Publication Date: 2023-01-16
Negro spirituals and Freedom songs carry within them expressions of joy, pain and the realities of living as a Black person in the United States. These songs provided the sonic background of the Civil Rights Movement. Today, a new sound provides the sonic background in the ongoing movement for Black liberation and agency: Trap music. Trap music traces its roots to the heart of the Black American south. It’s part of the continuing evolution of Hip-Hop in America with lyrics that paint a picture of surviving a system that entraps while pursuing the “American Dream”. We discuss music as a form of Black expression from the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement to Trap music’s existence as a route to self-determination and the path it carves on the journey of Black liberation.
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