“Malcolm was our manhood, our living, black manhood! This was his meaning to his people. And, in honoring him, we honor the best in ourselves… And we will know him then for what he was and is – a Prince – our own black shining Prince! – who didn’t hesitate to die, because he loved us so.” These words are taken from the eulogy given by actor and civil rights activist Ossie Davis at the funeral of Malcolm X (El-Hajj El Malik Shabazz). It has been over 50 years since that fateful day in February where Malcolm X was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom, yet we still hear his powerful voice. While historians and mainstream media have tried to white wash Malcolm’s legacy as violent and radical, his impact on our culture is not short-lived. In a society that is chanting black lives matter and fighting mass incarceration Malcolm’s philosophies stand tall. One of the child’s of Malcolm’s legacy is the genre of hip-hop. National correspondent for the Atlantic and MacArthur Fellow Ta-Nehisi Coates describes the connection, “Hip-hop, with its focus on the assertion of self, the freedom to be who you are, and entrepreneurship, is an obvious child of black consciousness.” He would later go on to say without Malcolm , America would not be able to have hip-hop or President Barack Obama. To see Malcolm’s presence in hip-hop it is best to look at some of hip-hop’s brightest stars. One of the fathers of hip-hop Public Enemy, Mr. Thug life himself Tupac Shakur, and the king of Compton Kendrick Lamar all embody the ideals of Minister Malcolm X.
Public Enemy is usually regarded as one of the greatest/influential hip-hop artist of all time. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Public Enemy number 44 on its list of the Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, the highest ranking for a hip hop act. The group was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. Their song “Fight the Power” was voted greatest hip-hop song ever by VH1.
Their legacy is unprecedented, but it was their brashness, black militancy, and political awareness that made them stand out in the mid-1980s. At that time hip-hop was generally a genre of music that was more focused on making you dance instead of speaking to the black conscious and calling out political systems. Public Enemy front man Chuck D, was heavily influenced by the writings of Malcolm X. Chuck D stated in an interview with The Source, “Malcolm X is a story of what hate of the USA past had produced, yet the epitome is a human being, fighting for so many against that same hate: in order to represented as a Human, Equal, and Free.” Public Enemy embodied the rage and self-conscious that Malcom X spoke of. One of Malcolm’s biggest goals was to uplift the black community in America. He once said, “A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself.” Public Enemy set to affirm Black culture in as many ways as possible. They patterned their image largely after black power groups from the sixties, particularly the Black Panthers.
Public Enemy’s backup dancers wore outfits inspired by the Panther’s traditional attire. The black power influence became fully realized on Public Enemy’s second album “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back,” released in 1988. On the second track, “Bring the Noise” Public Enemy even sampled a segment from Malcolm X’s Fire and Fury speech.
The song is now famous for the opening, “Too Black, Too Strong” statement made by Malcolm. If Malcolm died in 1965, it was Public Enemy that helped keep the passion and fire of his message alive in black youth across inner city America. Some have even argued that it was the music of Public Enemy and other artist to follow that inspired the 1990s Malcolm X movie by Spike Lee.
If Public Enemy represented the black rage of Malcolm X, Tupac Shakur represents the self-awareness that Malcolm X had and wanted others to have. In fact, both figures share a duality as how they are remembered. Both are remembered for the negative and positive aspects that they did with their popularity. It is no question that both 2pac and Minister Malcolm X are heroes to the black community. Both saw violence as an evil, but if their life was threatened it was a necessary evil.
“We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us.” — Malcolm X
“I ain’t a killer but don’t push me
Revenge is like the sweetest joy next to gettin pussy”- Hail Mary, 2Pac
Both men also had an endearing love for black women, particularly their mothers. Malcolm was deeply affected by the treatment his mother experienced and he goes in detail about this in his autobiography. Tupac also had a deep affection for his mother which is exhibited in his no popular song “Dear Mama.” Their love and respect for black women went outside of their own homes as well. In a 1962 speech Malcolm spoke out on the oppression of black women,
“The most disrespected woman in America, is the black woman. The most un-protected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America, is the black woman.”
2pac felt the same way and talked about the experiences black women living in the ghetto always experienced by either telling their stories, “Brenda’s Got a Baby”, or encouraging them and challenging men to treat them better in “Keep Ya Head Up.”
These views have helped make 2pac one of the greatest hip-hop artist ever. Even though his career was short-lived, Shakur has sold over 75 million records worldwide. His double disc albums All Eyez on Me and his Greatest Hits are among the best-selling albums in the United States. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines, including Rolling Stone which ranked him 86th on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. His legacy is so strong that even artist such as Kendrick Lamar wish they could have a conversation.
Kendrick Lamar is a young talent that has already captured the hip-hop world by storm. With two critically acclaimed albums, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City(GKMC) and To Pimp a Butterfly, and seven Grammy Awards many see him as the best rapper in the game. The 29-year-old from Compton California is child of 2pac in the sense that he has a duality. He has the ability to talk about his surrounding world and also his personal convictions in the same poetic way 2pac was able to. Kendrick embodies the rage of Public Enemy and the positivity of 2pac but all in the spirit of Malcolm X.
Kendrick expresses this rage in the song “The Blacker the Berry.” A song that discusses the racism of America but Kendrick also points the finger back at himself for some of the ills in the black community. Mr. Lamar also keeps the spirit of Malcolm alive by speaking directly to the black community in a positive and uplifting light. With a focus on loving the skin we were blessed with and challenging the system that has taught this hate.
“Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? To such extent you bleach, to get like the white man. Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips? Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to hate your own kind? Who taught you to hate the race that you belong to so much so that you don’t want to be around each other? No… Before you come asking Mr. Muhammad does he teach hate, you should ask yourself who taught you to hate being what God made you.”-Malcolm X
“Dark as the midnight hour or bright as the mornin’ sun
Give a fuck about your complexion, I know what the Germans done”-Complexion (Zulu Love), Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick is also similar to Malcolm X in that a pilgrimage away from their respected homes changed their lives. Both had amassed large followings and wanted to escape to learn more about themselves and the world around them. Malcolm had become the voice for the Nation of Islam and had helped establish mosque and worship centers all across the United States. Kendrick’s 2013 album, GKMC had him nominated for seven Grammy awards and put him on tour with Kanye West. Malcolm decided to take his pilgrimage to Mecca, which would be life changing for him. He would come back from this trip and renounce the Nation of Islam and became one of the leading voices in the Pan-African movement and for human equality across the world.
Kendrick went to South Africa and had a heart touching experience that was the backdrop to his 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. “I saw all the things that I wasn’t taught. Probably one of the hardest things to do is put a concept on how beautiful a place can be and tell a person this while they’re still in the ghettos of Compton. I wanted to put that experience in the music,” Lamar stated in an interview with HipHopDX. Kendrick has stated that the autobiography of Malcolm X was an influential book to him as a child and the influence is evident in his music. Kendrick and his music has some ways become a voice in the Black Lives Matter era and his music is helping young black kids understand what it means to be black in modern day America, just as Malcolm did.
The legacy Malcolm has left behind is strong as his influence is seen in some of hip-hop’s biggest and brightest stars. It is through hip-hop music that we see that Malcolm was more than just an aggressive radical, but instead a man that empowered and spoke to generations and generations of black Americans. If we truly want to see what Malcolm was really about you should read his writings and speeches, or listen to hip-hop.
Malcolm X and Hip-hop 