Date of Submission

Spring 2024

Academic Program

Sociology

Project Advisor 1

Alison McKim

Abstract/Artist's Statement

The music being made during the Golden Age of Hip Hop amounted to social theory for the way rappers identified, analyzed and were critical of the inequalities experienced by people of color. The period spanned between the late 80s and early 90s and was marked by the emergence of a number of artists who would go on to shape the culture of Hip Hop and its music. These rappers were heavily influenced by their geographies and the the social organizations native to them. For New York, those organizations were the Nation of Islam and a breakaway sect of the religion called the 5 Percent Nation of Gods and Earths, which helped to foster the creation of Conscious rap. In California, rappers who were influenced by the Bloods and Crips established Gangster Rap. Unbeknownst to rappers of the time, but the way they addressed such issues as race and the over-criminalization of minorities, they they were creating social theory.

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Open Access

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