Portland’s new way of using Music to pave way for Justice

As dozens of Portland police office resign from their call of duty, hip-hop cannot be ignored for what it has done to bring justice to the people of this great region. Hip-hop community in Portland is not that big but a small one which is vibrant. In recent years we have seen growth. A lot has happened during this corona period and social justice has been affected too. Before this happened, hip-hop was involved in many activities in Portland concerning social justice. Thigs are beginning to change as people become immunized with a vaccine and we have been noticing the new generation of vibrant youths coming up and starting doing a live music in the city.

We happen to meet a The Portland’s hip-hop artist by the name Vursatyl The Great who has been in the game for almost fifty years now.  He states that hip-hop in Portland started with the dance and he himself was a pop locker and in 1979, he started to rap.

Vursatyly the Great went on to become one of the city’s greatest artist when he was in a group called trio Lifesavas. Early 2000s, the group saw great success as they put out two records with Quannum Projects, the much loved label and underground hip-hop collective of the same name. They included most of musicians from the region like Blackalicious, Lateef the Truthspeaker, Lyrics and DJ Shadow.

Here is his latest jam that has served us a glimpse of the where he has come from:-

Even though there is great success that has been noticed over the years, Vursatyl says that Pacific Northwest has always been blocking this great hip-hop. “That’s been the challenge — to try to kind of develop the image of Portland to be something other than the whitest [big] city in America,” he says. Even though hip-hop is always related to people of color, but that perspective has to be changed in the Portland because majority of the people are white and hip-hop has already moved from being a black people’s genre, to being a music for all.

The perception has changed In recent years with emergence of young hip-hop stars whose music has garnered billions of views, meaning the people’s perspective has changed. Things are changing and soon we will be noticing a totally new Portland.