Black power and ‘edutainment’: The political roots of hip-hop music | Music
Written by Black Hot Fire Network on February 10, 2024
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat I tried to get away but I couldn’t get far ‘Cause the man with the tow truck repossessed my car.
It was 1982, and as New York was emerging from one of the worst financial crises in its history, these lyrics by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five struck a chord with listeners. The Message, a gritty indictment of the city’s failed institutions, is broadly viewed as the origin of . . .
