American Politics & Pop Culture

What is the difference between hip-hop and rap? According to professor Pate, “rap is the literature of hip-hop and hip-hop is a cultural opposition to the dominant mainstream.� Therefore, rap is an element of hip-hop and hip-hop is a culture. According to Hun Hsu, “hip-hop was easier to legitimize then because it was “better�-more well rounded, more political, more purposefully angry� (Hsu 3). Professor Pate said that rap and hip-hop always represents something. He also went on to say that the views of the people in the communities that were smothered out took the form of hip-hop because otherwise it was impossible to bring out these views politically. Today, we do not hear a lot of rap that is purposefully angry and includes a political message. Most of the radio stations censor and play “gatekeeper� on the content the audience hears. According to professor Pate radio stations, such as 101.3 KDWB and B96, play bad music because the music they play goes along with the dominant culture mainstream. According to T. Martinez, “ultimately rap is the voice of urban African American youth, and that this voice is a form of resistance to and survival within the dominant social order� (Martinez 272). Radio stations such as KDWB and B96 do not convey this side of rap and hip-hop. These radio stations music does not reflect the hopelessness, the anger, and violence the people are living with.