-Written by Karev of HeritageHipHop.com
Hip-Hop may have started out in the park but the foundation of Hip-Hop is a story of struggle, poverty, and pain. These stories go beyond the story August of 1973, and the agreed upon date of Hip-Hop’s beginning. These stories come from the experience of plantations, lynchings, and economic theft that built America since its’ inception as a country, or in terms of some people a “world business”.
The business of America has been to defraud people. With traits of that past still existing, some people like, Elijah Schaffer for example, believe that Black people in America are not citizens of America because they were slaves. Thoughts and ideals like this have been shown throughout the mental fabric of this country’s history and have lead to the rise of people that fight for equality and inspire the movement of change.
One of those inspirations in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who is known for his “I Have a Dream” speech. Being a civil rights leader he used non violence to make the world pay attention to the mistreatment of Black people on American soil. He also brought out the unfair contracts America has given to foreigners (mostly European) that have come to this country to defraud the people that were unjustly enslaved and cheated from land, voting rights and the right to speak using free speech to aid their advancement in society economically. Yes, there has been more growth from the Civil Rights Movement but the most impactful movement since the Civil Rights Movement in our country has been the Hip-Hop Movement.
From the South Bronx out of the economic poverty and social lynching of the inner city, came music and the desire to beat the racism, the nepotism, and the defunding of programs that gave children activities to inspire change and trades for career placement in society. In today’s world the mainstream media has taken Hip-Hop and branded it as hateful, sex crazed, murder induced and evil to the conscience of the country. Is it fair to say Hip-Hop failed Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream?
My answer is NO! Though I can say there are many hurtful images unfairly shown disproportionately in the mainstream media, Hip-Hop that is positive still exists and the message of freedom and human rights still lives on. It was Hip-Hop that fought for the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday in Arizona to be established. It was Hip-Hop that showed up to celebrate Selma, Alabama and recount the march that changed the world. It is Hip-Hop that aided in unlocking the GOD BOX that reminds the world that Black men stand for manhood, loving God and Family Values over the rhetoric of being drug crazed, over sexed, and violent people that the media tries to paint in the news or in racist one sided dialogue where numbers are used to portray a story not fairly told through the use of institutional racism and more.
Today Hip-Hop has led to growth of communities by giving people the opportunity to create and generate money through the creativity that was lost. Clothing lines, music business, curriculum writing, art, literature and more came out of letting the inspiration of “Letting Freedom Ring”, and having every person have the right to fair, equal rights to express and have the chance to have their voices heard and their lives respected.
After reading this article, think of how Hip-Hop was there to aid people in going to college, eating healthy, reading books, and fighting unfair institutions in this country to give education and history to the youth they would have not gotten in the school or even religious institutions this country has built. It is an honor to write this article and to let the World know that no, Hip-Hop has not failed Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream. It is still fulfilling it. The mainstream media will promote images of destruction to try to tell you otherwise. But like all great information, take the time to learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and about the people in Hip-Hop culture that have made music about peace ,knowledge of self, positive imagery and love to the world. In the word’s of Hip-Hop, “We will be here forever”, and “Everything’s gonna be alright”.
