USA  - Cross Cultural communication and policy

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1970s and the Birth of Rap

“Rapper’s Delight” The Sugarhill Gang (1979)

The Merry Go Round Technique

The merry-go-round technique was created by South Bronx DJ Kool Herc. It provided a new way of music production through the use of two simultaneous records initiating a smooth transition between songs. 

This 26 minute audio clip from NPR explains the humble beginnings of rap and hip-hop in New York City featuring interviews with Kurtis Blow, DJ Grand Wizard Theodore, and museum curator Jim Fricke.

“Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang out of Englewood, New Jersey, is argued as being the first commercialized rap song.

1980s: The Message

“Tipper Sticker” + Explicit Content (1985)

In 1985 the Parents Music Resource Center, led by Tipper Gore, wife of then congressman Al Gore, fought against “unsuitable or explicit content”. The Parental Advisory content warning “Tipper Sticker” was later implemented on album covers by the Recording Industry Association of America.

“Tipper Sticker” + Explicit Content (1985)

In 1985 the Parents Music Resource Center, led by Tipper Gore, wife of then congressman Al Gore, fought against “unsuitable or explicit content”. The Parental Advisory content warning “Tipper Sticker” was later implemented on album covers by the Recording Industry Association of America.

“The Breaks” Kurtis Blow (1980)

“The Breaks” by Kurtis Blow was the first certified gold rap song.

“It was our job to have a good time” - Kurtis Blow on early rappers and hip-hop artists

Yo! MTV Raps Wu-Tang Clan - C.R.E.A.M. (1987 - 1995)

“Fight the Power” Public Enemy (1989)

This television show aired on MTV Europe, MTV Asia, MTV Latino bringing rap and hip-hop performances to televisions across the globe. 

“The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five turned rap into a platform for expressing the socio-political inequities faced by urban communities.

The War on Drugs + Reagan

“Elvis was a hero to most/But he never meant s- to me you see/Straight up racist that sucker was/Simple and plain/Mother f- him and John Wayne/'Cause I'm Black and I'm proud/I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped/Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps/Sample a look back you look and find/Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check”

“The Message” Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five (1982)

“Hip hop essentially grew in tandem with the War on Drugs. Not only did it communicate the despair of living in an abandoned city, but it highlighted the facts on the ground for the rest of the country tucked safely away in our suburbs.” Paste Magazine

Ice-T’s 1987 album “Rhyme Pays” was the first Explicit Content warning sticker on a hip-hop album in the United States.

“Fuck tha Police” by N.W.A. has been regarded and used as a rallying cry against police brutality. It has since been revealed in an interview with Ice Cube that he wrote the song after being angry about Dr. Dre repeatedly being arrested as a teenager.

1990s: Censorship

“(2 Live Crew) were booked on charges concerned with the “prohibition on certain acts in connection with an obscene, lewd performance,” said sheriff’s spokesman Al Gordon. The arrest came three days after U.S. District Judge Jose Gonzalez ruled that the group’s album “As Nasty as They Wanna Be” is obscene, making it illegal to sell the record in Broward, Dade and Palm Beach counties. On Friday, a Ft. Lauderdale record store owner was arrested for selling the album to an undercover police officer.” The L.A. Times

2 Live Crew Arrest (1991)

2000s: Streaming + a tool for U.S. Diplomacy

On the global music spectrum, streaming has helped expose people within the U.S. to sounds from other countries, leading directly to more Latinx and Asian hip-hop artists achieving mainstream commercial success in the States. At the same time, it has also led to rap’s overall increase in popularity. In 2018, hip-hop officially became the most-consumed music genre in the States, which was “powered by a 72% increase in on-demand audio streaming,” per Nielsen.

“In the mid-2000s, amid the Abu Ghraib scandal and the resurgence of the Taliban, the State Department recast hip-hop as a tool rather than just a threat. Karen Hughes, then undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, launched an initiative called Rhythm Road and sent “hip-hop envoys”—rappers, dancers, DJs—abroad. The tours have since covered the broad arc of the Muslim world, stretching from Senegal and Ivory Coast, across North Africa and the Middle East, to Mongolia, Pakistan, and Indonesia. 


As part of a campaign costing $1.5 million per year, the artists stage performances and hold workshops; those who are Muslim speak to local media about what it’s like to practice Islam in the U.S. The trips aim not only to exhibit the integration of American Muslims, but also, according to planners, to promote democracy and foster dissent. In 2010, after one such performance in Damascus, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described hip-hop as a “chess piece” in the “multi-dimensional chess” game that is “cultural diplomacy.” 


The State Department’s program is modeled on the jazz diplomacy that the U.S. government conducted during the Cold War by sending integrated bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to counter Soviet propaganda and instead promote “the American way of life.” A 2008 Brookings report authored by the program's intellectual architects and titled “Mightier Than the Sword: Arts and Culture in the U.S.-Muslim World Relationship” notes that hip-hop began as “outsiders’ protest” against the U.S. system and now resonates among marginalized Muslim youth worldwide. 


From the Parisian banlieues to Palestinian cities, “hip-hop music reflects the struggle against authority”—a message that transcends language barriers. Moreover, note the authors, hip-hop’s pioneers were inner-city Muslims who “carry on an African American Muslim tradition of protest against authority, most powerfully represented by Malcolm X.” The study concludes by calling for “greater exploitation of this natural connector to the Muslim world.” - The Atlantic

 

Hip hop + Diplomacy

The Diffusion of Hip-Hop Map follows the movement of rap and hip-hop from its beginnings in New York City to its global spread only decades later.

Before streaming services, radio listeners called their local radio station if they wanted to hear a specific song. Missy Elliot’s “Work It” (2002) opens with a chorus of the radio request “DJ, please pick up your phone I’m on the request line”.

2020s: Verzuz

Check out our US Rap and Hip-Hop Playlist on Spotify.

Curated by author: Hannah Morrow

Rap/Hip-Hop producers, Swizz Beats and Timbaland curated live “battles” between famous musicians in lieu of the inability to attend in-person performances during the pandemic. The platform eventually grew to streaming performances on Apple Music, Youtube, and Twitter with performances hosting millions of online viewers.