In the essay “From Doo Wop to Hip Hop: The Bittersweet Odyssey of African Americans

in the South Bronx” by Mark Naison discusses how a subculture shifts in the South Bronx

through a cultural movement, Hip Hop. Naision uses Chantel’s “Maybe” to demonstrate how

the 1950’s were like. The expression of Hip Hop showed that times were decent and that there

was no struggle in the community of the Bronx. As time shifts towards the 1970’s, the Bronx

becomes a social decay and everything reforms. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The

Message” conveys his frustration how there is not anymore prosperity in the community.

Nasion argues that Hip Hop’s rise does not have a happy ending because it does not help the

fractured neighborhoods and does not change the condition in the projects.