Artists who have used their music to speak out on the black struggle in America
Submitted by podizz on Fri, 10/24/2008 - 04:29
Tags:
- James Brown (Say in Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud)
- Public Enemy (Fight the Power)
- Curtis Mayfield (People Get Ready)
- Marvin Gaye (What's Happenin Brother)
- Stevie Wonder (Living for the City)
- Billie Holiday (Strange Fruit)
- Sam Cooke (A Change is Gunna Come)
- The Temptations (Papa Was a Rollin Stone)
- The Lost Poets (Rain of Terror)
- Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five (The Message)
- Sly and the Family Stone (Stand!)
- Aretha Franklin (RESPECT)
- NWA (F*ck the Police)
- KRS One (You Must Learn)
- 2Pac (Changes)
- Issac Hayes (Soulville)
- Queen Latifah (UNITY)
- Immortal Technique (Bin Laden)
- Martha and the Vandellas (Dancin in the Streets)
- Arrested Development (Revolution)
- Nas (Black President)
Author Comments:
I know you're not using the "Civil Rights Movement" label in the Henry Hampton old school sense. But if NWA is on this list then I have absolutely no idea what "Civil Rights" means.
NWA was one of the first groups to articulate what most would sooner ignore: police profiling and brutality, inner city poverty and gang life. They spoke for a generation of angry, alientated, and violated youths by spurning a we're going to tell it like it is and we refuse to take it attitude.
Check out these lyrics and then say NWA wasn't hitting on some serious issues....
F*ck the police comin straight from the underground
A young n*gga got it bad cause I'm brown
And not the other color so police think
they have the authority to kill a minority
F*ck that sh*t, cause I ain't the one
for a punk motherf*cker with a badge and a gun
to be beatin on, and thrown in jail
We can go toe to toe in the middle of a cell
F*ckin with me cause I'm a teenager
with a little bit of gold and a pager
Searchin my car, lookin for the product
Thinkin every n*gga is sellin narcotics
You'd rather see, me in the pen
than me and Lorenzo rollin in a Benz-o
I agree with all of that above... except for "one of the first groups." You already put The Last Poets on the list and they beat N.W.A. to the punch by two decades. (I'm assuming that there's a typo in there.) I would never say N.W.A. "wasn't hitting on some serious issues." But Eminem hits on some serious issues. I still have trouble seeing how that falls under the label of "Civil Rights Movement"...
If you lump Black Power in with the Civil Rights Revolution, as distinct from "The Movement", I can sort of see your point. I just think that gangsta has little to do with Civil Rights and nothing to do with "Movement". (I'm also hesitant about labeling N.W.A. as "instrumental"... in the cultural sense.)
I also think a case can be made that, through the appropriation of their style by the dominant culture, N.W.A. has set back the Civil Rights Movement.
One last word: Sly&theFamilyStone
I said one of the first groups, not the first group. I suppose 'Civil Rights Movement' was an inaccurate choice of words, as is 'instrumental'. What I'm trying to say is that all of these groups have had significant things to say about the state and treatment of black people in America. While NWA weren't always the most positive group, they took a stand against police brutality and the treatment of black youth by white authority....also, good call with Sly and the Family Stone...keep the comments comin