Hm.
So I was listening to N.W.A., which is commonly regarded as “one of the seminal acts of the gangsta rap sub-genre, (Thank You Wikipedia)” and was pondering the usefulness of such politically motivated music. Most likely, the production of these N.W.A. albums served both a cathartic function and a commercial one; Eazy-E, MC Ren, and Ice Cube were relatively unknown at the band’s inception, and thus their appeal to the sociopolitical and economically-repressed population of Los Angeles and other poor urban areas capitalized upon these communities’ need for self-expression, of their outrage against continued and social and economic equality.
But in reality, the music of N.W.A. must not have changed anything; it did not spark any major revolution or change. Probably because the line “or maybe cuz I blast on the stupid-ass n***** when I’m playing with the trigger of an Uzi or an AK, cuz the police always got something stupid to say…” isn’t a very good motto to live by.