Benjamin F Chauvis Hip Hop Culture Analysis

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The Transformation of Consciousness The Black Cultural Center arranged a speech by Benjamin F. Chavis, who is the Hip Hop Summit Action Network’s president, co-founder and CEO. Chavis has been a “long-time civil rights defender and leader. In 1963, he was the state-wide youth coordinator in North Carolina for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He also became the director and CEO of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was also the national director and organizer of the Million Man March in 1995, as well as authored numerous books and publications,” which is exactly why I was so compelled to go listen to him speak (Exponent 1). Despite the fact that, in class we haven’t exactly touched on the criticism of hip hop without a gendered aspect per say, I thought it was a very interesting topic to examine as a person with an “outside” point of view. In this response, I am going to analyze the cultural relevance of hip-hop, to advocating…show more content…
Hip hop is consciousness. People rap to be heard, because they want a better life, to get out of poverty and to end injustice. “If you hate hip hop then you obviously don’t understand hip hop, so spit truth in the face of injustice” (Chavis). That is why he believes hip-hop should not be censored and that we should caution away from those who want to take away the first amendment (freedom of speech), or people who do not except reality, people who do not accept “consciousness.” People protest against the bad language, rather than recognizing what the rap represents, which is typically the horrible social situations that these individuals are or were enduring, such as self-destruction, drugs, violence and hopelessness. “I would rather have young people in the studio making rhymes, then on the streets slinging drugs”
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