Spring Break
Hip-hop as a political tool
Chris Curtis
Issue date: 9/26/08 Section: News
This, she said, is the underlying cause of hip-hop's international spread. Hip-hop is an effective political tool because it involves the listener in the artist's message, Champlain said.
"This is why hip-hop is a political tool … once it moves you then you got to hop up and do it," she said. "Then you got to hop up and actually be the one to say 'no."
Referring to an accepted method of social movement analysis, Champlain said that all movements have the potential to succeed, to bog down and fail or to be co-opted onto a different course.
Hip-hop has unfortunately succumbed to the latter result, she said.
"Basically they take your art form that was a form of resistance, and they gobble it up and spit it back to you in the form of HOT 106."
Junior David Buddenhagen said he was impressed with both the content and style of the presentation.
"She did a very good job of expressing herself and she had a powerful message," he said. "We hold [the] power to make our own decisions, and they can't take that away from us."
Among the video clips Champlain used to illustrate her points was a music video of Public Enemy's hit single "Can't Truss It," which deals with the slave trade.
"What [Public Enemy is] really saying is everybody needs to begin to question what they're telling you," Champlain said.
Champlain presented work by groups such as Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, and provided historical context, describing the difficulties of inner city life during the Reagan era.
She compared the heavy beat employed in a lot of hip-hop music at the time to an alarm.
"People were dying, people weren't getting listened to; it's like a child who's hungry and crying, crying for its mother to feed it."
Champlain played clips of songs by Queen Latifah as an example of the movement to counter hip-hop's misogynistic tendencies, and a clip of the Tupac Shakur song "Changes" set to a backdrop of the hurricane ravaged city of New Orleans.
"This is why hip-hop is a political tool … once it moves you then you got to hop up and do it," she said. "Then you got to hop up and actually be the one to say 'no."
Referring to an accepted method of social movement analysis, Champlain said that all movements have the potential to succeed, to bog down and fail or to be co-opted onto a different course.
Hip-hop has unfortunately succumbed to the latter result, she said.
"Basically they take your art form that was a form of resistance, and they gobble it up and spit it back to you in the form of HOT 106."
Junior David Buddenhagen said he was impressed with both the content and style of the presentation.
"She did a very good job of expressing herself and she had a powerful message," he said. "We hold [the] power to make our own decisions, and they can't take that away from us."
Among the video clips Champlain used to illustrate her points was a music video of Public Enemy's hit single "Can't Truss It," which deals with the slave trade.
"What [Public Enemy is] really saying is everybody needs to begin to question what they're telling you," Champlain said.
Champlain presented work by groups such as Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, and provided historical context, describing the difficulties of inner city life during the Reagan era.
She compared the heavy beat employed in a lot of hip-hop music at the time to an alarm.
"People were dying, people weren't getting listened to; it's like a child who's hungry and crying, crying for its mother to feed it."
Champlain played clips of songs by Queen Latifah as an example of the movement to counter hip-hop's misogynistic tendencies, and a clip of the Tupac Shakur song "Changes" set to a backdrop of the hurricane ravaged city of New Orleans.
