I’d like to preface this article by acknowledging and bringing to your attention that there is an ongoing struggle for black liberation in America; it is our utmost duty to do everything we can in support of this movement, especially so as fans of hip-hop. Police are still killing unarmed minorities in the streets, the system which governs us is still designed to sequester and oppress people of color, and there is still a horrifying and grave level of inequality plaguing our country. …

Michel Foucault was a French sociologist who was largely known for his work on social norms and cultural repression — however, what ended up being one of his most crucial contributions as a thinker was his postulation upon colonization which became known as Foucault’s Boomerang. This ‘boomerang effect’, which Foucault had identified, was the process by which the mechanisms of control which Western colonizer countries developed to repress colonized countries and peoples would eventually end up finding their way back to the West, being utilized by Western governments against their own people. As Foucault puts it in his own words, “Colonization… had a considerable boomerang effect on the mechanisms of power in the West, and on the apparatuses, institutions, and techniques of power used. …

I’d like to preface this article by acknowledging and bringing to your attention that there is an ongoing struggle for black liberation in America; it is our utmost duty to do everything we can in support of this movement, especially so as fans of hip-hop. Police are still killing unarmed minorities in the streets, the system which governs us is still designed to sequester and oppress people of color, and there is still a horrifying and grave level of inequality plaguing our country. …

America is a gerontocracy.

The president is 73. His opponent is 77. The Speaker of the House is 80. The Senate Majority Leader is 78. We currently have one of the oldest legislative bodies in the country’s history — an average age of 58 in the House and 63 in the Senate. Perhaps, then, it is no wonder why it seems change never comes — the legislative powers of this country, quite literally, have grown old and decrepit, paralyzed by their inability to provide the profound, radical change that our society so desperately needs.

We are currently seeing the manifestation of this pathology in our nation’s streets. Young people who have grown tired of this incapable government’s continued inaction — both Gen Z and Millennials — have flooded towns and cities all across the country to protest systemic racism and police brutality. The protests are attended by people of all different age groups, but it is Gen Z who have truly spearheaded the movement; according to two recent studies, 52% of all adults who have attended a protest have been between the ages of 18–29, and an unprecedented 90% of Gen Z-ers support the Black Lives Matter organization. Meanwhile, in what is a contrast that is so stark as to be almost satirical, according to a 2019 Pew Study, 62% of white Americans over the age of 65 believe that America does not need to do more to ensure equal rights for black Americans (a number which jumps to 70% for those aged 50–65!). …

Chicago drill rap is a scene which, some odd eight years ago, practically revolutionized hip hop. The genre’s songs, which are typically hallmarked by furious lyrical outbursts over dark trap beats, have long been controversial due to the violent and nihilist nature of their lyrical content. But the most unsettling aspect of the Chicago drill scene, for unfamiliar onlookers, should not be the egregiously violent lyrics which these artists jam their songs with; but rather, the age, of these artists.

For instance, Chief Keef was 16 when his fame jettisoned him from the Drill-sphere into the eyes of the mainstream public. Or take the case of L’a Capone and RondoNumbaNine. The two rappers were 17 and 16 respectively when their hit single “Play for Keeps” came out, racking up millions of views on YouTube. This rush of young stars, who were all peddling violent lyrics as a selling point, naturally led to more critical scrutiny of the genre — especially when 18-year-old rapper Joseph Coleman, or Lil Jojo, was shot and killed after an internet beef with Chief Keef affiliate Lil Reese. Many critics used Coleman’s death as a platform to disparage the genre for its crass presentation of violence and frequent inciteful taunts, dubbing it a harmful cultural construct which encouraged criminal activity. …

Last September, political pundit Ben Shapiro tried to argue that “rap” was not music.

Not only is this assessment laughably cringey, but it is also patently wrong. According to Shapiro, music is only music if it contains these three elements: harmony, melody, and rhythm. Shapiro argues, “Rap only fulfills one of these, the rhythm section. There’s not a lot of melody and there’s not a lot of harmony. And thus, effectively, it is basically spoken rhythm. It’s not actually a form of music. It’s a form of rhythmic speaking.”

Shapiro’s assessment of what makes music actually “music” is woefully under representative, but even if it wasn’t, by his own standards, hip hop music checks all three boxes. Melody and harmony are not elements that are strictly intrinsic to singing — in hip hop, for instance, they can be visibly seen in the form of flow and cadence. All Shapiro has succeeded in doing is proving how little he actually understands of his so-called “musical theory.” …