Hip-hop and social injustice

Hip-hop music, developed in the South Bronx in the early 1970s, has long been tied to social injustice in the United States, particularly that of the African American experience. Hip-hop artists have spoken out in their lyrics against perceived social injustices such as police brutality, poverty, mass incarceration, and the war on drugs. The relationship between hip-hop and social injustice can be seen most clearly in two subgenres of hip-hop, gangsta rap and conscious rap. Political hip-hop has been criticized by conservative politicians such as Mississippi State Senator Chris McDaniel as divisive and promoting separatism due to some hip-hop artists' pro-black and anti-establishment lyrical content. Musicologist Robert Walser disputes this, arguing that many white youth who are exposed to hip-hop as children are more likely to have positive relationships with African Americans and resist racism from their parents or other sources out of respect for black artists they admire.