Somewhere between the pop love-fest of Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” and Puffy’s dancing in shiny suits to shake off pre-millennial tension, hip-hop had a message.

One of the earliest political rap songs, Grandmaster Flash’s “White Lines” track about cocaine use and addiction in the early 80s, was followed by a succession of other messages as people in urban communities across the U.S. and around the world struggled to express what was going on in their hoods and the importance of getting the word out NOW.

In Somebody Scream: Rap Music’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power (Faber and Faber; released today), journalist and author Marcus Reeves explores the dynamic between the music and the politics that gave shape to the lyrics and the genre in the 80s and 90s. Placing hip-hop in a 30-year context of urban political movements, Reeves hopes, will keep us from focusing on a few bad headlines (of which there are plenty — you know what I’m talking about).

Erika Parkins: Hip-Hop seems less political now than it did in the 80’s or even the late 90’s with the rise of “conscious” rappers such as Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common and Dead Prez; why do you think that is?

Marcus Reeves: Well, the tone [of hip-hop] has been changing for awhile. Rap can be divided into two periods, before “The Chronic” and after “The Chronic”. “Chronic” came out of the L.A. riots [of 1992] and you had rappers speaking about aggression, white supremacy, police brutality, and the government’s hand in what was going on in the community.

After the LA riots, the Time Warner rap controversy, the rise of police brutality, and the rap brouhaha between Clinton and Sistah Souljah, there was prevalent and accessible material for rappers to talk about.

Then comes an album like “Doggystyle”, out of Dre’s camp, by his protégé and homeboy Snoop, who represented the next wave.
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