Hip-Hop lyrics can be put under varying degrees of magnification. Since the advent of the genre, people have debating not only who is the master wordsmith, but also what exactly makes a killer bar? As Hip-Hop graduated from party records to more personal stories with universally relatable themes, the lyrics remain the glue between the past and the present. As a result, songs could be enjoyed both as forms of entertainment, and as commentary.
As BFR Media honoring the Black History Month, we’ve scoured 5 songs in search of the lyrics we think best embody the spirit of Black excellence.
5) Big Daddy Kane “Word to the Mother (Land)”
“Martin Luther was a tutor; many were pupils/Those who fell victim were those without scruples”
Big Daddy Kane was among the very first MC’s giving Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. his rightful praise on wax.
4) Nas “I Can”
“Before we came to this country/We were kings and queens, never porch monkeys/There was empires in Africa called Kush/Timbuktu, where every race came to get books/To learn from black teachers who taught Greeks and Romans/Asian Arabs and gave them gold, when/Gold was converted to money it all changed/Money then became empowerment for Europeans/The Persian military invaded/They heard about the gold, the teachings, and everything sacred/Africa was almost robbed naked/Slavery was money, so they began making slave ships/Egypt was the place that Alexander the Great went/He was so shocked at the mountains with black faces/Shot up they nose to impose what basically/Still goes on today, you see?”
Nas’ entire verse is full of so many quotable it would be criminal to dissect into smaller pieces. The Queensbridge legend raps about Black empires reduced to rubble as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
3) 2Pac “Keep Ya Head Up
“Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice/I say the darker the flesh, then the deeper the roots”
Pac’s line on “Keep Ya Head Up” remains the gold standard for greatness
2) Dead Prez “I’m a African”
“Camouflage fatigues and dashikis, somewhere/In between N.W.A. and P.E”
Dead Prez’ aesthetics represented a militant — yet Afrocentric — take on what it meant to be a Black man in the 1990s.
1) Public Enemy “Revolutionary Generation”
“There’s been no justice for none of my sisters/Just us been the one that’s been missin’ her”
Chuck D reminded us that Black women are most often the people who were — and still are — rendered voiceless.
