The genre of rap and hip-hop music has been a fundamental part of American “black culture” for decades. Ever since they arrived in America on slave ships, black people have always had outlets for singing and various forms of music through which to express the incessant weight given to them by their skin color. In the early 1980s this began to evolve into what we now identify as the rap and hip hop music genre. It began with spoken word artists, like Gil-Scott Heron, who spoke, occasionally in verse, over a beat. Eventually the words adapted to the rhythms, and the power of speech and music became synchronized like never before. Although this form of music originated in African-American culture, many foreign countries began to notice its early popularity and quickly integrated rap and hip hop into their musical cultures. Considering that it began in black culture in America, it's understandable why many associate the hip-hop genre with black people; Therefore, it is argued that if someone else tries to do it, it is cultural appropriation. This is true in most cases, especially with more privileged white Americans. However, I believe that rap and hip-hop don't just function as an outlet for struggle and oppression simply for being black; in other international cultures, rap and hip-hop guarantee the possibility for any discriminated class of people to express themselves and make their voices heard. The use of rap and hip-hop abroad does not occur in the form of cultural appropriation, but more in the form of empathetic identification. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In particular, the integration of rap and hip-hop into European cultures exemplifies how the genre serves as an outlet for any disadvantaged demographic, and not exclusively for people of color. Rap had just started to become popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s and foreign countries seemed to take notice. In France, jazz songs had been very popular in the 1950s along with other genres that followed, such as American rock and disco. In October 1982, a French newspaper titled Libération published a series of articles about various New York rappers and their lifestyle. It's no surprise that a French pop group called Chagrin D'amour recorded an album all in French that used rapping techniques. The group is known today as the prime example of French rap and hip-hop (Prévos 714). Chagrin D'amour, however, did not rap with the same intention or purpose as American rappers; this was a mainstream pop group attempting to emulate an American tradition of popularity, similar to modern-day Iggy Azalea, who many call a major culprit of cultural appropriation. Meanwhile in the northern urban areas of Paris, rap and breakdancing had already been introduced and spread widely in these urban areas. These areas were very similar to American ghettos, in that they also “became hotbeds of violence, drugs, crime, and poverty” (Prévos 714). These Parisian rappers were both pleased and concerned about Chagrin D'amour's popularity. They were thrilled to see that rap was quickly becoming accepted as an art form by the public, but they were concerned because their lyrics were nothing like the innocuous ones of Chagrin D'amour (Prévos 714). Rap and hip-hop became a key part of the culture in these poor, unsupported urban areas, just as it did for the black community in America's ghettos. While rap certainly arrived in France in forms of cultural appropriation, it actually began to make moneyspeed and power from disadvantaged youth who lived in communities similar to those of American rappers. Towards the end of the 1980s, the music of urban rappers emerged on the French popular market. scene, surpassing more innocuous groups like Chagrin D'amour. The new rap artists closely resembled their American counterparts such as the rap group NWA. The lyrical content contained a lot of anti-establishment prose, as most of the rappers spoke about the discrimination they faced, both socially and systemically. These urban rappers expressed the difficulties of their daily lives to the public through their new art (Prévos 715). A specific example is a song titled “Dimanche dans le ghetto” by French artist Puppa Leslie, which translates to Sunday in the ghetto. The song describes the hardships of violence and crime on a normal day in the Paris ghetto. In the early 90s, rap was really becoming the outlet for underprivileged groups, just like in the black American community. However, urban French rappers were not only separated by wealth and socioeconomic class. Rap and hip-hop were becoming a power accessible even to the French black community. This didn't happen because blacks in France noticed that blacks in America were doing it and therefore they should be allowed to do it too. This happened because much of the black community were Arabs who had emigrated from North Africa (Knox 126). The oppression that Arab minorities faced became a popular topic in rap lyrics. One specific French rapper popular in the late 1990s was Suprême NTM who made many songs that spoke about racism and authoritarian injustice, themes shared by American rappers of the time (Prévos 716). Rap and hip-hop had become a "black" thing in France, but only because rap and hip-hop are the fundamental art forms for the dispossessed and oppressed. Indeed, across Europe, rap and hip-hop continued to speak for marginalized groups. The implementation of hip-hop and rap into Turkish youth culture in Germany further shows how the power of the genre transcends just black communities. In the mid-20th century many Turks began to emigrate to Germany for work. Turkish immigrants encountered utter alienation due to cultural and linguistic barriers. German society did not seem to have much patience with the Turkish assimilation process. In the following decades, the Turkish community began to settle in Germany, but lived in disadvantaged conditions. In addition to the emotional and physical pain felt at being treated like second-class citizens, Turks had minimal exposure to a decent education, although many struggled with illiteracy. The third generation of Turkish immigrants, in particular, all born in Germany at this point, have struggled with job opportunities because many of their parents did not finish school. In the 1990s, unemployment among Turkish-German youth was more than double that among German youth. It was this generation of Turks, people born in an alienating country and disconnected from their native culture, who brought rap and hip hop to Germany (Ickstadt 573). This new art form born in Germany did not stray as far from message or intention as it did in France or the United States. Turkish-German rap has often talked about social discrimination and stereotypes about Turkish-German youth. One specific song called “Der Weg,” “plays with the sinister and chilling macho stereotype of the 'bad' Turk” only to persuade its audience that this stereotype is completely false (Ickstadt 574). Furthermore, once the hip-hop scene was established in Germany, many rappers worked to encourage many young people.