“The most dangerous weapon in a political machine’s arsenal is how widely its message can be spread,” states writer Sam McCoy in his article “Politically Charged Music Is Here to Stay.”
Politics and music have a long history of intertwining, but what makes a politically charged album? Whether they have over a dozen cuts or only a few, the full-lengths compiled in this list are all loaded with songs displaying rousing political content. Hip-hop and some of its predecessors are here, as well as albums from outside the U.S., namely Jamaica and Nigeria. So, pump your fist and get inspired. Just don’t blow anything up and mention us afterward. –forrest green
1. What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye
Marvin’s title song, in part inspired by his brother’s (Frankie) experience in the Vietnam War, was initially rejected by Motown Records’ CEO Berry Gordy Jr. The executive’s change of heart proved profitable, as the album would stay on the Billboard Pop Album charts for over a year.
2. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back – Public Enemy
Conceived by lead rapper Chuck D as a thematic successor to What’s Going On, this collectively-produced hip-hop record revolutionized rap and most of popular music as well.
3. AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted – Ice Cube
Rapper Ice Cube’s incendiary solo debut album recorded and released shortly after his parting from his former group, N.W.A, was a surprise for listeners everywhere. Bolstering Cube’s sociopolitical stance was Public Enemy’s production team, the Bomb Squad, which brought its trailblazing style to what producer Hank Shocklee called Cube’s “dangerous” viewpoint.
4. The Last Poets – The Last Poets
This is nothing less than a musical forerunner of hip-hop music, loaded with insightful, confrontational and provocative spoken word by poets Abiodun Oyewole, Alafia Pudim and Omar Ben Hassen. The words-and-percussion approach, which is driven by musician Nilaja, forecasts hip-hop’s minimalist beginnings.
5. Innervisions – Stevie Wonder
Without knowledge of its historic context, you might miss the expansive scope of Wonder’s messages in the songs. The euphoric opener “Too High” references drug use, and the softly engaging “He’s Misstra Know It All” denounces then-President Richard Nixon. But the protest song “Living for the City” is the obvious standout that most soul heads are familiar with.
6. Zombie- Fela Anikulapo Kuti
This is the most popular record by the Nigerian bandleader and inventor of the Afrobeat genre, Fela and his band, Africa 70. The group’s typically extensive song lengths allow for only four songs here, all of them swirling with Fela and company’s funky, polyrhythmic music. This record inspired the nation to taunt the military with people putting on blank stares and treading with their hands affront like zombies whenever they’d see soldiers. The Nigerian government cracked down on Fela with brute force soon after the record’s release.
7. Babylon By Bus – Bob Marley and the Wailers
Babylon By Bus is recording of Marley and his backup band, The Wailers, during their tour in the spring of 1978 that captures the crack showmanship of the reggae band. It’s a document of the group’s output from its history through the Kaya album, with anthems powerfully rendered such as “Concrete Jungle,” “Rat Race” and the linked “War” and “No More Trouble.” Babylon By Bus is a simply crucial live album.
8. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Gil Scott-Heron
Here’s a collection of political singer-songwriter, Gil Scott-Heron’s recordings from 1970 to 1972, spanning angry poems about social injustice (“No Knock,” “Whitey On the Moon”) and finely sung pieces dealing with various subjects (“Lady Day and John Coltrane,” “Home Is Where the Hatred Is”), including both the political and the personal.
9. The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Bob Dylan
Living legend, Bob Dylan, strums a guitar and sings, using a spare approach similar to the minimalism of early rap and the Last Poets. The stark music highlights an album of Dylan original songs that are very strong as well as accessible. The issues dealt with include poverty, racism and social change. The title song is felt to embody the spirit of sociopolitical cataclysm of the 1960s.
10. The Battle of Los Angeles – Rage Against the Machine
EEEE-ROW! This group’s second-to-last studio album is quite formidable coming from another famous, revolution-minded band, for two reasons. First, vocalist Zack de la Rocha’s words come across as utterly credible agitprop, and secondly, all of that noise you hear was created by de la Rocha and three men with instruments.
