If today’s toothless hip hop could rediscover its bite, the soundtrack of New York could one day become the unifying sound of a nation
Every city has a sound. You can walk the streets and visit the sights, but until you listen you’ll be seeing the world in black and white. Music is colour; music is spirit; it’s the shape of a place’s dreams. New Orleans is jazz, Nashville is country, but New York will forever be hip hop.
In many ways, it’s the soundtrack of modern America too. Hip hop was born from the civil rights movement. It was about social justice. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King echoed the ‘We shall overcome’ song the protestors were singing in his famous speech; in the ’80s, NWA rapped “fuck tha police”. Then rappers railed against the N-bomb; later the word was worn as a badge of pride. If hip hop is now all about doing the stanky leg and partying like it’s your birthday, that’s because it’s become mainstream. It’s the Fortune 500. It’s pop tunes with swear words and gold chains. Now, as Black Lives Matter campaigners protest police brutality, and when an average of 44 people are murdered in the US every single day — most from the inner cities — hip hop raps about sex and money instead of hope and change. I decided to go back to its source, but I wasn’t going back alone.
Bu hikaye National Geographic Traveller (UK) dergisinin June 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye National Geographic Traveller (UK) dergisinin June 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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