Today is the anniversary of Malcolm X's death.  This is a person I feel that is less spoken of because his views were more radical.  He called for action and I feel that he was more than within his rights to do so.  Extreme situations call for extreme action.  The old adage goes violence only begets more violence and it wasn't fair that up to that point, African Americans were the only ones on the receiving end.  It was a time to stand up.  Many didn't like him because they didn't like what he said but it was the truth.
HIP HOP is action.  HIP HOP is the truth.   If it sounds vulgar or wrong, it is because they are telling the truth in its rawest form, and the truth is usually ugly.  Hence Hip Hop cliches like "keeping it real".  It all depends on how you use that info.  It is no coincidence that Hip Hop has been used for social commentary, here are some good examples:

I was reading in class not to long ago an article by Neil Postman on the effects of technology.  It seems that technology is doing our thinking for us these days.  There are so many sources to get information that people seem to go for the trivial now.  This got me thinking about Hip Hop.  The internet becoming more powerful gave everyone that even thought they could rap a platform.  Is that the reason Hip Hop went from

to

....just a thought.

If you didn't understand the last post and what I meant by the video, allow me to explain.  Hip Hop is about making "a negative to a positive".  It is about portraying your experiences and your surroundings as vividly as possible.  Many people's surroundings and experiences involved in Hip Hop aren't always positive so the music reflects that.  It's a candid look at the forgotten in society and it came from the underground. 

In the immortal words of Biggie Smalls "I went from negative to positive and it's aaaaaall good".  Before I leave let me leave you with another video.  This one is a oldie but a goodie and further explains my point.