The Butterfly Straight Outta Compton: Analysis of Hip-hop Music and Its Impact on Black Rights Movements

Hip-hop music and its relationship with African American rights movements was not widely studied in the last 40 years. Most of the research focuses on its protest attribute and how it links to the police violence after Black civil Rights Movements.. This essay turns instead to the contrast between the hip-hop music in the 1980s and 2010s. Contextualizing N.W.A(Niggas with Attitude)s music within the rising awareness of Black rights and the increase of police violence shows both their protest attribute and desire for justice through Gangster Rap, which is represented by the lyrics of violence, drug and sex. Kendrick Lamar, on the other hand, expresses his idea of protest and self-reflection in a more activist way through Conscious Rap, which focuses on socio-political, economic and cultural issues. The two artists lyrics and their time reveal how popular culture influences the ideas of people and how the Black rights movements changes