When rapper Kendrick Lamar took to the stage in February for the Super Bowl's halftime performance in New Orleans, his chart-topping Not Like Us was peppered with subtle political references and “Easter eggs” - cleverly hidden messaging with symbolism underscored by political and social commentary.
Take the line:
Once upon a time, all of us was in chains
Homie still doubled down calling us some slaves
The "homie" he refers to is rapper Drake, whose May 2024 song Family Matters criticised Lamar for engaging in "performative activism" in the line:
Always rapping like you about to get the slaves freed
You just acting like an activist it make believe
A longstanding rivalry has existed between Drake and Lamar since 2013, and the two have exchanged lyrical shots at each other on several occasions over the years.
Dancers in red, white and blue forming a United States flag during Lamar's Super Bowl performance, which then divided along colour lines, spoke to the deeply polarised state of politics in the US today, noted Eric Arnold, a cultural historian and hip-hop journalist who spoke to Al Jazeera.
Another political reference Lamar makes in this song is to Gil Scott-Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised from 1971, widely regarded as a precursor to using political language in hip-hop. The song critiqued consumerism and mass media's role in perpetuating racial and social injustice.
During his performance, Lamar invoked the song by declaring, "The revolution 'bout to be televised," before launching into his track, Squabble Up.
"Hip-hop, Lamar implies, can be a televised revolution, delivering a message of cultural resilience in the face of a suddenly authoritarian government,” explained Arnold.
How was Lamar's Super Bowl performance received?
It received a mixed reaction. Matt Gaetz, the Florida senator who was forced to withdraw from his nomination by President Donald Trump for US attorney general due to alleged sexual misconduct with a minor and substance abuse, declared: "The halftime show you just watched is obviously the regime's response to Trump's historic gains with Black men," referring to the previous Biden administration and its supporters as the "regime".
Musician Kid Rock, appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher in February, criticised the performance as a show of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, remarking that it "turned DEI into an IED". He was suggesting that Lamar's performance was being wielded as a weapon - an Improvised Explosive Device.
Regardless, it was clearly a political expression. “The relevance of his [Lamar's] message seemed unquestionable," said Arnold. "Even as some opined they didn’t appreciate the political symbolism, the dissenting views ironically upheld Lamar’s point about the nation’s divisions across racial, ethnic, gender, social, and economic lines."
Lamar's lyrics stem from a time-old tradition of political rhetoric in hip-hop lyrics. Here's how it all came about.
How did hip-hop develop into a political platform?
Early hip-hop drew inspiration from numerous artists who used their music as a platform for social criticism, voicing their concerns about institutional failures in society.
The use of political and social commentary in hip-hop came to the fore with 1982’s The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
It contained the lyrics:
The bill collectors, they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I'm not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can't take the train to the job, there's a strike at the station
“That [The Message] was the first real commentary on Reaganomics from people that were experiencing the effects of Reaganomics before the mainstream," said Arnold. "You have people from the inner city telling you about the effects of Reaganomics on the inner city and these were the voices of the unheard.”
In the 1980s, Reaganomics was the term used for a set of neoliberal economic policies, which focused on deregulation and generally making government "smaller". These policies were seen by many as primarily benefitting the managerial class while failing to address the needs of disadvantaged populations, particularly Black and Latino communities.
The race riots of the 1960s in the US, along with their underlying social tensions and aftermath, also played a crucial role in shaping the sociopolitical climate that gave birth to hip-hop culture.
In 1965, The Watts Riots erupted, prompted by a confrontation with police that ignited several years of simmering racial and social tensions in Los Angeles. The arrest of Marquette Frye, a 21-year-old African American man, by Lee W Minikus, a white California Highway Patrol officer, for suspected drunk driving was a pivotal moment.
A violent confrontation broke out between police officers and a crowd of spectators who had assembled to watch Frye's arrest at the intersection of Avalon Boulevard and 116th Street in Watts, eventually leading to a huge uprising in the predominantly African American community in South Central Los Angeles marked by severe economic hardship and concentrated in its business district. The Watts Riots lasted six days, from August 11 to August 16, 1965.
Activists who spoke out against police brutality during violent incidents like these are seen as the precursor to political commentary in hip-hop. On August 17, 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr, said of the police response to the protests: “I profoundly deplore the events that have occurred in Los Angeles in these last few tragic days. Violence is all the more regrettable in this period in light of the tremendous non-violent sacrifices that both Negro and white people together have endured to bring justice to all men."
Arnold explained: "Here we're hearing the unheard, and that set a tone, and that set a precedent as we go on further in hip-hop."
Some early expressions of Black music used more subtle political expression.
“You have things that were coded language," said Arnold. "Martha Reeves and the Vandellas' Dancing in the Streets (1965) or Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come (1964). They weren't explicit in that way. And then Sly and the Family Stone comes out with Underdog and Everyday People, and Sing a Simple Song and Stand.”
Of her lyrics, Martha Reeves said in a newspaper interview with the UK's Guardian in 2020: “The words do not have violence in them. It’s simply calling out around the world, asking, ‘Are you ready for a brand-new beat?’ Well, we had been beat down a lot and I guess it was time for a brand-new beat.”
However, by the time Sly and the Family Stone were launching songs like Underdog (1967) and Everyday People (1969), language was becoming more direct and less subtle.
Take the lyrics of Underdog, for example:
I know how it feels to get demotedWhen it comes time you got promotedBut you might be movin' up too fast, yeah (yeah yeah)If you ever love somebody of a different setI bet the set didn't let you forget
In Sly Stone's memoir, Thank You, he stated: "The underdog was anyone in society who wasn’t getting their due. It was partly about Black and white, but it wasn’t limited to that. It was about anyone who was treated unfairly, stared at on the street, kept down, forced out."
Similarly, in the lyrics of Everyday People are the following lines:
There is a yellow one that won'tAccept the black oneThat won't accept the red oneThat won't accept the white oneDifferent strokes for different folks
What other influences does political hip-hop draw on?
Political hip-hop was also influenced by earlier musical genres such as funk that set the tone for using political commentary in music.
Funk pioneers James Brown (Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud) and Sly Stone (Stand) led the movement to weave direct social commentary into their music.
Sly and the Family Stone's Stand, released in 1969, for example, was a powerful anthem about empowerment, unity and social change. Key aspects of the song's message include:
They will try to make you crawl
And they know what you're saying makes sense and all
Stand
Don't you know that you are free?
Well, at least in your mind if you want to be
“When Sly played at Woodstock he crossed over to this whole entire audience that hadn't necessarily been the core audience for Black music,” said Arnold.
Political hip-hop was also inspired by the Black Arts Movement, along with influential artists like the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron who brought spoken word poetry and Afrocentric thought to the mainstream, laying the groundwork for the emergence of hip-hop culture, according to Arnold.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised released in 1971, on Gil Scott-Heron's debut album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, was a powerful spoken-word poem and song which became an anthem for social and political change.
The revolution will not be televised
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down brothers on the instant replay
“Pigs” is a derogatory reference to the police and popularised in hip-hop songs as a critique of police officers' abuse of power in predominantly Black and Latino neighbourhoods.
When Lamar made his reference to these lyrics in his Super Bowl performance this year, he opened with a bold declaration: "The revolution's about to be televised. You picked the right time but the wrong guy." This statement deliberately flipped Scott-Heron's original message, suggesting that the revolution is now reaching a huge television audience.
Heron also made a reference to the Watts riots when he stated: “Strolling through Watts in a red, black and green liberation jumpsuit that he has been saving for just the proper occasion”, highlighting the deep challenges confronting Black Americans.
The colours red, black and green symbolise unity and pride among people of African descent in the US. These colours were first introduced by Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1920 as the Pan-African flag, also known as the Black Liberation flag.
The DJ, rapper and music producer Afrika Bambaataa, born Lance Taylor on April 17, 1957, in the South Bronx, New York City, was another important figure in the development of hip-hop culture. He was also heavily influenced by Gil Scott-Heron, laying yet another foundational piece to the puzzle of hip-hop's political roots.
Bambaataa was also involved with the Black Panther Party, a socialist organisation that protested about police violence and institutional racism in the US.
“The Black Panthers opened up a field office in Bronx River in, I believe, 1968. Afrika Bambaataa was 12 years old at the time, and he was one of the youths that used to go to that field office. You had the Black Panther ideology directly influencing the pioneers of hip-hop,” said Arnold.
Bambaataa's 1973 establishment of the Universal Zulu Nation brought together a diverse community of cultural artists, including DJs, rappers, breakdancers, and graffiti writers.
As the founder of the Universal Zulu Nation, Bambaataa is credited with codifying the five elements of "hip-hop law":
- MCing: The art of rapping through spoken word and rhyme
- DJing: Using a turntable to mix and produce music
- Breakdancing: Dynamic street dancing, initially against the music breaks in a record
- Graffiti: Street art used as a tool to communicate and express hip-hop culture
- Knowledge: Understanding the cultural, historical, and social milieu of hip-hop.
Bambaataa's Planet Rock, released in 1982, was a pivotal song. It fused hip-hop rhythms with electronic sounds, specifically sampling from Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express. This innovative blend of styles birthed the genre of electro-funk and had a profound effect on the wider music industry, inspiring countless artists across different genres.
What role has hip-hop played in activism?
From the 1980s, hip-hop has essentially enabled marginalised voices to break through to the mainstream.
The song Girl (Cocaine) That's Your Life, released by Too Short in 1985, explores the gritty reality of a woman entrenched in street culture, examining her daily struggles, difficult decisions, and the inevitable repercussions of her chosen lifestyle.
Since age thirteen what have I seen
A lotto of base heads straight coke fiends
Snorting, puffing, that's the life
But it's all over when you hit that pipe
“We [the Black community in America] were getting these first-person narratives from voices that were not in the mainstream. The voices of the unheard were speaking through rap. Instead of rioting they now had a platform to express themselves,” explained Arnold.
In 1987, New York hip-hop rap group Public Enemy, known for raising political issues, media manipulation, and systemic racism in their lyrics, released their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show. The group's subsequent album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) established its legacy in both musical achievement and social advocacy.
In Compton, California, N.W.A (Niggaz With an Attitude) release of F**k the Police, which featured on its 1988 album Straight Outta Compton, addressed systemic issues of police brutality and racial profiling.
F--k the police comin' straight from the underground
A Young nigga got it bad 'cause I'm brown
And not the other colour so police think
They have the authority to kill a minority
The lyrics prompted widespread outrage among conservatives, culminating in the FBI sending a formal letter of condemnation to N.W.A's record label regarding the song's perceived anti-law enforcement message.
Even non-political rappers began to incorporate political messages into their songs, said Arnold, demonstrating how deeply political discourse had permeated hip-hop culture. This influence was so pervasive that artists with no explicit ideological stance found themselves engaging with political themes.
"There are only a few artists and groups who are political ideologues. Everything else is occasional political commentary," said Arnold. "In terms of political ideology, you have Public Enemy, Paris, the Coup, maybe Boogie Down Productions, in the late 80s, early 90s. In the early 2000s, you have Dead Prez and Immortal Technique. On top of that, you have Ice Cube developing a political consciousness that's evident on his first and second solo albums but then fades into the background on subsequent albums."
Which major incidents have inspired political hip-hop lyrics?
One was the 1992 acquittal of four White Los Angeles police officers who had been videotaped severely beating Rodney King, a Black man. The verdict led to six-day-long riots in Los Angeles, resulting in more than 60 deaths, 12,000 arrests and almost $1bn in property damage. The incident inspired Ice Cube to write the song We Had to Tear This Mothaf**a Up, which was released on his 1992 album, The Predator:
Not guilty, the filthy, devils tried to kill me
When the news get to the hood the ni**as will be
Hotter than cayenne pepper, cuss, bust
Kickin up dust is a must
His former N.W.A. rap mate, Dr Dre, also released a response to the LA riots in his 1992 album The Chronic, The Day the Nig**az Took Over:
Mi not out for peace and mi not Rodney King
De gun goes click, mi gun goes bang
Dem riot in Compton and dem riot in Long Beach
Dem riot in L.A. 'cause dem no really wanna see
Niggas start to loot and police start to shoot
The first line explicitly rejects calls for peace and expresses the frustrations of the Black community. King himself took a more conciliatory tone during a news conference on May 1, 1992, during the riots. Hoping to quell the violence, he famously stated: "Can't we all just get along?"
"Police brutality is a theme. It's not just one thing, it's not just: Oh, Rodney King got beat up. All of these people got beat up. They're still getting beat up. And it didn't end in 1992," said Arnold.
Another incident which inspired lyrics was the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, a neighbourhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012. The following year, Zimmerman was acquitted.
The shooting ignited national outrage, raising intense discussions about racial profiling, gun control legislation, and Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law.
Hip-hop rapper Plies, who co-founded the independent label Big Gates Records, released We Are Trayvon in 2012, promoting the Trayvon Martin Foundation started by Trayvon's parents with the goal of raising awareness about gun violence.
I never thought that wearing no hoodie, could cost you your life
And I never thought you could just kill somebody and go out the same night. (same night)
Every dog that you see that bark, don’t mean that he bite
And everything that’s Black ain’t even, everything that’s pure ain’t white
In 2014, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was fatally shot by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke. Police dash-cam footage later emerged, revealing that McDonald had been walking away from Van Dyke when the officer fired 16 shots at the teenager. The withholding of this video evidence triggered huge demonstrations and public outcry.
Two years after the incident, rapper Vic Mensa released 16 Shots:
He never had a chance, and we all know it's cause he Black
Shot 'em sixteen times, how f*cked up is that?
Now, the police superintendent wanna double back
Cops speeding up to the block like a running back
Officer Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery in 2018 but was released in 2022 after serving three years of his sentence.
In 2015, Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old African American woman, was pulled over by law enforcement in Prairie View, Texas. What began as a routine traffic stop for failing to signal a lane change quickly spiralled into a confrontation that resulted in her arrest on charges of allegedly assaulting a police officer.
Three days later, officials discovered her lifeless body in her cell at Waller County Jail. Although authorities determined she died by suicide through hanging, her death would prompt national controversy.
Over the years, several artists wrote protest songs about the incident, including American singer Janelle Monae, with Say Her Name in 2015, a 17-minute song listing names of Black women who lost their lives due to racial violence or in encounters with law enforcement.
Rapper Joyner Lucas wrote in Devil's Work in 2019:
Ain't no justice for Sandra Bland, we up like the ceiling fan
Lord, if You listenin', I'm just lookin' for a hand to hand
How is political language reflected in hip-hop culture?
Dr Valentin Werner, professor of English linguistics at the University of Bamberg in Germany, has closely examined political hip-hop lyrics over the past 30 years using specialist software analysis.
As a result, he has detected specific "word clusters" and combinations that appear as direct calls to action.
“For instance, the most frequent word combination we have is, 'it's time to _______ [do] something,'" he said. "Maybe it's time to rise, or it's time to take action, and so on. These calls to action are really striking in these political rap texts.”
Political hip-hop also makes direct reference to specific political events, he said. “There seem to be some kind of landmark, political and cultural events that do not fade away, that really have a long history in terms of being mentioned again and again and again."
For example, reference to the Black Panther movement appears prominently in early hip-hop, particularly throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This revolutionary theme continues to resonate in rap lyrics, with modern political hip-hop also incorporating references to the KKK as part of its social commentary.
Political rap therefore serves as a form of political commentary, addressing specific events, public figures, officials, and newsworthy individuals who have captured public attention.
In 2019, Werner produced his first study on hip-hop lyrics in mainstream rap.
In general, the themes in political or conscious rap are quite different from gangster rap, which tends to encompass mainstream rap, he said.
"There is a fundamental thematic divide between political rap and gangsta rap, with the former focusing on more 'positive' issues of self-empowerment, unity, justice, freedom but also on dominant/evil forces," he said.
By contrast, gangsta rap focuses on the notion of "ghettocentricity", which can include more "negative" terms associated with profanity (largely related to sex) and a gangsta lifestyle, "probably with the aim to create a street-conscious identity or 'cultural realness'," explained Werner.
What are some examples of important political hip-hop lyrics?
More than half a century since Grandmaster and the Furious Five released The Message in 1982, there have been many watershed moments in which political hip-hop songs have captured the attention of the public. Here are a few of them:
F--k the Police by N.W.A (1988)
N.W.A, a rap group from Compton, California, used this piece to highlight how cases of police brutality and systemic racism were interconnected. It channelled Black America's outrage over racial inequity and the lack of law enforcement reform.
Lights start flashin' behind me
But they're scared of a ni--a so they mace me to blind me
But that sh*t don't work, I just laugh
Because it gives 'em a hint not to step in my path
In a 2017 HBO documentary, The Defiant Ones, several members of N.W.A explained the events that led up to F--k the Police. Although many of the members had experienced police harassment, unwarranted stops and aggressive treatment by law enforcement in Compton California, the pivotal event was several members, Dr Dre and the late Eazy E being arrested for shooting paintballs at cars on a freeway sometime before the release of the song in 1988.
Although the arrest was justified, the aggressive nature of the arrest from the police was the tipping point for the creation of F--k the Police.
The song led to significant controversy and backlash from law enforcement agencies. The FBI responded by sending a formal letter of complaint to the group's record label, condemning the lyrics for what it claimed was an inaccurate portrayal of law enforcement and incitement of violence against police officers.
At the time, some major radio stations in the US refused to play the song. Detroit Police Sergeant Larry Courts issued a warning to N.W.A not to perform the controversial song during its concerts.
On June 19, 1989, during a performance at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena, however, the group defied the order from the Detroit police and began playing the song, at which point police officers stormed the stage and disconnected the equipment. Amid the chaos, the group members fled the stage and returned to the hotel. They were arrested in the hotel lobby by Detroit police that same night.
After a brief detainment, they were released without charge.
Fight the Power by Public Enemy (1989)
Public Enemy, a politically charged rap group that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an institution celebrating the musical accomplishments of artists who have shaped rock and roll, in 2013, used this song as a rallying cry against systemic discrimination and social inequalities, with a particular focus on the struggles faced by marginalised groups, most notably African Americans.
To revolutionise make a change nothing's strange
People, people we are the same
The song called for collective action to confront oppression, as reflected in the lyrics,
What we need is awareness, we can't get careless
The song also prompted controversy for its accusation against Elvis Presley of appropriating Black music, with the lines:
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant s- to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was simple and plain
Mother f- him and John Wayne
'Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps
Arnold said: "[This was] Chuck D affirming his Black identity and saying his influences - which include Joanne Chesimard (Assata Shakur) and Louis Farrakhan - haven't been celebrated by the mainstream US in the same vein as the actor John Wayne, who was a white supremacist. The implication is that US iconography is also majorly white supremacist, and that's the power Public Enemy fights against."
Fight the Power was the main soundtrack to Spike Lee's 1989 film, Do the Right Thing, which won Best Picture and Best Director from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association that year.
At the time, the lyrics prompted outrage among fans who considered Elvis Presley and John Wayne US culture icons.
Fight the Power was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance at the 1990 Grammy Awards.
U.N.I.T.Y by Queen Latifah (1993)
The song U.N.I.T.Y. confronted critical issues of respect, empowerment and solidarity, with specific focus on the Black community. The song challenged the objectification and mistreatment of women while making an impassioned plea for mutual understanding between Black men and women.
By daddy smacking mommy all around
You say I'm nothing without ya, but I'm nothing with ya
A man don't really love you if he hits ya
This is my notice to the door, I'm not taking it no more
I'm not your personal wh*re, that's not what I'm here for
And nothing good gonna come to ya til you do right by me
Brother you wait and see (Who you calling a b***h?)
U.N.I.T.Y. achieved critical acclaim and commercial success in 1995, earning a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. The song climbed to number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made an even stronger showing on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it reached number 7.
Changes by Tupac Shakur (1998)
This song was released two years after Tupac Shakur, also known popularly as 2Pac, was killed in a drive-by shooting on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
After nearly 30 years of investigation and speculation, authorities apprehended Duane "Keffe D" Davis on September 29, 2023, charging the ex-gang leader as an accomplice in the killing of Tupac Shakur in 1996. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled to begin on February 9, 2026.
The song Changes was recorded in 1992 but remixed by Trackmasters producer Poke and included on Tupac's Greatest Hits compilation in 1998.
The song explored issues of systemic inequality, racial injustice, economic hardship, community violence, and the pressing demand for transformative social reform.
Cops give a damn about a negro,
pull the trigga, kill a ni**a, he's a hero
The track aimed to shine a light on the normalisation of police violence against Black people.
Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares, one less hungry mouth on welfare,
With these lyrics, the song exposed how the crack-cocaine drug epidemic had devastated Black communities, suggesting a calculated effort by the US government and state authorities to deepen cycles of poverty.
Tupac invokes the memory of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton, whose call for resistance ended in his violent death:
Time to fight back, that's what Huey said, two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead.
Although the reality of what is being expressed appears grim, there are more hopeful elements.
Take the following lines, for example:
We gotta start makin' changes. Learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers
I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other
With these lyrics, Tupac advocates for unity and solidarity within the Black community.