The genre of rap and hip-hop music has been a fundamental part of American “black culture” for decades. Since arriving in America on slave ships, black people have always used song and various forms of music to express the unrelenting burden imposed on them by skin color. In the early 1980s, this began to evolve into what we identify today as the rap and hip hop music genre. It began with spoken word artists, such as Gil-Scott Heron, who spoke, sometimes in verse, to a beat. Eventually, the words matched the rhythms and the power of words and music synchronized like never before. Although this form of music originated in African-American culture, many foreign countries began to realize its early popularity and quickly integrated rap and hip hop into their musical cultures. Considering that it started in black culture in America, it is understandable that many associate the hip-hop genre with black people; So, the argument goes, if someone else tries to do it, it's cultural appropriation. This is true in most cases, especially among more privileged white Americans. However, I argue that rap and hip-hop not only function as an outlet for the struggle and oppression of simply being black; in other international cultures, rap and hip-hop give the opportunity to any discriminated class to express themselves and make their voice heard. The use of rap and hip-hop abroad is not in the form of cultural appropriation, but rather in the form of empathetic identification. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Specifically, the integration of rap and hip-hop into European cultures illustrates how the genre acts as an outlet for any disadvantaged demographic and not exclusively black people. Rap was just starting to become popular in the late '70s and early '80s, and foreign countries seemed to take notice. In France, jazz tunes were very popular until the 1950s, along with other diverse genres that followed, such as American rock and disco. In October 1982, a French newspaper called Libération published a series of articles on various New York rappers and their lifestyles. Not surprisingly, a French pop group named Chagrin D'amour recorded an album entirely in French using rap techniques. The group is known today as the first example of French rap and hip-hop (Prévos 714). Chagrin D'amour, however, did not rap with the same intent or purpose as American rappers; they were a mainstream pop group attempting to emulate an American tradition of popularity, similar to modern-day Iggy Azalea, who many consider a major culprit of cultural appropriation. Meanwhile, in the urban areas of northern 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 had also “become hotbeds of violence, drugs, crime, and poverty” (Prévos 714). These Parisian rappers were both delighted and worried about the popularity of Chagrin D'amour. They were delighted to see that rap was quickly accepted as an art form by the public, but were worried because their own lyrics had nothing to do with those of Chagrin D'amour (Prévos 714). Rap and hip-hop became a fundamental part of the culture in these urban, poor and unsupported areas, as didin American ghettos for the black community. While rap certainly arrived in France in the form of cultural appropriation, it really began to gain speed and power among underprivileged young people living in communities similar to American rap communities. Towards the end of the 1980s, the music of urban rappers emerged on the French popular market. scene, surpassing the most innocuous groups like Chagrin D'amour. The new rap artists were very similar to their American counterparts like the rap group NWA. The content of the lyrics involved a lot of protest prose, as most of the rappers spoke about the discrimination they faced, both socially and systemically. These urban rappers expressed to the public the difficulties of their daily lives through their new art (Prévos 715). A specific example is a song called “Sunday in the Ghetto” by French artist Puppa Leslie, which translates to Sunday in the Ghetto. The song describes the hardships of violence and crime during an average day in the Paris ghetto. In the early 1990s, rap truly became an outlet for disadvantaged groups, as well as the black American community. French urban rappers were not separated by simple wealth and socioeconomic class, however. Rap and hip-hop became a power also accessible to the French black community. This didn't happen because black people in France noticed that black people in America were doing it and therefore should be allowed to do it too. This happened because a large portion of the black community consisted of Arabs who had emigrated from North Africa (Knox 126). The oppression faced by Arab minorities has become a popular topic in rap lyrics. A popular French rapper in the late 1990s was Suprême NTM who composed many songs dealing with racism and authoritarian injustice, themes shared by American rappers of the time (Prévos 716). Rap and hip-hop have become a “black” thing in France, but only because rap and hip-hop are fundamental art forms for the underprivileged and oppressed. In fact, across Europe, rap and hip-hop continued to speak for marginalized groups. The integration of hip-hop and rap into Turkish youth culture in Germany further demonstrates how the power of the genre transcends just black communities. In the mid-20th century, many Turks began immigrating to Germany for work. Turkish immigrants found themselves in absolute alienation due to cultural and language barriers. German society does 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 at a disadvantage. In addition to the emotional and physical pain felt by being treated as second-class citizens, the Turkish people had minimal access to a decent education, even though many of them struggled with illiteracy . The third generation of Turkish immigrants, in particular, all born in Germany at that time, had difficulty finding employment because many of their parents had not completed their education. In the 1990s, unemployment among young Turkish-Germans was more than twice that of young Germans. It was this generation of Turks, born in an alienating country and disconnected from their original culture, who brought rap and hip hop to Germany (Ickstadt 573). This new art form born in Germany has not strayed far in terms of message or intention..