Major labels signed more artists, but record companies didn’t think political songs would resonate with a large audience. One explanation: the surging popularity of rap music and the increasing focus by MTV and BET on the genre, according to music journalist Christina Lee. In 2017 and this year, 25 percent of top songs had political messages.īy the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was a notable drop off in political references at the top of the charts. In recent years, political messages have started to creep back in.
But in some years - 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2006, 20 - none of the top songs were political, CNS found. In the 1990s, approximately one-fifth of songs had political references, peaking at 33 percent of songs in 1991.ĭuring the 2000s and 2010s, about one out of 10 songs had political content. Over that 30-year period, CNS found that approximately 12 percent of number one songs had political references, but that there were wide variations in different eras. CNS then examined the lyrics for references to a variety of political themes - including police brutality, income inequality, poverty, discussion of elected leaders, gun violence, mass incarceration and more. Bonnette-Bailey, author of “Pulse of the People: Political Rap Music and Black Politics.”įor the analysis, CNS built a data set of every song that reached number one on the Billboard “Hot Rap Songs” chart from its birth in 1989 to today - about 350 songs in all. “Rap music is a reflection of what is going on in the minority community, so it’s one reason why you see these changes and these shifts, of course now we see a lot more political rap songs more akin to what you saw in the ’90s,” said Lakeyta M. “Look at how I'm livin' now, police be trippin' now, yeah this is America, guns in my area,” he raps.Ĭhildish Gambino, like other artists, draws attention to beliefs that police departments are beset by systematic racism that were at play in the deaths of Michael Brown, Freddie Gray and other African-American men. Donald Glover) that juxtaposes the success of African-American entertainers with the suffering of poor African-American communities harmed by gun violence and police brutality. Take one of 2018’s number one “Hot Rap Songs” track, “This is America,” a melodic wake-up call by Childish Gambino (a.k.a.
By the early 2000s, themes of black power and police brutality had vanished in favor of apolitical references to partying, cars and girls, at least at the very top of the charts.īut, the analysis found, politically conscious rap is once again finding a place on the top of the charts, driven by the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, the #metoo movement and opposition to Donald Trump. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, chart-topping rap songs were more likely to have political messages, a Capital News Service analysis of 30 years of Billboard chart data and lyrics found. COLLEGE PARK, Maryland - In 1989, Public Enemy reached the very top of the Billboard “Hot Rap Songs” chart with “Fight the Power,” a revolutionary anthem that echoed a community cry against racism.īy 2003, music fans had pushed 50 Cent’s banger “In Da Club” - a self-congratulatory celebration of drinking, drugs and partying - to number one on the same chart, reflecting a larger shift in substance and style at the highest levels of hip-hop.
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