When The Revolution Come Analysis

"When the Revolution Comes", written by The Last Poets was released in 1970. This was the time in which anti-racism movements and rallies were forming from the oppression. Songs were referencing social injustices and the treatment of the colored. The Last Poets were a group whose raps focused on anti-racism, anti-violence, promoting black culture and black excellence. When the Revolution Comes was a track that not only spoke to the white leaders but it spoke to the blacks. The lyric "When the revolution comes" being repeated multiple times as they should be anticipating its arrival. "When the revolution comes" as they are gathering all they have in order to be ready for a revolution.

Everything that is happening is present. That life will

Rapping about social issues and movements that were coming up from the underground. Artists such as Tupac and Public Enemy were involved in the movement of bringing politics into rap, "it is not just what one says, it is where one can say it, how others react to what one says, and whether one has the means with which to command public space". (Rose, T. (Summer 1991). "Fear of a Black Planet". Rap Music and Black Cultural Politics in the 1990s (Page 277). As it was looked at as a form of social activism. To inspire others and get them to stand up for what they believe in. Creating meanings of messages that they were exposed to and how they lived it. This was seen in Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)." The title was a play on the musical Annie's song Hard Knock Life. Jay-Z wanted to mirror the fake world created by the musical and found parallels to it with the neighbourhood he grew up in. Revealing in an interview, "[that he] found the mirror between the two stories, and the song was the place where our experiences weren't contradictions, just different dimensions of the same reality." (Golianopoulos, T. (2014, December 19). Personal interview. It was different in the sense of how