Harlem Reinassance

Immortal Technique 

 "Some of ya'll forgot what the Harlem Renaissance was, We had revolution music, and artisans, But the movement was still fucked up like Parkinson. Cuz while we were givin birth to the culture we love, Prejudice kept the old people outa the club, Only colored celebrates in the party, And left us a legacy of superiority" The song above talks about what was happening during the 1920's. It talks about people getting kicked out of their properties,  how they separated the black people from the white people, how colored people weren't allowed in the club. It also talks about how African Americans were being used, people that owned the clubs were making money of their talents. So while African Americans were very happy to be performing they were being taken advantage of. Also the community didn't want to make housing affordable for African Americans, they didn't want to give people loans. The community was just unfair with African Americans. 

The HR themes illustrated in this song are anger at racism and pride. The rapper talks about how he is proud of how talented African Americans were back then but he also talks about how angry he is that black people were being discriminated against and were a minority to the community, yet they used them for entertainment and to make money out of them. He talks about how angry it makes him that people were being discriminated against because of their situation economically.

I chose this song because I really like the fact that there are rappers like Immortal Technique that actually care about what went on during the 1920's in Harlem. Another reason why i chose it is because a lot of the music i found about Harlem Renaissance was jazz, but when i found a rap song that spoke about it, it got my attention way more. I feel that rappers now a days should be rapping about this kind of things, important historical things that went on. I like this song because it makes me understand what happened way more and in a faster way, this song is actually educational.