Today's Hip Hop generation is markedly different from the Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King's generation, but the message put forth by both generations is very similar. Derrick P. Alridge (2005, p. 226), in his article "From Civil Rights to Hip Hop: Toward a Nexus of Ideas," points out that today's Hip Hop artists have upheld the principles of the earlier Civil Rights Movement but have done so in the vernacular common today. He suggests that Hip Hop has essentially taken the Civil Rights Movement's platform and brought it forward to the 21st century to make it relevant to contemporary society rather than allowing it to remain an anachronism from the past.
The question debated by some, though, is whether Hip Hop has hurt or improved on the advances made during the Civil Rights Movement. In large part, the answer is that Hip Hop has improved on the earlier movement. In an interview for National Public Radio, author Todd Boyd asserted that the Hip Hop culture "is more relevant in advancing civil rights today than the peaceful messages of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.," noting that like the Black Power movement, Hip Hop "is much more active, much more aggressive, much more militant" (Simon, 2003). Boyd sees Rev. King's speeches as being appropriate for the time that he lived in but Hip Hop as more pertinent to today's society (Simon, 2003).
Arguably, though, the two movements have somewhat different perspectives on the plight of black people in America. Aldrige (2005, pp. 242-243) explains that Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois believed that African Americans would rise socially and politically through "economic solidarity and entrepreneurship" that would enable them to "build a solid business class," while Hip Hop rappers took this a step further and advocated entrepreneurial strategies that would do that and also empower blacks politically. "The Message" by rapper Grandmaster Flash sugges...