Here are some picks for the best politically charged tracks of the past five years.
Honorable mention: Kate Tempest, "Europe is Lost"
Adopting the viewpoint of an exhausted, despairing social worker, London-based rapper and poet Kate Tempest pleas for Western culture's most privileged to actually care about more than maintaining its own social conveniences. Recommended for fans of Kendrick Lamar, Public Enemy, Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def), A Tribe Called Quest, Run The Jewels, Black Star, Bill Hicks, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and/or The Last Poets.
Honorable mention: Natalia Lafourcade, “Derecho de nacimiento”
This is a re-recorded version of a song originally published in 2012, composed by Mexico City-based topical songwriter Natalia Lafourcade in solidarity with students protesting the election of her native country's president, Enrique Peña Nieto. Recommended for fans of Victor Jara and/or Quilapayun.
Honorable mention: Everything Everything, “No Reptiles”
With this song, Manchester-based pop oddballs Everything Everything artfully depict the moment when one man's relationship with his own unabashedly chauvinistic cultural heritage diminishes into pure, spiteful rejection. Recommended for fans of John Lennon.
Honorable mention: Open Mike Eagle, "Brick Body Complex"
Adopting the highly symbolic viewpoint of a project building that considers itself too large and imposing to ever be demolished, Inglewood-based rapper Open Mike Eagle not only denounces the economics of gentrification, but also offers a compelling glimpse into the mindset of someone who has been repeatedly victimized by urban "renewal." Recommended for fans of Kendrick Lamar, Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def), A Tribe Called Quest, and/or Black Star.
This song finds Melbourne-based punk rockers Tropical Fuck Storm addressing their native country like a disappointing significant other, whose bad habits of criminal activity are only encouraged by apathy from local law enforcement and news media outlets. Recommended for fans of The Clash, Wipers, Stiff Little Fingers, and/or Terrorizer.
Do you remember what it was like to successfully get through one day in the U.S. without getting into some kind of political argument? Brooklyn-based alt-punks Parquet Courts apparently do, and seemingly wrote this song to help us cope with this new, anxious, and perpetually irritating reality. Recommended for fans of The Clash, Dead Kennedys, Minutemen, Wipers, Refused, Bad Brains, Stiff Little Fingers, Terrorizer, Discharge, and/or Radiohead.
This song finds Bristol-based punk-adjacent rock quintet IDLES calling out several antiquated notions of "masculinity" as utterly useless in the 21st century. Recommended for fans of The Clash, Gang of Four, Dead Kennedys, Fugazi, and/or Wipers.
With this track, Miami Gardens-bred rapper Denzel Curry gradually transforms a fierce but relatively standard diss track into a rousing acknowledgment that all Americans of color have infinitely more dangerous enemies to fight than each other. Recommended for fans of Kendrick Lamar, Public Enemy, Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def), A Tribe Called Quest, Run The Jewels, and/or Black Star.
Compton-bred rapper Kendrick Lamar uses this track to explore several ways that toxic relations between the United States' ethnic majority and minorities often foster unhealthy behaviors in the latter. Recommended for fans of Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def), A Tribe Called Quest, and/or Black Star.
One half Brooklyn and the other half Atlanta, these rappers use this track to not only fight back against every worldly force of injustice and deceit, but also encourage everyone within earshot to do the same. Recommended for fans of Public Enemy and/or Black Star.
Richmond-based soul musician D'Angelo uses this song to show how little progress has actually been made in the realm of African-American civil rights within the past several decades. Recommended for fans of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and/or Gil Scott-Heron.
Rap's most dynamic duo stridently protest all manner of human rights abuses on this track -- particularly those involving police officers whose agendas lie miles away from "protect and serve." Recommended for fans of Public Enemy.
Throughout this track, Queens-bred rap legends A Tribe Called Quest juxtapose grim visions of the Earth's future against reminders that the United States' various minorities wield much more sociopolitical power than its majorities would like to believe. Recommended for fans of Kendrick Lamar, Public Enemy, Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def), and/or Black Star.
At the top of my list is a lyrically multifaceted, intensely emotional track from King Kendrick Lamar, in which he extensively dissects the concept of hatred from a uniquely African-American perspective. Recommended for fans of Public Enemy, Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def), A Tribe Called Quest, and/or Black Star.
What would YOU include in such a list? Please let me know in the comments. Thanks so much for reading!
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