From the perspective of those who call Compton home, however, references to the city’s politics and folklore begin to blur the lines of ‘realness’ and myth.

Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” is a momentous display of rhetoric as art form and critique on the nation’s troubled condition.

Through this “double-consciousness,” hip hop artists have learned to place a foot in both doors of white capitalism and black realism, so they can continue to profit and become successful in America against all racial odds.

N.W.A. and A Tribe Called Quest display the comparative method prominently through their multidimensional influences on one another, guiding their opposite coasts in development of the genre.

Missy Elliott’s “Work It” serves as an anthem in lyricism and imagery for Morgan’s perception of ‘hip hop feminism.’ The song galvanizes women to take charge of and vocalize their desires, just as male rappers have capitalized upon in the past.

At the end of the decade, most people looked back on disco as commercialized and pop-obsessed, rather than considering the movement with its lost potential of forming a strong counter-culture.