<p>Guerillas on the Mic: Black Nationalism and the Politics of Hip Hop Cyrus Fard Mentor: Katherine Tate Hip hop emerged in the latter part of the 20th century as a black cultural movement. A question typically asked by those unfamiliar with the genre is whether the lyrics and messages of the artists contain political value, or exist simply as a glorification of sex, drugs, and violence. The influence of Black Nationalist ideology, promoted by groups such as the Nation of Islam and the Black Panther Party, on prominent rappers primarily between 1987 and 1994 suggests their words do have value. Their efforts led to a politicized aesthetic and content shift in the genre that challenged what they saw as anti-black oppression during the twelve-year Republican administrations of Reagan and Bush. Through an analysis of the words and political stances of major hip hop figures during the aforementioned era—specifically Ice Cube, Public Enemy, and 2Pac Shakur—their philosophies and references reveal similarities and ties to the rhetoric of Black Nationalism. However, the subsequent increased commercial success of the “gangsta rap” aesthetic, the racial hybridization of hip hop (a black genre), with pop (a white-dominated genre), and the notable decline of Black Nationalist ideology in black politics by the late 1990s, have all but alleviated politics from the forefront of discourse in mainstream hip hop music. The lack of radical politics in contemporary hip hop appears to be enduring in a “post-racial” society that seems less concerned with racial issues in the current political and social climate.</p>