Award Date

1-1-1995

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication Studies

Number of Pages

72

Abstract

Rap music has been one of the most popular and controversial forms of entertainment in the 1990s. Rap music serves as a form of social protest used by Blacks who feel oppressed. This study defines rap music as protest rhetoric, provides a history of rap music as an extension of Black African and American oral traditions, and analyzes the lyrics of Public Enemy, one of the most powerful protest rap artists. Although Public Enemy's music does not function in a social movement as previous protest songs, a comparison of Public Enemy's lyrics to conclusions drawn by previous researchers will show that Public Enemy's discourse is a form of social protest without serving as part of a social movement.

Keywords

Analysis; Enemy; Lyrics; Music; Protest; Public; Rap; Rhetorical

Controlled Subject

Communication; Music; Blacks--Study and teaching; American literature; Rhetoric

File Format

pdf

File Size

3246.08 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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