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Phoenix-based rapper RoQ’y TyRaiD is no stranger to political discussion via hip-hop. His last album, The Podium, featured songs culled from weekly appearances on the Redy Set Radio Show on 99.3 The Beat FM, where RoQ’y addressed political issues and the news of the week with a new tune.
With “RoQ’upy Music,” his latest single, he returns to the political roots of The Podium.
Identifying with themes of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the song features RoQ’y “voicing his frustration.”
“In light of recent events, I think it’s important more of us artists openly speak out and voice our opinions about the state of our culture,” RoQ’y says. “Not “hip-hop,” but our society as a whole. Still, in this New Depression, we [hip-hop] use escapism like a reality-altering drug, by masquerading the plight of our economy and lack of jobs with the glorification of materialism in ways not even the “shiny-suit era” could rival.”
RoQ’y says that rappers are frowned on for speaking politics. “Social Awareness is that taboo? Most won’t even acknowledge our collective, impending demise . . . without it being used as a marketing ploy, of course — i.e., all the “recession-themed” songs and albums.”
Check out RoQ’y TyRaiD’s new track below.
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