Race and Identity

     Hip-Hop a genre that has been dominated by African Americans ever since its beginning. This long seeded relationship has provided for  race to play a detrimental role in artists and lyrics of many songs. The ability to create a song that could potentially be listened to by millions of people carries a very strong power. This enables artists like Ice Cube to voice his opinion on race in everyday life the way he see's it, how he feels about it and what he may feel needs to be done. An example of this is his song titled "Race Card". He voices how his black skin makes life noticeably different than if it were white and how stereotypes dominate our modern culture. Yet he provides points that he is just as wealthy as a white male with a college degree or what is viewed as a successful American. He drives his message home with the hook proclaiming

"Please don't believe the hype

Everything in the world aint black and white

Everybody aint the stereotype 

Just becasue I look wrong, i'mma bout to do right" 

               

      In a somewhat similar sense Eminem points out in his song "White America" how because he is white his attempt at breaking the caucasian mold makes for harsh criticism from the public. Not only was he frowned upon but becoming successful in Hip-Hop was that much tougher because he would get judged by the cover of his book. The identity of Eminem was what his fans stuck to and loved, the kid who didn't give a shit what people thought of him or what his music was trying to say. It was edgy and provided him with a great platform to teach and show that race wasn't an unbreakable barrier in Hip-Hop. 

      

      While Eminem was looking at the hypocrisies in white America, black rappers were also pointing out how they were scared that their race was becoming something pitiful and incapable of being proud of. Songs like "Black Zombie" by Nas seem as an attempt at some sort of wake up call, a reason to look in the mirror and change as a whole. A similar example of this fear of falling into the mainstream African American life style is depicted by Big K.R.I.T. Who like Ice cube uses the hook as the hammer to nail down his point. The hook goes 

I don't wanna be another nigga,

Tell the government,
I don't wanna be another nigga,
Tell them white folk,
I don't wanna be another nigga,
Tell them black folk,
I don't wanna be another nigga.
Tell the world
I don't wanna be another nigga,

       Lastly a song I find that wraps up Race and Identity in Hip-Hop perfectly is "Kramer"  by Wale. It goes over how the word nigga has been used to avoid the N word in music and modern day. The song was prompted and based off of a rant in which the Actor who plays Kramer in Seinfeld did while at a comedy show. The song actually uses the audio from it at the beginning to set up the rest of the lyrics and uses the public apology at the end. Describing how everyone's identity is different but no one is completely clean and un capable of seeing race. Virtually describing that we all have some racism in us it is just merely the amount of it which we think and or express that differs. Which is of course a very touchy subject and a very bold concept to run with and create a song about.