Born in fire: a hip-hop odyssey

UNESCO Courier, July, 2000 by Jeff Chang

Yet somewhere within the culture lies the key to understanding an entire generation. This culture forged in fire still keeps its hand near the match. Rap rewards those who "represent" its audiences' realities. If this often appears as caving in to baser impulses, hip-hop's defense is that it speaks to young people as they are and where they are.

And yet a growing movement believes that the culture is liberating. In cities across the world, youths use hip-hop to organise the struggles against racism, police brutality, and the prison-industrial complex. For them, the culture and the politics are inseparable--they are all part of a cohesive worldview. Therein finally lies the story: hip-hip, born of the destructive fires of the 1960s and 70s, has rekindled creative flames of hope in a new generation. The cleansing fires are still to come.

(*.) Senior editor/director of the website [less than]360hiphop.com[greater than] which features music, lifestyle, hip-hop culture and politics.