Political hip hop

Political hip hop is a subgenre of hip hop music that was developed in the 1980s as a way of turning rap music into a call for action. Inspired by 1970s political preachers such as The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, Public Enemy was the first predominately political hip hop group. Political hip hop is the use of hip hop music to send political messages to inspire action or to convince the listener of a particular worldview. There is no all-encompassing political hip hop ideology. Rather, there are multiple perspectives that range anywhere from Libertarianism to the values of the Five Percent Nation.

Conscious hip hop

Conscious hip hop or socially conscious hip-hop is a subgenre of hip hop that challenges the dominant cultural, political, philosophical, and economic consensus. Conscious hip hop is related to and frequently overlaps with political hip hop, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. However, conscious hip hop is not necessarily overtly political, but rather discusses social issues and conflicts. The term nation-conscious rap, however, has been used to describe hip hop music with strong political messages and themes. This has likely contributed to the use of the term conscious hip hop to describe both political and socially conscious hip hop.Themes of conscious hip hop include afrocentricity, religion, aversion to crime & violence, culture, the economy, or simple depictions of the struggles of ordinary people. Conscious hip hop often aims to subtly inform the public about social issues and having them form their own opinions instead of aggressively forcing ideas and demanding actions from them.