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Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World Education Resources

Fight The Power How Hip Hop Changed the World

Watch The Series Clips On-Demand in the PBS LearningMedia Media Gallery
Music as a Tool for Empowerment | Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World:

Hip hop music is a staple of music lovers around the world. With its strong, rhythmic beat and lyrical rap vocal tracks, the genre that originated in New York City after the Civil Rights Movement has grown into one of the most popular styles of music in the world.

In this lesson, students will learn about hip hop as a tool for empowerment and critically analyze its place in American history as they read, analyze, and respond to film clips and lyrics from select songs. Through the discussion questions and activities, students will question the historical complexities and come up with their own interpretation of how music can be a tool for empowerment.


Watch The Series on PBS Passport On-Demand: The 4-part series is an incredible narrative of struggle, triumph and resistance that brings to life through the lens of an art form that has chronicled the emotions, experiences, and expressions of Black and Brown communities: Hip Hop. 

Authored by Public Enemy’s Chuck D, who famously labeled Hip Hop as “the Black CNN” for bringing the stories of the street to the mainstream, Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World include personal testimonies of the MCs, DJs, graffiti artists, filmmakers, politicians and opinion formers who created and shaped its direction as it grew from an underground movement in the Bronx to the most popular music genre in the U.S. and the fastest growing genre in the world today.

Featuring interviews from A-list talent like Killer Mike, Will.i.am, Monie Love, Ice-T, Roxanne Shante, MC Lyte and many more, the series will paint a portrait of the unique relationship between Hip Hop and the political history of the U.S.

The Foundation:

Discover the factors that led to the birth of Hip Hop and its first socially conscious hit The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in 1982.

Under Seige

Explore the 1980s and the birth of Hip Hop as social commentary in the Reagan Era with the emergence of artists like Public Enemy, KRS-One, Ice-T, and NWA.

Culture Wars

Experience the 1990s during the Clinton years and the unstoppable rise in popularity of Hip Hop, which becomes a force that is attacked by all sides of the political establishment.

Still Fighting

Follow the evolution of Hip Hop as its artists turn into multimillionaires and successful entrepreneurs. As a cultural phenomenon, Hip Hop continues to change history and is adopted as the voice of protest around the world.

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