In general, rap isn't given much respect for its historical references. Look at rock and you can find plenty of good examples of what I'm talking about.
Take something mainstream, like Death Cab's "Grapevine Fires." It's pretty much a tribute to the California wildfires that wrecked havoc upon SoCal a few years back. Or there's "Holland, 1945" by neautral Milk Hotel, which is in summary a tribute to Anne Frank's ordeal during World War II.
Move to folk music, and the amount seems to increase exponentially. Johnny Horton alone sang not only about the "Battle for New Orleans," but also the sinking of the battleship Bismarck, and the Alaska Gold Rush.
Rap, however (I apologize for any stereotyping), seems to constantly focus around money and enjoying life, not really reflecting upon much from the past.
Leave it to Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda to change that. While I can't say for sure whether the album he mentions at this presentation at the White House is going to become a reality, if the rest of it is anything like this song, I'll definitely have to buy it.
So, without further ado, let me direct you to: The Hamilton Mixtape.
Haha that's pretty good, although I think that new rap fits into that stereotype, whereas "old school" rap begs to differ. It might not be quite as specific as The Hamilton Mixtape, but the main example I'm going to use is from Rass Kass in the song Nature of the Threat. Although it mainly focuses on people's origin from Africa (and is certainly includes some biased opinions) it references many parts in history in a generalized sense.
ReplyDeleteAlthough most rap music doesn't reflect on the past(most of that includes popularized rap which in my opinion is complete crap), there are certain rappers that do focus on history as a topic like Rass Kass.