| The purpose of this thesis is to analyze critically the culture of hip-hop from a political standpoint. Understanding how hip-hop is an expressive culture that has a tremendous affect on contemporary society politically, socially, and economically this thesis argues that African Americans use hip-hop to assert agency for civil rights. Using poetry, films, speeches, and the music itself as primary sources I separated hip-hop into four different political stages that served as a point of analysis: the black arts movement, the foundation of hip-hop, the crack epidemic and gangsta rap, and feminism in hip-hop. Throughout all four stages artists sought political inspiration from events that happened in the daily news, life in the community, and other hip-hop artists' music. These four political stages inspired the hip-hop generation to elect America's first African-American president, Barack Obama on November 4, 2008. |
