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How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise? - the Roots of Conscious Rap

Added 2020-11-14 18:02:25 +0000 UTC

Hey guys. I know many of you are fans of the conscious rap. For myself, I always had special sympathies for anything that is released by Poor Righteous Teachers and Wise Intelligent, Brand Nubian (incl. solos of Sadat X, Grand Puba and Lord Jamar). Those records and lyrics are great and possess additional more deeper value. So to be more precise - I LOVE CONSCIOUS RAP with some food for thought attached to it.

So have you ever wondered how the politics, consciousness and hip-hop culture came together on a record? Which was the first record to be released in order to reach wider audiences than somebody shouting (rapping) it live or giving unrecorded speech? Here's the brief history.

The prelude to political hip-hop is related to the Black Power Movement and the emphasis on black pride arising in the mid-1960s and blossoming in the early-1970s. This inspired several commentaries that incorporated Black Power ideological elements. So logical was the emergence of songs expressing the theme of black pride (e.g. James Brown's "Say it Loud (I'm Black and Proud)" in 1969, and Billy Paul's "Am I Black Enough for You?" in 1972). However, the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron can be considered as the closest influence on political and conscious rap (e.g. '70 Last Poets' self-titled LP and '74 Gil Scott-Heron's album 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'). Still, both do not fall under the hip-hop category, and is being categorized as spoken-word. Nonetheless, many consider them as predecessors of hip-hop.

Despite the introduction of socially and politically driven themes in funk music, the spillover was not evident in the early works of old school rappers. Maybe it can be explained to the average age of those who were followers of hip-hop scene in mid 70's. They were mostly youngsters and those who wanted to take their mind off societal difficulties and racial injustice. Thus, the 70's hip-hop emcees were doing what the fans demanded and that was more moving the crowd using party chants and positivity templates. Maybe they were the social group of reference the Last Poets' 'When the Revolution Comes'. I will paste the latter part of lyrics:

[....]When the revolution comes

Frank Schiffman will give away the Apollo to the first person he sees wearing a blue dashiki

When the revolution comes

Afros gon' be trying to straighten their heads and straightened heads gone be trying to wear afros

When the revolution comes

But until then you know and I know n****s will party and bullshit

And party and bullshit

And party...

Some might even die before the revolution comes

However, come the 1980, the situation was about to change and the overall structure of lyrics became introduced more social and political elements. This change in attitude may be linked with the worsening of conditions in inner-city African-American communities following the Ronald Reagan’s election as President in 1980. Therefore, hip-hop political commentators began to increasingly address worsening social problems such as mass unemployment, police brutality, incarceration, inadequate public schools, political apathy, and oppression.

The overall social perception narrative had changed and not long after, there were first rap records addressing several issues, and THE CONSCIOUS POLITICAL RAP WAS BORN. The pioneer record was called "How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?" by Brother D with Collective Effort released on an independent label called Clappers. Nor in 1980's, nor today it is widely recognized and has that much exposure. It was 2 years later when political messages on a hip-hop track made it to mainstream audiences. And it hit really big!

The first majorly successful hip hop song containing conscious rap was Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message", an influential political and conscious hip hop track, decrying the poverty, violence, and dead-end lives of the urban poor of the time. It was supplemented by no less conscious ''New York, New York''. Both were released as singles, but it was 'The Message' that is widely recognized and sometimes credited as the best rap track of all time. And if not, it's almost every time damn near the top.

Furthermore, the complex socio-political issues before hip hop and during all of its stages severely influenced its birth and direction we can feel to this day. The 80's old school hip-hop could mostly be characterized with constant rivalry between of the laid back party raps and more serious and deeper conscious raps. Since then hip-hop has become much complex but the party and pop-culture ('what money can buy') themed messages still contradict with conscious and social injustice addressing rap. Conscious rap to some extent also includes a part gangsta rap, which still tackles prevalence of one social group over another (however, there are gangster and thug rap songs that are more a comparing who got bigger guns and shinier chains). But I will leave gangster rap and contemporary dynamics of this ol' (not so) good rival for another day. But to some point everyone roots for either former or latter pathway. The difference is in cultivating and spreading the message. [With some exceptions]. more mercantile and party themed jams still represent the mainstream airwaves and channels; whereas, more and more conscious projects emerge from what we call 'the underground'.

Thank you for paying the attention! As a preview I will have attached Brother D and Grandmaster Flash tracks this time since I have them freshly ripped on my drive. If you are interested in full HQ's, you will find them on here (links in few hrs after publishing):