A Rhyme Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Hip Hop Culture and the Creation of a Political Culture

This book examines the political philosophy of Hip Hop culture, which the author asserts, has its roots in the religious and political worldviews of Black Theology and African -American variants of Islam. This political philosophy is considered as clearly visible within Hip Hop. However, its historical source, influence on the music and artists, and contemporary impact are rarely examined. Hence, a concurrent focus of the author is to examine the void between content and exposure. The void is a symptom of the historical argument debating the functional utility of art. In its contemporary form, this historical argument is clearly reflected in the data gathered on Black radio’s negative impact and its inability to spread Hip Hop’s formidable political ideology.

This book demonstrates that Black media, specifically radio, often presents elements of Hip Hop deemed nihilistic and materialistic and void of a progressive worldview. Subsequently, Hip Hop culture’s political philosophy is scarcely and infrequently broadcast to a wide audience. A specific case study of Atlanta’s radio stations concurrent with a general study of Black radio nationally supports these findings. The data reveals that Black radio in Atlanta as well as the nation is subversive to the politicized ideals of Hip Hop Culture. This is especially true of commercial Black Radio. Competition for market shares, control formats, ambivalence toward politicized music and artists, and the blatant commodification of opprobrious aspects of HC, incapacitates and distorts HC’s political value.

In addition, this book explores a subculture commonly termed "the underground" to determine whether it is a source of Hip Hop culture’s political philosophy. A survey of college students at four of the nations Black colleges was conducted. These include Spelman College, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College, and Clark Atlanta University. The data determined the political ideas of participants and whether they adhered to, or disregarded its political philosophy. Lastly, the model of a political system was applied to Hip Hop to access the nature of the interactions between both.

In summary, this book is an empirical examination of Hip Hop’s political philosophy, the artists who produced such materials, the institutions who control access and exposure to such materials, and participants’ ability to distinguish between political and non-political material. It is an answer to all the untested claims that Hip Hop culture is a political institution equipped with a political philosophy.