Positive EffectsMartin Luther King Jr. once said: “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty of bad people but the silence of good people about it. » It's no mystery that minorities have been oppressed throughout American history. In 1990, 70 percent of African Americans and Hispanics in their mid to late 20s had a high school diploma or higher, compared with 86 percent of their white counterparts. The disparities were evident throughout the decade. Hip-hop culture has given minorities a voice and space to express themselves. There have always been minorities who lived the same lives as the majority of Americans, but hip hop primarily catered to minorities in urban neighborhoods who were trapped by violence and negativity. Most of these minorities were young people reaching the peak of their adolescence. Their attitudes can be seen in the lyrics of Notorious BIG when he chants, “I don't want to live anymore. Sometimes I hear death knocking at my door,” in the song “Everyday Struggle.” Without hip-hop music, I think there would be more violence against minorities, because it was the only genre of music that specifically catered to minorities, especially those in inner cities. Hip hop was monumental because it did not apply to just one minority group; every aspect of the minority population was represented by artists who presented different lyrical content and cultural messages. The genre also gave those who were not minorities a glimpse into the outlook of those who were oppressed, ultimately creating some form of understanding. The majority population could never fully understand the minority population because they would never have the opportunity to experience... middle of paper ...... this is also the time when hip hop represented minority culture fully. This was the first time the hip represented minorities whose entire existence was surrounded by culture. Over the previous two decades, people who engaged in hip hop culture had spent at least part of their lives without it, so it had not had a total effect on their lives. This is why older hips were very sample-driven. The 1990s still used samples to structure music, but in a more creative way that used many aspects of the music rather than just a song's break beat. This is also when the culture became most important and had the most influence on mainstream America. Hip-hop allowed minorities in the 1990s to improve their situation and embrace their inner beauty instead of stagnating in the oppressive nature of the United States..