with strong political messages and themes. Themes of conscious hip hop include social conscience, Afrocentricity, religion, aversion to crime and violence, culture, the economy, or depictions of the struggles of ordinary people. Conscious hip hop often seeks to raise awareness of social issues, sometimes leaving the listeners to form their own opinions rather than aggressively advocating for certain ideas and demanding actions. Conscious hip hop artists often use their music to express their views on a wide range of topics, including politics, race, poverty, and the environment. Some well-known examples of conscious hip hop artists include Common, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Kendrick Lamar. These artists are known for their thoughtful and thought-provoking lyrics, which often tackle complex and controversial issues. In contrast to mainstream hip hop, which is often associated with materialism and violence, conscious hip hop is often seen as a more positive and uplifting form of the genre. Many conscious hip hop artists strive to inspire their listeners to think critically and make positive changes in their communities and the world. Overall, conscious hip hop is a significant part of the hip hop landscape, and its artists continue to play a key role in raising awareness about important social and political issues. History of political and conscious hip hop Origins and early development Before the emergence of political hip hop—the Black Power Movement and the emphasis on black pride arising in the mid-1960's and blossoming in the early 1970s—inspired several commentaries that incorporated Black Power ideological elements. Songs expressing the theme of black pride include: James Brown's "Say it Loud (I'm Black and Proud)" (1969), and Billy Paul's "Am I Black Enough for You?" (1972). The proto-rap of Gil Scott-Heron is an early influence on political and conscious rap, though most of his earlier socially conscious and political albums fall within the jazz, soul, and funk genres. Following Ronald Reagan’s election as President in 1980, conditions in inner-city African-American communities worsened, and hip-hop political commentators began to increasingly address worsening social problems such as mass unemployment, police brutality, incarceration, inadequate public schools, political apathy, and oppression. One of the first socially conscious hip-hop songs was "How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?" by Brother D with Collective Effort. The first extremely successful hip hop song containing conscious rap was Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message", an influential political and conscious hip hop track, decrying