area, and the-they were reporting, you know, what life was like, in that…and that’s really what you found in hip hop back then.” machinery take over around 50 seconds as he drops his voice and sheepishly says “I don’t listen to music for the politics of it,” then immediately snaps back into genuine Rubio and riffs about how rappers are “reporters” reporting on “what life was like in South Central, and the L.A. I’ll get to that shortly, but first, I want you to listen to Marco Rubio-yes, I genuinely mean it-eloquently and earnestly speak about hip-hop’s relation to the politics of its era, specifically the 1990s. Rap grew out of the War on Drugs, and its message cannot be divorced from choices made in our nation’s capital. I have certainly left some great overtly political and less so songs off this list because of the seemingly infinite options I had. *note: #4 is subject to change every two months or so, but #1 through #3 are locked in.Īnother, less obvious thing that I want to point out is that hip-hop is inherently political.
I also want to declare my bias, so you know what kind of sound I’m in to. I want to begin this list by stating the obvious: this is one man’s opinion and the word “best” is subjective here.