Even bluesy rockers like Hozier admit that hip-hop has become the home for modern protest music, thanks to stars like Kendrick Lamar.
Kendrick Lamar performs at the Sziget Festival in 2018. Getty Images
As long as there have been songs to sing and injustices to chronicle, there’s been protest music. The grand American tradition ranges from 19th Century spirituals like “Go Down Moses” to Bob Dylan’s 1960s ballads such as “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” But on the eve of the momentous 2018 midterm elections, the charts are dominated by Drake’s apolitical emotion dumps and Post Malone’s vacant warbling.
One could see this as an indication that the current generation of musicians doesn’t care about political matters. And while that might be true of many artists, worthy examples of protest music abound upon closer inspection, though not always in the genres where it’s known for having appeared in the past.
“In the rock and roll tradition, I see less and less,” says singer-songwriter Hozier, who recently released his own protest ballad, “ Nina Cried Power .” “A lot of protest music is happening more so on the hip-hop side of things. I think Kendrick [Lamar] in a lot of ways opened my eyes to that.”
Lamar’s last album, Damn ., took on institutions from Fox News to the Oval Office, lamenting “barricaded blocks and borders”—and he’s one of many in the rap world to do so. From tracks like YG’s explicit Donald Trump takedown “FDT” to albums including Joey Bada$$’s rumination All-Amerikkkan Badass, hip-hop has led the charge of protest music in the wake of the last presidential election.
The examples of hip-hop acts taking a stand go all the way up to its highest earners. Take rapper Logic, who pulled in $17 million while rocking T-shirts decrying the border wall, or Eminem, who earned $23 million and unloaded on Trump in a highly publicized freestyle at the BET Awards. The genre’s perennial top two earners, Jay-Z and Diddy, have also been regulars on the campaign trail and with get-out-the-vote initiatives.
Hip-hop has produced quite a bit of protest music over the years, dating back to the days of N. W. A. More recently, some conversations have taken place as a debate within the genre itself. For example: “Ye Vs. The People,” a song structured as a political argument between left-leaning T. I. and Trump acolyte Kanye West.
“I was like: ‘Man, I can’t just go in here and talk about music. I can’t just go in here and do a song and shut up.… I have a civic duty,’” T. I. explained of his studio session with West. “So we sat down, and after we had the tour [of the studio], he sat us down, and he said, ‘Okay, so I have some things I could play you.’ And I said, ‘Yes, I would love to hear them, but first let me speak to you.’”
And while protest music hasn’t necessarily found a home on the charts, social media has enabled musicians of the current generation—regardless of genre—to keep their music apolitical but deliver more partisan messages directly to their followers if they so choose.
Perhaps most prominently, Taylor Swift broke with her longstanding policy of neutrality to endorse Democrats in Tennessee this fall. Her exhortations helped spur over 100,000 new voter registrations in a matter of days.
“We all have somewhat of a responsibility to at least be aware, as best we can, of issues that matter—and talk about them when we can,” says Hozier. “Power has never conceded anything without demand.”
Elsewhere, there are musicians taking a stand by virtue of their very existence, whether it’s Iraqi-American oud player Rahim AlHaj making a career in Trump’s America or Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, a Grammy-winning collective in which U. S. musicians play alongside peers whose countries of origin range from Iran to Azerbaijan.
Of course, refusing to pull political punches isn’t always a career risk, especially within hip-hop: On the heels of another fiery album, Lamar clocked a career-best $58 million in pretax earnings over the past year. It seems he wouldn’t have toned down his message even if he thought it would hurt his commercial prospects.
“You want to be a person that stands for something,” Lamar told Forbes last year. “Whether the plan works or not, I want to be remembered as that.”
For more on the business of hip-hop, check out my books Empire State of Mind and 3 Kings, and follow me on Twitter .
Zack O’Malley Greenburg is senior editor of media & entertainment at Forbes and author of three books: ‘3 Kings: Diddy,
Dr. Dre,…
