Hip-hop has a complex relationship with the country that birthed it. It was America’s lack of attention to inner city youth and their struggles that helped create the culture in the 70s, and by the 80s government officials charged full bore into attempts to snuff it out. They failed: nowadays hip-hop is as engrained in the fabric of the nation’s culture as hot dogs and baseball, but it speaks as much to cunning block entrepreneurs pursuing the American dream by any means necessary as it does to depressed young thinkers struggling with all the different ways this place is built to bring them down. Here’s thirteen awesome songs where American rappers address the place they call home.
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Young Jeezy (feat. Nas) – “My President”
You wouldn’t’ve figured the rapper to release the definitive anthem celebrating Barack Obama’s 2008 election would be the same one who made all the dope boys go crazy, but life is full of pleasant twists and turns.
Jay Z – “American Dreamin’”
Like American Gangster, the loosely connected film and movie that spawned it, Jay Z’s “American Dreamin’” legitimizes businessmen on the wrong side of the law as purveyors of the American dream just like the rest of us.
Company Flow – “Patriotism”
Do not fuck with El-P.
George Clinton (feat. Ice Cube, Dr, Dre, Yo-Yo, MC Breed, Public Enemy & Kam) – “Paint the White House Black”
West Coast hip-hop’s love of George Clinton in the early 90s was very pronounced, so when the Parliament/Funkadelic vet dropped a solo album in 1993 he scooped a bunch of the young bucks up to return the favor on a posse cut ribbing the Clintons.
Homeboy Sandman – “America the Beautiful”
New York rapper Homeboy Sandman takes a break from is usual array of caustic political commentary to illuminate all the creature comforts we enjoy as Americans. “Okay, the streets ain’t paved with gold. At least they paved, though.”
Killer Mike – “American Dream”
Killer Mike’s politics are scathing and well documented. (See also: “Reagan” from R.A.P. Music, “Early” from Run the Jewels 2 and really any of Mike’s TV appearances over the last two years.)
2 Live Crew – “Banned in the USA”
The hotter Miami bass squad 2 Live Crew’s horned up antics got, the harder the government tried to destroy them. After a literal obscenity trial ruled their multi-platinum selling 1989 breakthrough album As Nasty As They Wanna Be illegal for sale and jailed group members and vendors daring to sell the record, 2 Live Crew struck back with a song reminding officials of their commitment to preserving the Constitution to the tune of Bruce Springsteen’s sarcastic “Born in the USA.”
Jay Z & Kanye West (feat. Frank Ocean) – “Made in America”
On a few levels, Jay Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne is a concept record celebrating the grind and success of black millionaires that can’t shake a healthy suspicion about how black men in breaching the wealthy elite are regarded by high society. There’s humbling disbelief in Frank Ocean’s chorus for “Made in America,” which shouts out a string of Civil Rights figures who made this extravagant brand of black celebrity possible.
Eminem – “White America”
The best version of Eminem is the one that sharpened his meteroic cachet in the ‘burbs into jarring dispatches about disaffected teens and the parenting failures that keep creating them.
Kendrick Lamar – “Untitled”
Kendrick Lamar was The Colbert Report‘s final musical guest, and he sent the show off with a spirited, untitled (and still unreleased) cut from the To Pimp a Butterfly sessions about different minorities’ struggles to get a leg up in the country.
OutKast – “Gasoline Dreams”
The opener to OutKast’s 2000 state-of-the-union address Stankonia sets the scene with the Atlanta duo lighting the precious American dream on fire, since it never did the homies no good no how.
Petey Pablo – “Raise Up (All Cities Remix)”
What’s more American than the North Carolina MC t-shirt ‘coptering around the country to bring the turn up to the masses? Not much.
Eric B. & Rakim – “Eric B. Is President”
Imagine Eric B. as president. Imagine.
Craig pledges allegiance to the grind. Follow him on Twitter.
