Introduction

Music is a dynamic topic that runs across different area, from genre, origin, instruments, etc. For contemporary American music, for example, different genres come to mind such as hip-hop, jazz, rock and blues For the Latina, salsa, samba and compa and for the Caribbean, it is genres such as mentor and reggae. Music is a form of art that acts as a symbol for culture, identity and above all it signifies the stories and the history that is behind the expression of different feelings depending on the creator’s state of mind (Washington, 2018). Music is an art form that has been found to be effective in soothing the mind, promoting unity in people who identify with the same culture and creating and preserving history. The use of music dates as far back as the Stone Age period when man used different forms of art as a form of recreation. More specifically, American music dates as far back as the discovery of language with genres such as jazz and blues being developed. One of the most common genres of American music, hip hop, is associated mostly with the African American community with most of the best hip hop artists being black. Hip hop music is specifically associated with slave trade which was the major cause of the migration and settlement of black people in America. This settlement resulted in the development of a new genre of music, (hip hop) that has grown to become one of the most popular music genres in the world. Slavery can therefore be termed as a factor that has had a profound impact on contemporary hip-hop music.

 

 

 

 

 

History of hip hop music

American hip hop has grown to become one of the most famous music genres in the 21st century. Hip hop is identified with the common phrase rap, which dates back to the 14th and 15th century in Britain where it was used to refer to a strike or a hit. Rap was later introduced to America a few centuries later with a slight modification to imply that someone was speaking or having a conversation in the black community slang. Rapping is the main aspect of hip hop and its roots are said to have been in Africa “griots” where hand-made instruments used by story tellers were used during social events to increase the flow of their stories (Naison, 2008). This aspect of speaking while playing instruments was the root to rapping and the first form of hip hop ever depicted.

During the trans-Atlantic slave trade period, Africans made music even in the most difficult circumstances. A ship captain, Theodore Cannot, during the 1800, described how the Africa slaves were always engaging in music. The Africans would unite in making African music and playing improvised instruments such as tin kettles (Sundquist, 2006). Although slaves were from different communities in Africa, and did not share in culture and language, they united in their African hymns. To the slave traders, it was hard to understand how Africans could communicate in different languages through their music. It gave the Africans a sense of unity and enabled them to identify with each other.

During the period of the slave trade, many Africans were transported from their home continent to different continents, with the largest numbers being taken to America. The African slaves, who came to America, brought with them their culture of music and griots which they used as a coping mechanism during these times of pain, hunger and mistreatment. Through the slave trade, African music, culture and language was integrated with the American culture resulting to modification of various aspects of life such as music (Sundquist, 2006). As a result, a new language, African American Slang was established and a different genre of music, hip hop, created. Africans used the call to answer singing method while working in the American fields, and by so doing, developed their music genre.

Slavery made it possible for African slaves to create their own music and identify with it. Hip hop music has been identified as the genre with the closest relation to traditional slave narratives. Just like the Slave narratives, hip hop is more than the lyrics, for any individual songs. In slavery, Africans had very little freedom, if any, to be involved in any other activities other than those stipulated by their masters. The role of a slave was to ensure that they carried out all the duties delegated to them and show complete commitment and respect to their American masters. Their lack of freedom was not only in their physical involvement but extended to their right to speech and freedom of expression. Under these circumstances, their slavery narratives were not supposed to have any direct implication that they were undergoing any neglect or mistreatment or unlawful punishments from their masters (Sundquist, 2006). Most of their narratives were in coded metaphors and symbolism, and in most cases, in languages that the Americans had very little or no understanding of. Slaves used their own jargon to share information and the same was done in the composition of these narratives. Modern hip hop, in the same way, identifies with slavery narratives on the grounds that most of the lyrics in the songs have coded messages and unique slang language that can only be understood by people who identify with the music genre. For example, one of the most common phrases in hip hop today include “nigga” and “bitch” (Coleman et a., 2016). In the hip hop music industry, these are words that can be used to express different emotion, both of love and anger, depending on the context they are used. However, a person with little understanding of the hip hop language will view these two words with the traditional meanings which are deemed offensive and inappropriate in the community especially when used to refer to a person.

Understanding of slavery narratives and hip hop are both based on culture. Slaves would in some cases exchange sentiments of their songs and narratives to oppose the real meaning of their lyrics. When singing about oppression or the unfair conditions of their slavery, slaves would use tunes that implied that they were singing songs of joy (Sundquist, 2006). This made sure that only the slaves identified with their true emotions since they all share deep cultural backgrounds and had a good understanding of the situation they were facing. Hip hop uses the same strategy in passing its message. Hip hop, just like most of the 20th and 21st centuries music genres, it identifies with loud beats and controversial words. This is often met with a lot of controversy and since most of the words used are deemed inappropriate by the society, people often fail to decipher the real emotions that are attributed to the music.

The reason behind slavery music, poetry and narrative was to help the slaves in freely expressing their opinion in ways that was unique and exclusive to their society. It paved way for African slaves to identify with each other, and create their own history that was not based on the American culture. Through African slaves, the African-American community was created, a new language (slang) established and it eventually contributed to the development of a new community, the black American people in the American continents. Looking at a different perspective, slavery made it possible for Africans to live in different continents worldwide but slavery songs made it possible for the slaves to work through the struggles of slavery and made it possible for a the African-American community, which identifies significantly with the existence of hip hop,

Hip hop and rap music is often used as a media for expression of feelings and situations, and for the African-American community, rap in the 1970’s was one of the ways that was most effective in fighting against color and race discrimination. Music based on slave trade was used as a symbol of the oppression that slaves used to undergo, and as African –American music continued to grow in the music industry, it transitioned to how their ancestors and prior generations had fought to rise above slave trade into an independent community that identified with its own culture (Bradley, 2016). The trend continued to grow as black Americans continued to identify with each other as a community. The allegiance that existed during the slavery era continued manifesting itself through the black American culture and music.

Slavery narratives and songs represented the fight and endurance that slaves had portrayed while hip hop today represents a culture of power and money, especially for the black community. The slavery era represented an era of communism which was manifested in the way that different communities identified with each other. Currently, the society is a representation of capitalism more than communism. However, much the society has changed in terms of communism and capitalism, the African American music still represents consistency. It portrays the fight of the saves, the settlement into a new land with different believes and culture, their fight to be given their specific rights and eventually it portrays the eventual success of their events (Brooten & Hazelton, 2010). Their music, represents their different transitions, growth and change through different eras in history and creates unique representation of the African American history (Emdin, 2010).

Hip hop, just like slavery music represents the struggle of the African –American community. One of the most famous hip hop artists, Rick Ross, sang a song, “Hustling”, which focuses on the act of obtaining money often in crafty ways. For slaves, the reason why it was difficult for them to free themselves was because they lacked the resources to do so and they were identified as a minority group due to their skin-color. In the United States, today, many decades after the end of the slave trade, the African-American people still represent the highest number of unemployed people in the country. Songs like “hustling” represent the reality of the African-American community in the world today, who after decades of struggle to gain independence and earn full rights as citizens, are still treated like minorities with very little rights.

Slavery lessened the importance for education for the slaves, and the effect of this is still felt in the choice of occupation for African- Americans. The indirect implications of slavery included that the role of colored people was to make money for white people (Riley, 2018). While white people had privileges such as going to school, choosing a career and getting families of their desire, black people were expected to work, had no right to education and only had the privilege to marry people of color. The perception that black people’s role in the society was to work and make money was slowly implanted into the African culture and eventually it became their identity. As a result, the black community focused to careers such as music (hip hop and rap) that required very little or no education. African –Americans are identified with music and dance in the society today while white people are identified with office jobs and educational professions. Tyga, a hip hop artist once snag that he “made college money, without college” he was a “post traumatic slave”. These lyrics were in collaboration with the famous theory by Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary who identified the hip hop community with post-traumatic stress disorder that in this case made them Post traumatic slaves. The diminished focus on education for the African-American generation made it possible for most of the youth to focus on art such as music as a source of income as opposed to their learning related occupations (Dwyer, 2012). In America today, most of the richest black people are hip hop musicians and the hip hop dream continues to be common for most young back people. Slavery made the black people to believe that they were better in working and earning money than they were at other things (Riley, 2018). In the process of earning their living in the society, most black people end up joining the music industry, and identifying with the hip hop industry.

Slavery created Black English, an African American vernacular English language that identified with the African American people. It represented the unity that was developed in the African people who were from different but who had gone through similar circumstances. This Black English is enhanced and spread through hip hop, which teaches language that is unique and specific as an African American expression (Emdin, 2010). It continues an African American cultural language that would have been forgotten with the end of slave trade. Hip hop and slavery promote the development of a unique black culture and preserve the history of the black American community in America.

Slave trade is associated with a vast number of negative and positive impacts. Among the most common positive impact of slavery, music continues to be one of the effects that has surpassed different historical eras and has developed to fit into the different cultural economic and political conditions while still maintaining its relevance. Hip hop continues to identify, not only with different historical events, but also with the African American language and culture. The African people engagement in music contributed to the development of black music and its incorporation into the amerce culture.  Slavery made it possible for the black community to identify with each other through music and consequently contributed to the development of hip hop music as an identity of the African American community.

 

 

 

References

Bradley, R. N. (2016). Re-Imagining Slavery in the Hip-Hop Imagination. South: A Scholarly Journal, 49(1), 3-24.

Brooten, B. J., Hazelton, J. L., & (2010). Beyond slavery: Overcoming its religious and sexual legacies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Coleman, M. N., Butler, E. O., Long, A. M., & Fisher, F. D. (2016).  In and out of love with hip-hop: saliency of sexual scripts for young adult African American women in hip-hop and Black-oriented television. Culture, Health & Sexuality [Cult Health Sex], 18 (10), 1165-79

Dwyer, J. I. (2012). Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip–Hop. Library Journal, 137 (11), 89-90.

Emdin, C. (2010). Urban science education for the hip-hop generation. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Naison, Mark. (2008). Hip Hop and Oral History: Turning Students into “Griots for a New Age”. OAH Magazine of History, 22(3), 46-48.

Riley, R. (2018). The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.

Sundquist, E. J. (2006). Empire and slavery in American literature, 1820-1865. Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi.

Washington, A. R. (2018). Integrating Hip-Hop Culture and Rap Music into Social Justice Counseling with Black Males. Journal of Counseling & Development, 96 (1), 97-105.