- “The Message” – Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
- “Express Yourself” – N.W.A
- “Straight Outta Compton” – N.W.A
- “Trapped” – 2pac
- “U.N.I.T.Y.” – Queen Latifah
- “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)” – Wu-Tang Clan
- “N.Y. State of Mind” – Nas
- “Who Shot Ya?” – The Notorious B.I.G.
- “Starin’ Through my Rear View” – 2Pac
- “Hit ‘Em Up” – 2Pac
- “Dead Presidents” – Jay-Z
- “Politics as Usual” – Jay-Z
- “Changes” – 2Pac
- “Lose Yourself” – Eminem
- “If I Can’t” – 50 Cent
- “Through the Wire” – Kanye West
- “All Falls Down” – Kanye West
- “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” – Kanye West
- “Hate It or Love it” – The Game & 50 Cent
- “Empire State of Mind” – Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
- “Houston Old Head” – A$AP Rocky
- “good kid” – Kendrick Lamar
- “m.A.A.d city” – Kendrick Lamar
- “New Slaves” – Kanye West
- “A Tale of 2 Citiez” – J Cole
- “Wesley’s Theory” – Kendrick Lamar
- “Alright” – Kendrick Lamar
- “Mortal Man” – Kendrick Lamar
- “GOOD MORNING AMERIKKKA” – Joey Bada$$
- “This is America” – Childish Gambino
- “The Heart Part 5” – Kendrick Lamar
Released in 1980, “Rapper’s Delight” is considered to be the origin of the hip hop genre. Since then, the genre has changed in many ways, with different styles of music being incorporated over time. In 1982, “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash was released, which kickstarted conscious/political rap. Rap quickly became a medium used to detail the struggles of life for poor African Americans. Drugs, violence, and racism, namely police brutality, were topics mentioned by many rappers. This gave rise to gangster rap. While gangster rap has always received harsh criticism for being crass, it allows rappers to point out political injustices that they face in their daily lives. With the rise of gangster rap, many ideas of the American Dream were also promoted. Many rappers rapped about working hard to make it to where they were in life (i.e., upward social mobility). The idea was that if you worked hard enough, you could make it to anywhere in life. Rappers started to flaunt the wealth that they acquired through rap, then rap about that. While rappers continue to rap about these ideas to this day, as time progressed, some of them started to point out the faults in the idea of the hustle and materialism, and by association, the American Dream itself. Around the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, many rappers started to rap about systemic racism in much more detail than before. Political rap started to shift towards all kinds of injustices. Whether it was race, class, the education system, the government, etc., anything that could be used to hold someone down in America faced critique. This led to a shifting perspective on the American Dream in rap; it was no longer about working hard to achieve material success. Rappers also started to open up and talk about mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. This vulnerability showcases the fact that hard work and material success has not made them feel any better, which flips the American Dream on its head entirely.
I think that from its beginnings to today, rap has changed in a way such that it doesn’t actually have an American Dream anymore; at least, it’s not what we all thought it was. As for the future, I think that as the American Dream continues to be critiqued and denied in rap, there will be rappers who try to completely redefine it. In its current trajectory, it seems like the American Dream in rap will be completely about tearing down the barriers that hold us back and achieving true justice for all.