Hip-Hop and Social Inequality 2016

     The Greatness of Poverty

   “Cash rules everything around me” the lyrics to one of the most infamous songs by the “Wu-Tang Clan” here a message that echoes through the eardrums of its listeners that success is the way to be. It’s a message that ricochets across the lyrics of many artist, from plies “I got plenty money” to Kassidy “I’m a hustla” these music scream success and that Hip-Hop was the stepping stone to that success. As this echoes to its listeners, who are primarily African-American living in poverty, it distills a simple message, and that is Hip-Hop is the golden door out of poverty. And your rapping skills will be use as the tool necessary to facilitate you out of the ghetto poverty that you reside in, but it is all a façade, one that greatly benefits from the commercialization of people living in poverty. The creation of Hip-Hop was formed and geared towards Blacks In the poor south Bronx.  According to Scott Appelrouth “Rap was often evaluated on the basis of its allegedly authentic depictions of life in the Ghetto”  ( Appelrouth, 2013). A life that many of its citizens strive to leave, and that the hip-hop artist that no longer lived in these poor ghetto community were seen as giant beacon, and if one follows their footsteps then one too can also live a life of luxury. While the hardships of living in poverty bombarded citizens daily, many already successful individuals decided to use that as a form of commercial success for grow their own greed and goals.  

  In Mark Anthony Neal “Post-Industrial Soul” it states “The commodification of the black poor or underclass as human spectacle became a standard trope of mass culture.” (Neal, pg. 481) This further illustrates the large discrepancy between the individuals living in poverty as oppose to individuals that were not. This further added fuel to the mass of people living in poverty that getting out was the sole objective, and for those that were advocates and fans of Hi-Hop, it was through the music that this getting could be achieve, But like many others they failed to realize that, this “making it” aspect was an illusion, an illusion created to continue benefitting the one’s on top, while manipulating and telling  the ones at the bottom, that they too can make it out.

    We see further proof of such illusion in Mattheu Burkholds “If you don’t move your feet, then I don’t eat “ where he goes on to say “The real money, however, was in promoting, dee-jaying, and rapping.” (Burkholds, 2011) an act that swept and motivated many of the black youths living in poverty. here And while this proved slightly successful in the early 90’s during the creation of hip-hop, this same ideology can no longer thrive, in the commercialize world of Hip-Hop today, but unfortunately many black youth in poverty today are preyed upon for this very idea, the idea that they too can obtain success like their favorite artist through Hip-Hop. An illusion that traps them in a state of dream and success,  all the while trudging through poverty.

Work Cited 

Neal, Mark Anthony.(1999). “Postindustrial Soul: Black Popular Music at the Crossroads.” InWhat The Music Said : Black Popular Music and Black Popular Culture . New York: Routledge, pp.481-482. Reproduced by permission of Routledge/ Taylor& Francis Books, Inc

Birkhold, M.. (2011). ““If You Don't Move Your Feet Then I Don't Eat””: Hip Hop and the Demand for Black Labor. Race/ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, 4(2), 303–321. http://doi.org/10.2979/racethmulglocon.4.2.303


AppelRouth Scott, Kelly Crystal (2013) Rap, Race and the (Re) production of Boundaries, Sociological Perspectives September 2013 56: 301-326, doi:10.1525/sop.2013.56.3.301