Rap Music is Right Wing

[civver_764]

Disclaimer: Obviously there are many rap artists that don't fit these patterns, I'm just commenting on general themes in the genre.

Not in the socially conservative christian right sense, but in the libertarian/Donald Trump sense.

I mean, just look at this song:

<Spoiler snipped>

Even though Mac Miller tried to distance himself from this song after Trump won the election, you have to admit it captures the vibe of the Trump administration perfectly.

Rap music is very pro-capitalism. It's all about getting rich and being successful. On top of that, it's about bragging about wealth. There's no liberal rich person guilt here. They don't rap about paying their taxes and helping out the less fortunate. Rap music is also about as un-politically correct as you can get, to the point where most people don't even expect these guys to apologize for the things they say.

Most importantly, rap music is all about personal strength and success. It's about not being weak. These are the same values that you would hear a conservative or a libertarian espouse.

Agree or disagree?

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[Samson]

Surely this comes down more to the definition of left / right wing than anything else? I am aware of 3 definitions:

Original: Royalists (right wing) and revolutionaries (left wing). Under this one the answer has to be no, as I have not heard any royalist rap music and have heard plenty of revolutionary rap music.

Wiki: Right-wing politics hold that certain social orders and hierarchies are inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable. Left-wing politics supports social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy and social inequality. While plenty of rap music is about flaunting wealth, I am not aware of any that is actually advocating that this is the way society should work, or that it is inevitable. So no on this one.

American usage: Right wing = republican policies, left wing = democrat policies. While this flaunting of wealth may happen more with republicans than democrats, I do not see it is exactly the policies, and there are plenty of other themes that are much more democrat, in particular the attitude to illegal drugs. So no on this one too.

 

[warpus]

You could find such an example in virtually any genre of music. You could also find the exact opposite example in virtually any genre of music.

 

[Ryika]

German rap music is pretty left-leaning when it comes to political stuff.

But German rap music usually has different topics than american rap overall, your typical "I'm so rich that I have to write songs about it"-type of rapper is almost non-existent, at least when it comes to people who do it in a serious tone. Instead, it's all about love and peace and other things that make you vomit in mainstream rap, and in the internet you find the good stuff where it's all about being as sexist, anti-social and edgy as possible.

 

[civvver]

you mean cus rap music denigrates women and minorities kind of how republicans do?

 

[Gori the Grey]

Rap knows no limits.

They don't rap about paying their taxes and helping out the less fortunate.

Maybe I'll try to write a rap in the voice of your caricature of a liberal.
Taxpaya' is in da house.

 

[Narz]

There is "I got a big dick and am better than you" rap (very popular nowadays) and "conscious hip-hop" (stuff is f-ed up and we should come together and fix it). Some rappers have both styles (Mos Def comes to mind). Along with mindless "she got a big but in the club" rap, sadly also very popular.

Rap is pretty much the epidome of what SJW's would call "toxic masculinity" which is why it's so popular among repressed white males. Eminem and Trump appeal to similar ethos in people, however at least Eminem acknowledges how dysfunctional he is.

It's a bit of a cultural dark age right now. People know the world is in a bad way but are not sure how to come together and fight for it to be better. Seems like people are gravitating to two extremes, the right wing - might makes right and the left - nothing is fair and we need it to be more fair. Obviously the left is more correct but have been hijacked by folks who's methods and terminology is extremely alienating (hence Trump). In the long run they are the party of the future tho, right-wingers are old and self-destructive. The left just needs to get their focus right.

 

[Tahuti]

German rap music is pretty left-leaning when it comes to political stuff.

But German rap music usually has different topics than american rap overall, your typical "I'm so rich that I have to write songs about it"-type of rapper is almost non-existent, at least when it comes to people who do it in a serious tone. Instead, it's all about love and peace and other things that make you vomit in mainstream rap, and in the internet you find the good stuff where it's all about being as sexist, anti-social and edgy as possible.

Dutch hip hop music tends to revolve around highly superficial things like parties, broken relationships and being antisocial.

The left just needs to get their focus right.

The left won't, because they can no longer do Anti-Right wing circle jerk porn, even though the Right-wing is bad too. The left degraded from working towards a solution to complaining how evil right-wingers are, then do the right-wing thing when they are in power.

We're <language snipped>.

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[Narz]

Loop troop is a Sweedish hip hop group I enjoy (I started a thread on International Hip Hop, probably can be found in archives)

 

[civver_764]

Rap is pretty much the epidome of what SJW's would call "toxic masculinity" which is why it's so popular among repressed white males. Eminem and Trump appeal to similar ethos in people, however at least Eminem acknowledges how dysfunctional he is.

Interesting that you felt the need to specify "white" here.

 

[Ryika]

Didn't you know? White people appropriated rap, since 2002, black people are officially no longer allowed to listen to that type of music.

 

[Narz]

Interesting that you felt the need to specify "white" here.

White people often lack community and identity. Hence their high suicide rate. Obviously a hyper-simplification.

I can't speak for all whites obviously but my parents stressed "be good, do well in school, etc.", basically do what I'm supposed to and try hard to be nice all the time. Hip-hop espouses more empowering values, often to a self-destructive level, but certainly more fun and less maculinity-quashing.

 

[Leonel]

Who can forget that classic NWA song "Respect The Police"?