Ice Cube Believes Conscious Rap Was Intentionally Kept off the Airwaves

This interview by Bloomberg Politics was conducted to mark the occasion of N.W.A. making it into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. He speaks on how N.W.A. was harshly opposed because they took socially conscious political stances. In regards to that kind of rap, he says,

“It’s not rewarded at all. It’s not rewarded on the radio. If you go political and hardcore with it, you just really kinda set yourself straight into the underground. Back in about 1993 gatekeepers of the airwaves started to say, ‘That kind of political rap, really not gonna play that. Not really our style.’ They started to play and promote the escapism type of rap. Sex, drugs, money, cars, women, clothes, clubbing. Just all of the excess became more popular and more exposed.”

He also talks about Black Lives Matter, the Oscars controversy, and how gang violence in Chicago inspired the new Barber Shop movie.

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