From its onset, Hip Hop has been inextricably linked to critical thought. With its roots in West African culture and the identity of the griot (1)/bard (Keyes, 2002), spreading through the Caribbean (George, 1998; Rose, 1994; Kitwana, 2002), and re-membered (2) in the mid 1970s in the streets of New York, early Hip Hop pioneers gazed upon their experience of living in poor conditions and began a running dialogue with each other that took many forms. Black and Brown urban communities were plagued by "shrinking federal funds, affordable housing, [and] shifts in the occupational structure from blue collar manufacturing toward corporate and informational services" (Rose, 1994, p. 31). Through dance, art, poetry, and music, a critique of systems of oppression began in a language that those connected to the oppression could understand. And understand they did. Today Hip Hop music exists as a main feature of the soundtrack to a new globalization and corporate culture, but embedded within Hip Hop culture is the critical discourse upon which it was founded. This discourse is buried beneath corporate control and unconscious/uncritical thought, but it is still there buried within the subconscious minds of everyone connected to Hip Hop whether they know it or not. As Hip-Hop was being born, the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1970) was tapping into pathologies that were also found in the streets of New York. Freire investigated his Brazilian home and focused on the field of education. In particular, he identified a problem in which students were systematically relegated into the conceptual role of an object rather than the more empowered position of a subject. In other words, students were often disempowered by schools and were, as a result, not afforded the chance to actively construct their own realities. The lack of critical consciousness in the United States has allowed a pattern of systematic control and oppression in schools to rob many students of their right to be viewed as subjects. Hip Hop culture has been a space where the youth of today have come to see themselves as subjects, found their identity and humanity, and created a place to develop their critical consciousness through the engagement of humanizing discourses (e.g., art, music, dance).
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