This is the music that is mobilising Britain's youth and getting them to think about issues they might not otherwise have done
Thousands of students protesting against the government's plans for tuition fees in recent months put paid to the myth that young people are apathetic and don't care about politics. On the contrary, they do care so much that many were subsequently beaten by the police, illegally kettled and demonised by the press in the weeks that followed.
There's a soundtrack to accompany this struggle, and that soundtrack is conscious UK hip-hop ? a vehicle that is mobilising young people and articulating their collective voice. You can hear it in the lyrics and you can hear the music. It is played at almost every major protest, blaring out from soundsystems.
Differing from the often violent image that rap has been tarnished with, conscious hip-hop is generally the opposite of what is marketed and supported by corporate labels. As London-based rapper Lowkey, one of the best-known figures on the scene, puts it in a track entitled My Soul:
"They can't use my music to advertise for Coca Cola / they can't use my music to advertise for Motorola / they can't use my music to advertise for anything / I guess that's reason the industry won't let me in / refuse to be a product or a brand I'm a human / refuse to contribute to the gangsta illusion."
In short, conscious rap is hip-hop as it should be. Many people know of US conscious rappers such as Dead Prez, KRS-One and Immortal Technique. But how is it relevant to activism here in the UK? US professor and author MK Asante Jr argues that hip-hop simply means "making an observation [about society] and having an obligation".
Asante, who also co-wrote and produced the film The Black Candle ? a Maya Angelou-narrated film about the Kwanzaa festival and African American history ? recently teamed up with British rapper Akala and Lowkey to discuss this topic in front of a packed audience at the British Library. Their conclusion was simple. While hip-hop should reflect reality, it should also have the capacity to offer solutions and provoke debate as any art form should.
This brand of hip-hop is embodied by anti-capitalist rappers who are key figures on the underground scene. The rap group they founded, the People's Army, exemplifies the kind of hip-hop which can galvanise socially conscious young people. One offshoot of this has been the birth of The Equality Movement. Founded by Lowkey, Logic and activist Jody McIntyre, it organises public meetings which are free and open for anyone to attend. It has drawn huge crowds and has so far included themes such as "What is imperialism?" and "How to resist", while the first meeting included keynote speeches from journalists Tariq Ali and Seumas Milne.
A quick YouTube search for these artists reveals that while they remain unsigned (indeed, they don't want to be signed), their tracks gain thousands of hits. Lowkey's song Long Live Palestine for example (all profits were donated to the people living in the Gaza Strip) and the buzz it created raised awareness of the issue to a new audience. It speaks volume for hip-hop's ability to get people thinking about issues they might not otherwise have done.
Likewise, Logic's recent track Down for my people spoke to those young people who experienced their first taste of protesting at the student and anti-cuts demos. The song has received an avalanche of hits on YouTube in a matter of weeks. Another notable collaboration by Logic and Lowkey was their track in support of the NSPCC's "Don't hide it" campaign, in which they encouraged young people to speak out if suffering from abuse.
While young people continue to identify less and less with the current political status quo, hip-hop will only continue to strengthen. So far, it has reached and politicised young people when other artists supported by mainstream labels have failed. While we often look to the US for inspirational rappers, we do in fact have an abundance of talent right on our doorstep. They are just a click away.
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