Hip-hop draws influence directly from 1970s African American culture. Many prominent hip-hop artists, including Public Enemy, Ice Cube, and the Fugees, mention this decade in their music as one in which blacks began to assert themselves politically and culturally. This is demonstrated primarily by hip-hop musicians and producers borrowing the music of Blaxploitation films, which often portrayed African American pimps and drug dealers fighting against white authority. Hip-hop borrows musically and culturally from these Blaxploitation films’ introductory theme music for the main characters, politically charged content, and focus on the ghetto. While these films and their music do not uniformly glorify or demonize black poverty, drug abuse, and violence, the hip-hop community has borrowed their material almost exclusively to show street credibility.

Works: Jay-Z: Reservoir Dogs (49); Smoothe Da Hustler: Hustler’s Theme (49); Snoop Doggy Dogg: Doggystyle (52); Dr. Dre: Rat Tat Tat Tat (53); Ol’ Dirty Bastard: Got Your Money (54).

Sources: Isaac Hayes: Theme to Shaft from Shaft (49); Curtis Mayfield: Freddie’s Dead from Super Fly (49); Willie Hutch: Brother’s Gonna Work It Out from The Mack (53); Rudy Ray Moore: The Signifying Monkey from Dolemite (54).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Nathan Landes