Expert: Johnny - 5/13/2005

Question
What is conscious rap

Answer
Rap and Hip Hop, particularly since the early nineties, have been ruled by the gangster.  The gangster image promotes a lifestyle of ignorance, crime, drugs, misogyny.  

"Conscious rap" is a movement that works against these themes.  The 70s brought the extreme political stance of the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron.  Picking up where they left off was Public Enemy in the 80s.  They were the forerunners of what continues today.

Public Enemy's hardcore sound, however, influenced the gangster sound more than the political, conscious side of rap.  THe jazzy sounds of De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest in the early 90s laid the groundwork for today's stars of conscious rap, namely Common, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli.  

The standard conscious listener is less of the jiggy, flashy type than mainstream and hard gangster rap.  The audience is made up of college kids and more often listeners with broader interests.   Because of this affiliation with school and a leaning towards the nerdier audience, the genre of conscious rap over jazzy productions has come to be known as "backpack" rap.  

Recent artist Kanye West is the self-proclaimed bridge between the backpack and the jiggy.  He made his name producing gangster beats for Jay-Z, but has also affiliated himself with artists like Common.  Also, his own solo career discusses both mainstream themes and socially conscious ones.  As a physical manifestation of his place in music he often wears a louis vuitton backpack - the designer clothes, but all backpack.  


see (*** - highly recommended):
Talib Kweli
The Coup
Dead Presidents
Arrested Development
Common
Mos Def ***
Black Star ***
BDP
De La Soul
A Tribe Called Quest ***
and a bridge between the backpackers and the jiggy gangstas Kanye West