I was doing a little searching on Rap and Hip-Hop and came across this review of a travelogue about one man who went to various countries and studied how rap has been used by many of the impoverished or underprivileged as an outlet. Although other music has been used in such a way, I did find it interesting that the first line states how "Americans take hip-hop for granted" or, more specifically, that we assume Hip-Hop is uniquely American. After I got to thinking about this (something I have thought about before), I realized that I have had that same impression of Hip-Hop but I think now I am starting to see it as a larger genre than an "american" one.
For example, in my Representing Islam course, we listened to a rap group from Lebanon who utilized rap as a social awareness outlet. Which, of course, Rappers used to do. I think this use of rap in such a context is showing the roots of what rap is supposed to be and how the industry has utilized and constructed what it is now for money making. Many artists used to focus on the social issues of the time and now it is almost unheard of for an artist to--and, if they do, it becomes an abnormality in the genre. I think this is something that we need to reconstruct and incorporate back into rap music.
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