•

1980s: rap music became CNN for black people

•

as it becomes a bigger commercial entity

•

began to offer many various kinds

•

one version of rap music was socially conscious rap

•

realistic communication of what urban life is really like for African American people

•

they didn't really didn't have a black news channel

•

had elements of good guys and bad guys as in other eras of Rock music

•

1950s

•

Elvis Presley was the bad guy, the guy mothers didn't want their daughters going out with

•

Pat Boone was the good guy

•

1960s

•

Beatles the good guys

•

Rolling Stones the bad guys

•

late 1980s

•

some rappers were likewise funny and relatively inoffensive

•

others were angrier

•

Gangsta Rap

•

Ice-T

•

Los Angeles

•

1988 "I'm Your Pusher"

•

more graphic and angry way

•

N.W.A.

•

created anger and controversy

•

1989 Straight Outta Compton

•

Easy-E

•

Dr. Dre

•

drew from Kool and the Gang, rather than rock samples

•

biggest album

•

1991 EFIL4ZAGGIN

•

Boogie Down Productions

•

South Bronx, New York

•

KRS-One

•

Criminal Minded (1987)

•

not a big commercial success

•

influential for portraying ghetto life in New York

•

Public Enemy

•

Chuck D

•

Flavor Flav

•

Long Island, not too far from the Bronx

•

1988: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

•

turning point for rap

•

raising of social conscience

•

interesting sampling

•

almost entirely electronic

•

1990: Fear of a Black Planet

•

"Fight the Power"

•

featured in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing

•

Queen Latifah

•

1989: All Hail the Queen

•

"Ladies First"

•

Latifah made her mark in hip-hop by rapping about issues of black women

•

her songs covered topics including domestic violence, harassment on the streets, and relationship problems

•

raps about the pleasures of womanhood

•

she is out to prove that women can rap

•

in a style that many people would consider rap misogynist: objectified, demeaned

•

MTV and Rap

•

1988: Yo! MTV Raps

•

quickly becomes the most popular show on MTV

•

rap has very effectively crossed over

•

suburban kids are going off to their Target or K-Mart or wherever to buy up these albums which talk about world that their parents would never allow them to be a part of

•

a kind of voyeurism

•

controversy over rap

•

many rock musicians at the time really hated rap in the same way that they really hated disco a couple of years back

•

it wasn't about the performing artists

•

no guitars, no guitar solos

•

but actually remixing sounds had been being done since the 1960s

•

1980s: two scenes

•

Heavy Metal

•

increasing success through the 80s

•

rap

•

develops out of the New York scene

•

as an MTV show as well