title: Hip hop music

text: Hip hop has always kept a very close relationship with the Latino community in New York. DJ Disco Wiz and the Rock Steady Crew were among early innovators from Puerto Rico, combining English and Spanish in their lyrics. the Mean Machine recorded their first song under the label "Disco Dreams" in 1981, while Kid Frost from Los Angeles began his career in 1982. Cypress Hill was formed in 1988 in the suburb of South Gate outside Los Angeles when Senen Reyes (born in Havana) and his younger brother Ulpiano Sergio (Mellow Man Ace) moved from Cuba to South Gate with his family in 1971. They teamed up with DVX from Queens (New York), Lawrence Muggerud (DJ Muggs) and Louis Freese (B-Real), a Mexican/Cuban-American native of Los Angeles. After the departure of "Ace" to begin his solo career, the group adopted the name of Cypress Hill named after a street running through a neighborhood nearby in South Los Angeles.


title: Hip hop music

text: Japanese hip hop is said to have begun when Hiroshi Fujiwara returned to Japan and started playing hip hop records in the early 1980s. Japanese hip hop generally tends to be most directly influenced by old school hip hop, taking the era's catchy beats, dance culture, and overall fun and carefree nature and incorporating it into their music. Hip hop became one of the most commercially viable mainstream music genres in Japan, and the line between it and pop music is frequently blurred.


title: Hip hop music

text: The new school of hip hop was the second wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J. As with the hip hop preceding it (which subsequently became known as old school hip hop), the new school came predominantly from New York City. The new school was initially characterized in form by drum machine-led minimalism, with influences from rock music, a hip hop "metal music for the 80s–a hard-edge ugly/beauty trance as desperate and stimulating as New York itself." It was notable for taunts and boasts about rapping, and socio-political commentary, both delivered in an aggressive, self-assertive style. In image as in song its artists projected a tough, cool, street b-boy attitude.


title: Hip hop music

text: These elements contrasted sharply with much of the previous funk- and disco-influenced hip hop groups, whose music was often characterized by novelty hits, live bands, synthesizers, and "party rhymes" (not all artists prior to 1983–84 had these styles). New school artists made shorter songs that could more easily gain radio play, and they produced more cohesive LP albums than their old school counterparts. By 1986, their releases began to establish the hip-hop album as a fixture of mainstream music. Hip hop music became commercially successful, as exemplified by the Beastie Boys' 1986 album "Licensed to Ill", which was the first rap album to hit No. 1 on the "Billboard" charts.


title: Hip hop music

text: Hip hop's "golden age" (or "golden era") is a name given to a period in mainstream hip hop, produced between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s, which is characterized by its diversity, quality, innovation and influence. There were strong themes of Afrocentrism and political militancy in golden age hip hop lyrics. The music was experimental and the sampling drew on eclectic sources. There was often a strong jazz influence in the music. The artists and groups most often associated with this phase are Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Gang Starr, Big Daddy Kane and the Jungle Brothers.


title: Hip hop music

text: The golden age is noted for its innovation – a time "when it seemed that every new single reinvented the genre" according to "Rolling Stone". Referring to "hip-hop in its golden age", "Spin"s editor-in-chief Sia Michel says, "there were so many important, groundbreaking albums coming out right about that time",


title: Hip hop music

text: and MTV's Sway Calloway adds: "The thing that made that era so great is that nothing was contrived. Everything was still being discovered and everything was still innovative and new". Writer William Jelani Cobb says "what made the era they inaugurated worthy of the term golden was the sheer number of stylistic innovations that came into existence... in these golden years, a critical mass of mic prodigies were literally creating themselves and their art form at the same time".


title: Hip hop music

text: The golden age spans "from approximately 1986 to 1997", according to Carl Stoffers of "New York Daily News". In their article "In Search of the Golden Age Hip-Hop Sound", music theorists Ben Duinker and Denis Martin of "Empirical Musicology Review" use "the 11 years between and including 1986 and 1996 as chronological boundaries" to define the golden age, beginning with the releases of Run-DMC's "Raising Hell" and the Beastie Boys' "Licensed to Ill", and ending with the deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. "The Boombox" writer Todd "Stereo" Williams also cites the May 1986 release of "Raising Hell" (which sold more than three million copies) as the start of the period and notes that over the next year other important albums were released to success, including "Licensed to Ill", Boogie Down Productions' "Criminal Minded" (1987), Public Enemy's "Yo! Bum Rush the Show" (1987), and Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid in Full" (1987). Williams views this development as the beginning of hip hop's own "album era" from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, during which hip hop albums earned an unprecedented critical recognition and "would be the measuring stick by which most of the genre's greats would be judged".


title: Hip hop music

text: Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that reflects the violent lifestyles of inner-city American black youths. "Gangsta" is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word "gangster". The genre was pioneered in the mid-1980s by rappers such as Schoolly D and Ice-T, and was popularized in the later part of the 1980s by groups like N.W.A. In 1985 Schoolly D released "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?", which is often regarded as the first gangsta rap song, which was followed by Ice-T's "6 in the Mornin'" in 1986. After the national attention and controversy that Ice-T and N.W.A created in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as the mainstreaming of G-funk in the mid-1990s, gangsta rap became the most commercially-lucrative subgenre of hip hop. Some gangsta rappers were known for mixing the political and social commentary of political rap with the criminal elements and crime stories found in gangsta rap.


title: Hip hop music

text: N.W.A is the group most frequently associated with the founding of gangsta rap. Their lyrics were more violent, openly confrontational, and shocking than those of established rap acts, featuring incessant profanity and, controversially, use of the word "nigga". These lyrics were placed over rough, rock guitar-driven beats, contributing to the music's hard-edged feel. The first blockbuster gangsta rap album was N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton", released in 1988. "Straight Outta Compton" would establish West Coast hip hop as a vital genre, and establish Los Angeles as a legitimate rival to hip hop's long-time capital, New York City. "Straight Outta Compton" sparked the first major controversy regarding hip hop lyrics when their song "Fuck tha Police" earned a letter from FBI Assistant Director, Milt Ahlerich, strongly expressing law enforcement's resentment of the song.


title: Hip hop music

text: Controversy surrounded Ice-T's album "Body Count", in particular over its song "Cop Killer". The song was intended to speak from the viewpoint of a criminal getting revenge on racist, brutal cops. Ice-T's rock song infuriated government officials, the National Rifle Association of America and various police advocacy groups. Consequently, Time Warner Music refused to release Ice-T's upcoming album "Home Invasion" because of the controversy surrounding "Cop Killer". Ice-T suggested that the furor over the song was an overreaction, telling journalist Chuck Philips "...they've done movies about nurse killers and teacher killers and student killers. [Actor] Arnold Schwarzenegger blew away dozens of cops as the Terminator. But I don't hear anybody complaining about that." In the same interview, Ice-T suggested to Philips that the misunderstanding of "Cop Killer" and the attempts to censor it had racial overtones: "The Supreme Court says it's OK for a white man to burn a cross in public. But nobody wants a black man to write a record about a cop killer."


title: Hip hop music

text: The subject matter inherent in gangsta rap more generally has caused controversy. The White House administrations of both George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton criticized the genre. "The reason why rap is under attack is because it exposes all the contradictions of American culture ...What started out as an underground art form has become a vehicle to expose a lot of critical issues that are not usually discussed in American politics. The problem here is that the White House and wanna-bes like Bill Clinton represent a political system that never intends to deal with inner city urban chaos," Sister Souljah told "The Times". Due to the influence of Ice-T and N.W.A, gangsta rap is often viewed as a primarily West Coast phenomenon, despite the contributions of East Coast acts like Schoolly D and Boogie Down Productions in shaping the genre.


title: Hip hop music

text: In 1990, Public Enemy's "Fear of a Black Planet" was a significant success with music critics and consumers. The album played a key role in hip hop's mainstream emergence in 1990, dubbed by "Billboard" editor Paul Grein as "the year that rap exploded". In a 1990 article on its commercial breakthrough, Janice C. Thompson of "Time" wrote that hip hop "has grown into the most exciting development in American pop music in more than a decade." Thompson noted the impact of Public Enemy's 1989 single "Fight the Power", rapper Tone Lōc's single Wild Thing being the best-selling single of 1989, and that at the time of her article, nearly a third of the songs on the "Billboard" Hot 100 were hip hop songs. In a similar 1990 article, Robert Hilburn of the "Los Angeles Times" put hip hop music's commercial emergence into perspective:


title: Hip hop music

text: MC Hammer hit mainstream success with the multi platinum album "Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em". The record reached No. 1 and the first single, "U Can't Touch This" charted on the top ten of the "Billboard" Hot 100. MC Hammer became one of the most successful rappers of the early nineties and one of the first household names in the genre. The album raised rap music to a new level of popularity. It was the first hip-hop album certified diamond by the RIAA for sales of over ten million. It remains one of the genre's all-time best-selling albums. To date, the album has sold as many as 18 million units. Released in 1990, "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice was the first hip hop single to top the "Billboard" charts in the U.S. It also reached number one in the UK, Australia among others and has been credited for helping diversify hip hop by introducing it to a mainstream audience. In 1992, Dr. Dre released "The Chronic". As well as helping to establish West Coast gangsta rap as more commercially viable than East Coast hip hop, this album founded a style called G Funk, which soon came to dominate West Coast hip hop. The style was further developed and popularized by Snoop Dogg's 1993 album "Doggystyle". However, hip hop was still met with resistance from black radio, including urban contemporary radio stations. Russell Simmons said in 1990, "Black radio [stations] hated rap from the start and there's still a lot of resistance to it".


title: Hip hop music

text: Despite the lack of support from some black radio stations, hip hop became a best-selling music genre in the mid-1990s and the top selling music genre by 1999 with 81 million CDs sold. By the late 1990s hip hop was artistically dominated by the Wu-Tang Clan, Diddy and the Fugees. The Beastie Boys continued their success throughout the decade crossing color lines and gaining respect from many different artists. Record labels based out of Atlanta, St. Louis, and New Orleans also gained fame for their local scenes. The midwest rap scene was known for fast vocal styles from artists such as Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Tech N9ne, and Twista. By the end of the decade, hip hop was an integral part of popular music, and many American pop songs had hip hop components.


title: Hip hop music

text: Hip hop has been described as a “mainstream subculture”. The main reasons why hip hop culture secured its subcultural authority despite becoming a part of the mass media and mainstream industries can be summarized as follows. First, hip hop artists promoted symbolic and conspicuous consumption in their music from a very early stage. Second, the continuing display of resistance in hip-hop has continuously attracted new generations of rebellious fans. Third, owing to the subcultural ideal of rising from the underground, the hip hop scene has remained committed to its urban roots. Fourth, the concept of battle rap has prevented hip-hop music from excessive cultural dilution. Finally, the solidarity within the African American community has shielded the subculture from erosion through mainstream commercialization.


title: Hip hop music

text: The East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry was a feud from 1991 to 1997 between artists and fans of the East Coast hip hop and West Coast hip hop scenes in the United States, especially from 1994 to 1997. Focal points of the feud were East Coast-based rapper the Notorious B.I.G. (and his New York-based label, Bad Boy Records) and West Coast-based rapper Tupac Shakur (and his Los Angeles-based label, Death Row Records). This rivalry started before the rappers themselves hit the scene. Because New York is the birthplace of hip-hop, artists from the West Coast felt as if they were not receiving the same media coverage and public attention as the East Coast. As time went on both rappers began to grow in fame and as they both became more known the tensions continued to arise. Eventually both artists were fatally shot following drive-by shootings by unknown assailants in 1997 and 1996, respectively.


title: Hip hop music

text: In the early 1990s East Coast hip hop was dominated by the Native Tongues posse, which was loosely composed of De La Soul with producer Prince Paul, A Tribe Called Quest, the Jungle Brothers, as well as their loose affiliates 3rd Bass, Main Source, and the less successful Black Sheep and KMD. Although originally a "daisy age" conception stressing the positive aspects of life, darker material (such as De La Soul's thought-provoking "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa") soon crept in. Artists such as Masta Ace (particularly for "SlaughtaHouse"), Brand Nubian, Public Enemy, Organized Konfusion, and Tragedy Khadafi had a more overtly-militant pose, both in sound and manner. In 1993, the Wu-Tang Clan's "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" revitalized the New York hip hop scene by pioneering an East Coast hardcore rap equivalent in intensity to what was being produced on the West Coast. According to Allmusic, the production on two Mobb Deep albums, "The Infamous" (1995) and "Hell on Earth" (1996), are "indebted" to RZA's early production with the Wu-Tang Clan.


title: Hip hop music

text: The success of albums such as Nas's "Illmatic" and Notorious B.I.G.'s "Ready to Die" in 1994 cemented the status of the East Coast during a time of West Coast dominance. In a March 2002 issue of "The Source Magazine", Nas referred to 1994 as "a renaissance of New York [City] Hip-Hop." The productions of RZA, particularly for the Wu-Tang Clan, became influential with artists such as Mobb Deep due to the combination of somewhat detached instrumental loops, highly compressed and processed drums, and gangsta lyrical content. Wu-Tang solo albums such as Raekwon the Chef's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx", Ghostface Killah's "Ironman", and GZA's "Liquid Swords" are now viewed as classics along with Wu-Tang "core" material. The clan's base extended into further groups called "Wu-affiliates". Producers such as DJ Premier (primarily for Gang Starr but also for other affiliated artists, such as Jeru the Damaja), Pete Rock (with CL Smooth, and supplying beats for many others), Buckwild, Large Professor, Diamond D, and Q-Tip supplied beats for numerous MCs at the time, regardless of location. Albums such as Nas's "Illmatic", O.C.'s "Word...Life" (1994), and Jay-Z's "Reasonable Doubt" (1996) are made up of beats from this pool of producers.


title: Hip hop music

text: The rivalry between the East Coast and the West Coast rappers eventually turned personal. Later in the decade the business acumen of the Bad Boy Records tested itself against Jay-Z and his Roc-A-Fella Records and, on the West Coast, Death Row Records. The mid to late 1990s saw a generation of rappers such as the members of D.I.T.C. such as the late Big L and Big Pun. On the East Coast, although the "big business" end of the market dominated matters commercially the late 1990s to early 2000s saw a number of relatively successful East Coast indie labels such as Rawkus Records (with whom Mos Def and Talib Kweli garnered success) and later Def Jux. The history of the two labels is intertwined, the latter having been started by EL-P of Company Flow in reaction to the former, and offered an outlet for more underground artists such as Mike Ladd, Aesop Rock, Mr Lif, RJD2, Cage and Cannibal Ox. Other acts such as the Hispanic Arsonists and slam poet turned MC Saul Williams met with differing degrees of success.


title: Hip hop music

text: After N.W.A. broke up, former member Dr. Dre released "The Chronic" in 1992, which peaked at No. 1 on the R&B/hip hop chart, No. 3 on the pop chart, and spawned a No. 2 pop single with "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang". "The Chronic" took West Coast rap in a new direction, influenced strongly by P funk artists, melding smooth and easy funk beats with slowly-drawled lyrics. This came to be known as G-funk and dominated mainstream hip hop in the early-mid 1990s through a roster of artists on Suge Knight's Death Row Records, including Tupac Shakur, whose double disc album "All Eyez on Me" was a big hit with hit songs "Ambitionz az a Ridah" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted"; and Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose "Doggystyle" included the top ten hits "What's My Name?" and "Gin and Juice". As the Los Angeles-based Death Row built an empire around Dre, Snoop, and Tupac, it also entered into a rivalry with New York City's Bad Boy Records, led by Puff Daddy and the Notorious B.I.G.


title: Hip hop music

text: Detached from this scene were other artists such as Freestyle Fellowship and the Pharcyde, as well as more underground artists such as the Solesides collective (DJ Shadow and Blackalicious amongst others), Jurassic 5, Ugly Duckling, People Under the Stairs, Tha Alkaholiks, and earlier Souls of Mischief, who represented a return to hip hop's roots of sampling and well-planned rhyme schemes.


title: Hip hop music

text: In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging on the national scene. Southern rap became popular in the early 1990s. The first Southern rappers to gain national attention were the Geto Boys out of Houston, Texas. Southern rap's roots can be traced to the success of Geto Boy's "Grip It! On That Other Level" in 1989, the Rick Rubin produced "The Geto Boys" in 1990, and "We Can't Be Stopped" in 1991. The Houston area also produced other artists that pioneered the early southern rap sound such as UGK and the solo career of Scarface.


title: Hip hop music

text: Atlanta hip hop artists were key in further expanding rap music and bringing southern hip hop into the mainstream. Releases such as Arrested Development's "3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of..." in 1992, Goodie Mob's "Soul Food" in 1995 and OutKast's "ATLiens" in 1996 were all critically acclaimed. Other distinctive regional sounds from St. Louis, Chicago, Washington D.C., Detroit and others began to gain popularity.


title: Hip hop music

text: During the golden age, elements of hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music. The first waves of rap rock, rapcore, and rap metal — respective fusions of hip hop and rock, hardcore punk, and heavy metal — became popular among mainstream audiences at this time; Run-DMC, the Beastie Boys, and Rage Against the Machine were among the most well-known bands in these fields. In Hawaii, bands such as Sudden Rush combined hip hop elements with the local language and political issues to form a style called na mele paleoleo.


title: Hip hop music

text: Digable Planets' 1993 release "Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)" was an influential jazz rap record sampling the likes of Don Cherry, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Herbie Mann, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. It spawned the hit single "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" which reached No. 16 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Hip hop music

text: During the late 1990s, in the wake of the deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., a new commercial sound emerged in the hip hop scene, sometimes referred to as the "bling era" (derived from Lil Wayne's "Bling Bling"), "jiggy era" (derived from Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It"), or "shiny suit era" (derived by metallic suits worn by some rappers in music videos at the time, such as in "Mo Money Mo Problems" by the Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, and Mase). Before the late 1990s, gangsta rap, while a huge-selling genre, had been regarded as well outside of the pop mainstream, committed to representing the experience of the inner-city and not "selling out" to the pop charts. However, the rise of Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs's Bad Boy Records, propelled by the massive crossover success of Combs's 1997 ensemble album "No Way Out", signaled a major stylistic change in gangsta rap (and mainstream hip hop in general), as it would become even more commercially successful and popularly accepted. Silky R&B-styled hooks and production, more materialist subject matter, and samples of hit soul and pop songs from the 1970s and 1980s were the staples of this sound, which was showcased by producers such as Combs, Timbaland, the Trackmasters, the Neptunes, and Scott Storch. Also achieving similar levels of success at this time were Master P and his No Limit label in New Orleans; Master P built up a roster of artists (the No Limit posse) based out of New Orleans, and incorporated G funk and Miami bass influences in his music. The New Orleans upstart Cash Money label was also gaining popularity during this time, with emerging artists such as Birdman, Lil Wayne, B.G, and Juvenile.


title: Hip hop music

text: Many of the rappers who achieved mainstream success at this time, such as Nelly, Puff Daddy, Jay-Z, the later career of Fat Joe and his Terror Squad, Mase, Ja Rule, Fabolous, and Cam'ron, had a pop-oriented style, while others such as Big Pun, Fat Joe (in his earlier career), DMX, Eminem, 50 Cent and his G-Unit, and the Game enjoyed commercial success at this time with a grittier style. Although white rappers like the Beastie Boys, House of Pain, and 3rd Bass previously had some popular success or critical acceptance from the hip hop community, Eminem's success, beginning in 1999 with the platinum "The Slim Shady LP", surprised many. Hip hop influences also found their way increasingly into mainstream pop during this period, particularly in genres such as R&B (e.g. R. Kelly, Akon, TLC, Destiny's Child, Beyonce, Ashanti, Aaliyah, Usher), neo soul (e.g. Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott), and nu metal (e.g. Korn, Limp Bizkit).


title: Hip hop music

text: Dr. Dre remained an important figure in this era, making his comeback in 1999 with the album "2001". In 2000, he produced "The Marshall Mathers LP" by Eminem, and also produced 50 Cent's 2003 album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'", which debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts. Jay-Z represented the cultural triumph of hip hop in this era. As his career progressed, he went from performing artist to entrepreneur, label president, head of a clothing line, club owner, and market consultant—along the way breaking Elvis Presley's record for most number one albums on the "Billboard" magazine charts by a solo artist.


title: Hip hop music

text: Alternative hip hop, which was introduced in the 1980s and then declined, resurged in the early-mid 2000s with the rejuvenated interest in indie music by the general public. The genre began to attain a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast, Kanye West, and Gnarls Barkley. OutKast's 2003 album "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" received high acclaim from music critics, and appealed to a wide range of listeners, being that it spanned numerous musical genres – including rap, rock, R&B, punk, jazz, indie, country, pop, electronica, and gospel. The album also spawned two number-one hit singles, and has been certified diamond by selling 11 times platinum by the RIAA for shipping more than 11 million units, becoming one of the best selling hip-hop albums of all-time. It also won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards, being only the second rap album to do so. Previously, alternative hip hop acts had attained much critical acclaim, but received relatively little exposure through radio and other media outlets; during this time, alternative hip hop artists such as MF Doom, the Roots, Dilated Peoples, Gnarls Barkley, Mos Def, and Aesop Rock began to achieve significant recognition.


title: Hip hop music

text: Glitch hop and wonky music evolved following the rise of trip hop, dubstep and intelligent dance music (IDM). Both glitch hop and wonky music frequently reflect the experimental nature of IDM and the heavy bass featured in dubstep songs. While trip hop has been described as being a distinct British upper-middle class take on hip-hop, glitch-hop and wonky music have much more stylistic diversity. Both genres are melting pots of influence. Glitch hop contains echoes of 1980s pop music, Indian ragas, eclectic jazz and West Coast rap. Los Angeles, London, Glasgow and a number of other cities have become hot spots for these scenes, and underground scenes have developed across the world in smaller communities. Both genres often pay homage to older and more well established electronic music artists such as Radiohead, Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada as well as independent hip hop producers like J Dilla and Madlib.


title: Hip hop music

text: Glitch hop is a fusion genre of hip hop and glitch music that originated in the early to mid-2000s in the United States and Europe. Musically, it is based on irregular, chaotic breakbeats, glitchy basslines and other typical sound effects used in glitch music, like skips. Glitch hop artists include Prefuse 73, Dabrye and Flying Lotus. Wonky is a subgenre of hip hop that originated around 2008, but most notably in the United States and United Kingdom, and among international artists of the Hyperdub music label, under the influence of glitch hop and dubstep. Wonky music is of the same glitchy style as glitch hop, but it was specifically noted for its melodies, rich with "mid-range unstable synths". Scotland has become one of the most prominent wonky scenes, with artists like Hudson Mohawke and Rustie.


title: Hip hop music

text: Glitch hop and wonky are popular among a relatively smaller audience interested in alternative hip hop and electronic music (especially dubstep); neither glitch hop nor wonky have achieved mainstream popularity. However, artists like Flying Lotus, the Glitch Mob and Hudson Mohawke have seen success in other avenues. Flying Lotus's music has earned multiple positive reviews on the independent music review site "Pitchfork.com" as well as a prominent (yet uncredited) spot during Adult Swim commercial breaks. Hudson Mohawke is one of few glitch hop artists to play at major music festivals such as Sasquatch! Music Festival.


title: Hip hop music

text: Crunk is a regional hip hop genre that originated in Tennessee in the southern United States in the 1990s, influenced by Miami bass. One of the pioneers of crunk, Lil Jon, said that it was a fusion of hip hop, electro, and electronic dance music. The style was pioneered and commercialized by artists from Memphis, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia, gaining considerable popularity in the mid-2000s via Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins. Looped, stripped-down drum machine rhythms are usually used. The Roland TR-808 and 909 are among the most popular. The drum machine loops are usually accompanied by simple, repeated synthesizer melodies and heavy bass "stabs". The tempo of the music is somewhat slower than hip-hop, around the speed of reggaeton. The focal point of crunk is more often the beats and instrumental music rather than the lyrics. Crunk rappers, however, often shout and scream their lyrics, creating an aggressive, almost heavy, style of hip-hop. While other subgenres of hip-hop address sociopolitical or personal concerns, crunk is almost exclusively "party music", favoring call and response hip-hop slogans in lieu of more substantive approaches. Crunk helped southern hip hop gain mainstream prominence during this period, as the classic East and West Coast styles of the 1990s gradually lost dominance.


title: Hip hop music

text: Snap rap (also known as ringtone rap) is a subgenre of crunk that emerged from Atlanta, Georgia in the late 1990s. The genre gained mainstream popularity in the mid-late 2000s, and artists from other Southern states such as Tennessee also began to emerge performing in this style. Tracks commonly consist of a Roland TR-808 bass drum, hi-hat, bass, finger snapping, a main groove, and a simplistic vocal hook. Hit snap songs include "Lean wit It, Rock wit It" by Dem Franchize Boyz, "Laffy Taffy" by D4L, "It's Goin' Down" by Yung Joc, and "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" by Soulja Boy Tell 'Em. In retrospect, Soulja Boy has been credited with setting trends in hip hop, such as self-publishing his songs through the Internet (which helped them go viral) and paving the way for a new wave of younger artists.


title: Hip hop music

text: Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, leading "Time" magazine to question if mainstream hip-hop was "dying." "Billboard" magazine found that, since 2000, rap sales dropped 44%, and declined to 10% of all music sales, which, while still a commanding figure when compared to other genres, is a significant drop from the 13% of all music sales where rap music regularly placed. According to Courtland Milloy of "The Washington Post", for the first time on five years, no rap albums were among the top 10 sellers in 2006. NPR culture critic Elizabeth Blair noted that, "some industry experts say young people are fed up with the violence, degrading imagery and lyrics." However, the 2005 report "Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8–18 Year-Olds" found that hip hop music is by far the most popular music genre for children and teenagers with 65 percent of 8- to-18-year-olds listening to it on a daily basis.


title: Hip hop music

text: Other journalists say the music is just as popular as it ever was, but that fans have found other means to consume the music, such as illegally downloading music through P2P networks, instead of purchasing albums and singles from legitimate stores. For example, Flo Rida is known for his low album sales regardless of his singles being mainstream and having digital success. His second album "R.O.O.T.S." sold only 200,000+ total units in the U.S., which could not line up to the sales of the album's lead single "Right Round". This also happened to him in 2008. Some put the blame on hip hop becoming less lyrical over time, such as Soulja Boy's 2007 debut album "souljaboytellem.com" which was met with negative reviews. Lack of sampling, a key element of early hip hop, has also been noted for the decrease in quality of modern albums. For example, there are only four samples used in 2008's "Paper Trail" by T.I., while there are 35 samples in 1998's "Moment of Truth" by Gang Starr. The decrease in sampling is in part due to it being too expensive for producers.


title: Hip hop music

text: In Byron Hurt's documentary "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes", he claims that hip hop had changed from "clever rhymes and dance beats" to "advocating personal, social and criminal corruption." Despite the fall in record sales throughout the music industry, hip-hop had remained a popular genre, with hip-hop artists still regularly topping the "Billboard" 200 Charts. In the first half of 2009 alone artists such as Eminem, Rick Ross, the Black Eyed Peas, and Fabolous all had albums that reached the No. 1 position on the "Billboard" 200 charts. Eminem's album "Relapse" was one of the fastest selling albums of 2009.


title: Hip hop music

text: By the late 2000s, alternative hip hop had secured its place within the mainstream, due in part to the declining commercial viability of gangsta rap. Industry observers view the sales race between Kanye West's "Graduation" and 50 Cent's "Curtis" as a turning point for hip hop. West emerged the victor, selling nearly a million copies in the first week alone, proving that innovative rap music could be just as commercially viable as gangsta rap, if not more so. Although he designed it as a melancholic pop album rather than a rap album, Kanye's following "808s & Heartbreak" would have a significant effect on hip hop music. While his decision to sing about love, loneliness, and heartache for the entirety of the album was at first heavily criticized by music audiences and the album was predicted to be a flop, its subsequent critical acclaim and commercial success encouraged other mainstream rappers to take greater creative risks with their music. During the release of "The Blueprint 3", New York rap mogul Jay-Z revealed that next studio album would be an experimental effort, stating, "... it's not gonna be a #1 album. That's where I'm at right now. I wanna make the most experimental album I ever made." Jay-Z elaborated that like Kanye, he was unsatisfied with contemporary hip hop, was being inspired by indie-rockers like Grizzly Bear, and asserted his belief that the indie rock movement would play an important role in the continued evolution of hip-hop.


title: Hip hop music

text: The alternative hip hop movement was not limited only to the United States, as rappers such as Somali-Canadian poet K'naan, Japanese rapper Shing02, and Sri Lankan British artist M.I.A. achieved considerable worldwide recognition. In 2009, "Time" magazine placed M.I.A in the Time 100 list of "World's Most Influential people" for having "global influence across many genres." Global-themed movements have also sprung out of the international hip-hop scene with microgenres like "Islamic Eco-Rap" addressing issues of worldwide importance through traditionally disenfranchised voices.


title: Hip hop music

text: Due in part to the increasing use of music distribution through social media and blogging, many alternative and non-alternative rappers found acceptance by far-reaching audiences, hence why this era of hip hop is sometimes termed the "blog era". Several artists, such as Kid Cudi and Drake, managed to attain chart-topping hit songs, "Day 'n' Nite" and "Best I Ever Had" respectively, by releasing their music on free online mixtapes without the help of a major record label. Emerging artists at the time such as Wale, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Lupe Fiasco, the Cool Kids, Jay Electronica, and B.o.B were noted by critics as expressing eclectic sounds, sensitive life experiences, and vulnerable emotions that were rarely seen in the prior bling era.


title: Hip hop music

text: Also at this time, the Auto-Tune vocal effect was bolstered in popularity by rapper T-Pain, who elaborated on the effect and made active use of Auto-Tune in his songs. He cites new jack swing producer Teddy Riley and funk artist Roger Troutman's use of the Talk Box as inspirations for his own use of Auto-Tune. T-Pain became so associated with Auto-Tune that he had an iPhone app named after him that simulated the effect, called "I Am T-Pain". Eventually dubbed the "T-Pain effect", the use of Auto-Tune became a popular fixture of late 2000s and early 2010s hip hop, examples being Snoop Dogg's "Sexual Eruption", Lil Wayne's "Lollipop", Kanye West's album "808s & Heartbreak", and the Black Eyed Peas' number-one hit "Boom Boom Pow".


title: Hip hop music

text: Trap music is a subgenre of Southern rap that originated in the early 1990s. It grew in the 2000s to become a mainstream sensation, eventually reaching ubiquity in the mid-late 2010s and frequently having songs top the "Billboard" hip hop charts. It is typified by double or triple-time sub-divided hi-hats, heavy kick drums from the Roland TR-808 drum machine, layered synthesizers and an overall dark, ominous or bleak atmosphere. The strong influence of the sound led to other artists within the genre to move towards the trap sound, with a notable example being Jay-Z and Kanye West on their joint song, ""H•A•M"". Other artists not within the hip hop genre have also experimented with trap, such as "7/11" by Beyoncé and "Dark Horse" by Katy Perry featuring Juicy J.


title: Hip hop music

text: Major artists to arise from the genre in the 2010s include Lil Nas X, Waka Flocka Flame, Future, Chief Keef, Migos, Young Thug, Travis Scott, Kodak Black, 21 Savage, Yung Lean, Lil Uzi Vert, XXXTentacion, Ski Mask the Slump God, Juice Wrld, Trippie Redd, Lil Pump, Smokepurpp, Rae Sremmurd, Tekashi 6ix9ine, NBA YoungBoy, Lil Baby, Fetty Wap, among others. Female rappers Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Saweetie, Doja Cat, Iggy Azalea, City Girls and Megan Thee Stallion also entered the mainstream. Trap artists that originated in the 2000s were able to recapture mainstream success in the 2010s with the rise of trap, including 2 Chainz, Gucci Mane and Juicy J, becoming more successful in the latter part of their career than when they debuted. Trap producers to reach mainstream success include Metro Boomin, Pi'erre Bourne, London on da Track, and Mike Will Made-It.


title: Hip hop music

text: Critics of the trap genre have used the term "mumble rap" to describe the heavily auto-tuned, and sometimes hard to understand- delivery of verses from a majority of the artists. Artists longstanding within the genre have had their own comments regarding the rise of mumble rap, such as Rick Rubin stating that Eminem was confused by it, and Snoop Dogg claiming that he can't differentiate between artists. Black Thought, lead rapper from the Roots, stated that the "game has changed. It's different. The standards are different, the criteria that's taken into consideration in determining validity is different. We're at a point in history where lyricism almost comes last in very many regards."


title: Hip hop music

text: On July 17, 2017, "Forbes" reported that hip hop/R&B (which Nielsen SoundScan classifies as being the same genre) had usurped rock as the most consumed musical genre, becoming the most popular genre in music for the first time in U.S. history.


title: Hip hop music

text: In the late 2010s and early 2020s, Brooklyn drill became popular since Pop Smoke emerged before his death. The 2020s decade began with Roddy Ricch as the first rapper to have a "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one entry.


title: Hip hop music

text: The rise of streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music in the mid-late 2010s greatly impacted the entire music business as a whole. Despite being a free streaming-only mixtape with no commercial release, Chance the Rapper's "Coloring Book" won Best Rap Album at the 2017 Grammy Awards, being the first streaming album ever to win a Grammy Award. Kanye West has stated that his own album, "Yeezus", marked the death of CDs, and thus his subsequent release, "The Life of Pablo" was only released digitally. "The Life of Pablo" was also nominated for 2017 Best Rap Album. In 2017, Drake released a free streaming-only project titled "More Life", which he called a "playlist", insisting that it was neither a mixtape nor an album.


title: Hip hop music

text: The online audio distribution platform SoundCloud played a massive role in the creation of various artists' careers in the latter half of the 2010s. Mainstream acts to start on SoundCloud include Post Malone, Lil Uzi Vert, Russ, Bryson Tiller, Lil Xan, Lil Pump, Lil Peep, Lil Skies, Smokepurpp, Ski Mask the Slump God, XXXTentacion, Trippie Redd, Playboi Carti, YBN Nahmir, Tay-K, ZillaKami, Ugly God, Nav among others. These songs are usually closely related to trap, but have also been labeled separately as SoundCloud rap and sometimes emo rap. They have been characterized as usually having moody, sad undertones, and usually feature lo-fi rough production. The genre has been met with criticism for its perceived low effort in lyrics and production, and the problematic nature of the artists to arise from it, such as Lil Peep's drug abuse that led to his death, the multiple assault charges to XXXTentacion, 6ix9ine pleading guilty to using a child in a sexual performance, and the murder charges on Tay-K. On the contrary, the image of artists such as XXXTentacion have been met with praise due to perceived character improvement since their controversies.


title: Hip hop music

text: In 2021, the most streamed rappers were Doja Cat and Lil Nas X. Other rappers with high streams in 2021 were Drake, Eminem]], Lil Baby, Polo G, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Moneybagg Yo, Masked Wolf, Pop Smoke, J. Cole and Lil Durk. The most streamed rap album of all time on Spotify is XXXTentacion's second album, "?" (2018).


title: Hip hop music

text: Hip-hop music has reached the cultural corridors of the globe and has been absorbed and reinvented around the world. Hip hop music expanded beyond the US, often blending local styles with hip hop. Hip hop has globalized into many cultures worldwide, as evident through the emergence of numerous regional scenes. It has emerged globally as a movement based upon the main tenets of hip hop culture. The music and the art continue to embrace, even celebrate, its transnational dimensions while staying true to the local cultures to which it is rooted. Hip-hop's impact differs depending on each culture. Still, the one thing virtually all hip hop artists worldwide have in common is that they acknowledge their debt to those African American people in New York who launched the global movement.


title: Hip hop music

text: Latinos and people from the Caribbean played an integral role in the early development of hip hop in New York, and the style spread to almost every country in that region. Hip hop first developed in the South Bronx, which had a high Latino, particularly Puerto Rican, population in the 1970s. Some famous rappers from New York City of Puerto Rican origin are the late Big Pun, Fat Joe, and Angie Martinez. With Latino rap groups like Cypress Hill on the American charts, Mexican rap rock groups, such as Control Machete, rose to prominence in their native land.


title: Hip hop music

text: In many Latin American countries, as in the U.S., hip hop has been a tool with which marginalized people can articulate their struggle. Hip hop grew steadily more popular in Cuba in the 1980s and 1990s through Cuba's Special Period that came with the fall of the Soviet Union. During this period of economic crisis, which the country's poor and black populations especially hard, hip hop became a way for the country's Afro-descended population to embrace their blackness and articulate a demand for racial equality for black people in Cuba. The idea of blackness and black liberation was not always compatible with the goals of the Cuban government, which was still operating under the idea that a raceless society was the correct realization of the Cuban Revolution. When hip-hop emerged, the Cuban government opposed the vulgar image that rappers portrayed, but later accepted that it might be better to have hip-hop under the influence of the Ministry of Culture as an authentic expression of Cuban Culture. Rappers who explicitly speak about race or racism in Cuba are still under scrutiny by the government. An annual Cuban hip hop concert, beginning in 1995, held at Alamar in Havana helped popularize Cuban hip hop. Famous Cuban rap groups include Krudas Cubensi and Supercrónica Obsesión.


title: Hip hop music

text: Black and indigenous people in Latin America and Caribbean islands have been using hip hop for decades to discuss race and class issues in their respective countries. Brazilian hip hop is heavily associated with racial and economic issues in the country, where a lot of Afro-Brazilians live in economically disadvantaged communities, known in Brazil as favelas. São Paulo is where hip hop began in the country, but it soon spread all over Brazil, and today, almost every big Brazilian city, including Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Recife and Brasilia, has a hip hop scene. Some notable artists include Racionais MC's, Thaide, and Marcelo D2. One of Brazil's most popular rappers, MV Bill, has spent his career advocating for black youth in Rio de Janeiro.


title: Hip hop music

text: Reggaeton, a Puerto Rican style of music, has a lot of similarities with U.S.-based hip hop. Both were influenced by Jamaican music, and both incorporate rapping and call and response. Dancehall music and hip from the United States are both popular music in Puerto Rico, and reggaeton is the cumulation of different musical traditions founded by Afro-descended people in the Caribbean and the United States. Some of reggaeton's most popular artists include Don Omar, Tego Calderón, and Daddy Yankee.


title: Hip hop music

text: In Venezuela, social unrest at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s coincided with the rise of gangsta rap in the United States and led to the rise of that music in Venezuela as well. Venezuelan rappers in the 1990s generally modeled their music after gangsta rap, embracing and attempting to redefine negative stereotypes about poor and black youth as dangerous and materialistic and incorporating socially conscious critique of Venezuela's criminalization of young, poor, Afro-descended people into their music.


title: Hip hop music

text: In Haiti, hip hop developed in the early 1980s. Master Dji and his songs "Vakans" and "Politik Pa m" are mostly credited with the rise of Haitian hip hop. What later became known as "Rap Kreyòl" grew in popularity in the late 1990s with King Posse and Original Rap Stuff. Due to cheaper recording technology and flows of equipment to Haiti, more Rap Kreyòl groups are recording songs, even after the January 12 earthquake. Haitian hip hop has recently become a way for artists of Haitian backgrounds in the Haiti and abroad to express their national identity and political opinions about their country of origin. Rappers have embraced the red and blue of the Flag of Haiti and rapping in Haitian Creole to display their national origin. In the Dominican Republic, a recording by Santi Y Sus Duendes and Lisa M became the first single of merenrap, a fusion of hip hop and merengue.


title: Hip hop music

text: In Europe, Africa, and Asia, hip hop began to move from the underground to mainstream audiences. In Europe, hip hop was the domain of both ethnic nationals and immigrants. British hip hop, for example, became a genre of its own and spawned artists such as Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, the Streets and many more. Germany produced the well-known Die Fantastischen Vier as well as several Turkish performers like the controversial Cartel, Kool Savaş, and Azad. In France, hip hop music developped itself from the end of the 80s. It can be divided into three eras: The classical period, which extends from the end of the 1980s to the beginning of the 2000s marked by a majority of black artists like Oxmo Puccino, Mc Solaar, Kery James (with IdealJ), IAM, NTM, the period of democratization from the 2000s, with groups and artists like Lunatic, Diam's, Sinik, Rim'k, Sefyu, Sniper, Rohff, La Fouine, which are beginning to affect the French population in general and to record the first significant commercial successes. Finally, from the 2010s, French-speaking rap experienced a rather paradoxical period of innovation, the logical start of new experiments that opened up French rap to new musical genres, such as trap, drill or "folk" rap. This period is distinguished by the great variety of French hip hop music, where several movements beginning to separate, artists like Booba, Kaaris, JuL, Gims, Freeze Corleone, Ziak or Soolking try to innovate and look for new tracks to explore. In the Netherlands, important nineties rappers include the Osdorp Posse, a crew from Amsterdam, Extince, from Oosterhout, and Postmen. Italy found its own rappers, including Jovanotti and Articolo 31, grow nationally renowned, while the Polish scene began in earnest early in the decade with the rise of PM Cool Lee. In Romania, B.U.G. Mafia came out of Bucharest's Pantelimon neighborhood, and their brand of gangsta rap underlines the parallels between life in Romania's Communist-era apartment blocks and in the housing projects of America's ghettos.


title: Hip hop music

text: One of the countries outside the US where hip-hop is most popular is the United Kingdom. Grime, a genre of music derived from UK Garage and drum and bass and influenced by hip hop, emerged in the early 2000s with artists such as Dizzee Rascal becoming successful. Although it is immensely popular, many British politicians criticize the music for what they see as promoting theft and murder, similar to gangsta rap in America. These criticisms have been deemed racist by the mostly Black British grime industry. Despite its controversial nature, grime has had a major effect on British fashion and pop music, with many young working-class youth emulating the clothing worn by grime stars like Dizzee Rascal and Wiley. There are many subgenres of grime, including "Rhythm and Grime," a mix of R&B and grime, and grindie, a mix of indie rock and grime popularized by indie rock band Hadouken!


title: Hip hop music

text: In Germany and France, gangsta rap has become popular among youths who like the violent and aggressive lyrics. Some German rappers openly or comically flirt with Nazism; for example, Bushido (born Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi) raps "Salutiert, steht stramm, Ich bin der Leader wie A" (Salute, stand to attention, I am the leader like 'A') and Fler had a hit with the record "Neue Deutsche Welle" (New German Wave) complete with the title written in Third Reich style Gothic print and advertised with an Adolf Hitler quote. These references also spawned great controversy in Germany. Meanwhile, in France, artists like Kery James' Idéal J maintained a radical, anti-authoritarian attitude and released songs like "Hardcore" which attacked the growth of the French far right. In the Netherlands, MC Brainpower went from being an underground battle rapper to mainstream recognition in the Benelux, thus influencing numerous rap artists in the region. In Israel, rapper Subliminal reaches out to Israeli youth with political and religious-themed lyrics, usually with a Zionist message.


title: Hip hop music

text: In Asia, mainstream stars rose to prominence in the Philippines, led by Francis Magalona, Rap Asia, MC Lara and Lady Diane. In Japan, where underground rappers had previously found a limited audience, and popular teen idols brought a style called J-rap to the top of the charts in the middle of the 1990s. Of particular importance is the influence on East Asian nations, where hip hop music has become fused with local popular music to form different styles such as K-pop, C-pop and J-pop.


title: Hip hop music

text: Israel's hip hop grew greatly in popularity at the end of the decade, with several stars both Palestinian (Tamer Nafar) and Israeli (Subliminal). In Portugal hip hop has his own kind of rapping, which is more political and underground scene, they are known for Valete, Dealema and Halloween. Russian hip hop emerged during last years of Soviet Union and cemented later, with groups like Malchishnik and Bad Balance enjoying mainstream popularity in the 1990s, while Ligalize and Kasta were popular in the 2000s. In former Yugoslavia hip hop first appeared during the 1980s mostly with Serbian hip hop with performers such as B-boy, the Master Scratch Band, Badvajzer, and others. During the late 1990s hip hop had a boom, with Rambo Amadeus and later Beogradski sindikat becoming a major performer. Bosnian and Herzegovinian hip hop is nowadays dominated by Edo Maajka. In the region hip hop is often used as a political and social message in song themes such as war, profiteering, corruption, etc. Frenkie, another Bosnian rapper, is associated with Edo Maajka, and has collaborated beyond Bosnian borders.


title: Hip hop music

text: In Tanzania in the early 2000s, local hip hop artists became popular by infusing local styles of Afrobeat and arabesque melodies, dancehall and hip-hop beats with Swahili lyrics.


title: Hip hop music

text: In the 2010s, hip hop became popular in Canada with Canadians rappers such as Drake, Nav, Belly and Tory Lanez. Drake was the most streamed artist of the decade.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes the eastern part of the Bronx, portions of north-central Queens, and Rikers Island in New York City.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: On June 26, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez drew national recognition when she won the Democratic Party's primary election for New York's 14th congressional district. She defeated Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent, in what was widely seen as the biggest upset victory in the 2018 midterm election primaries. She easily won the November general election, defeating Republican Anthony Pappas. She was reelected in the 2020 election, defeating John Cummings.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Taking office at age 29, Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress. She has been noted for her substantial social media presence relative to her fellow members of Congress. Ocasio-Cortez attended Boston University, where she double-majored in international relations and economics, graduating "cum laude". She was previously an activist and worked as a waitress and bartender before running for Congress in 2018.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Rashida Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez are the first female members of the Democratic Socialists of America elected to serve in Congress. She advocates a progressive platform that includes support for workplace democracy, Medicare for All, tuition-free public college, a federal jobs guarantee, a Green New Deal, and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez was born in the New York City borough of the Bronx on October 13, 1989, the daughter of Sergio Ocasio-Roman and Blanca Ocasio-Cortez (). She has a younger brother named Gabriel. Her father was born in the Bronx to a Puerto Rican family and became an architect; her mother was born in Puerto Rico. Ocasio-Cortez lived with her family in an apartment in the Bronx neighborhood of Parkchester until she was five, when the family moved to a house in suburban Yorktown Heights.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez attended Yorktown High School, graduating in 2007. In high school and college, Ocasio-Cortez went by the name of "Sandy Ocasio". She came in second in the microbiology category of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2007 with a research project on the effect of antioxidants on the lifespan of the nematode "Caenorhabditis elegans". In a show of appreciation for her efforts, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory named a small asteroid after her: 23238 Ocasio-Cortez. In high school, she took part in the National Hispanic Institute's Lorenzo de Zavala (LDZ) Youth Legislative Session. She later became the LDZ Secretary of State while she attended Boston University. Ocasio-Cortez had a John F. Lopez Fellowship.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: After graduating from high school, Ocasio-Cortez enrolled at Boston University. Her father died of lung cancer in 2008 during her second year, and Ocasio-Cortez became involved in a lengthy probate battle to settle his estate. She has said that the experience helped her learn "first-hand how attorneys appointed by the court to administer an estate can enrich themselves at the expense of the families struggling to make sense of the bureaucracy". During college, Ocasio-Cortez served as an intern for U.S. senator Ted Kennedy in his section on foreign affairs and immigration issues. She recalled, "I was the only Spanish speaker, and as a result, as basically a kida 19-, 20-year-old kidwhenever a frantic call would come into the office because someone is looking for their husband because they have been snatched off the street by ICE, I was the one that had to pick up that phone. I was the one that had to help that person navigate that system." Ocasio-Cortez graduated "cum laude" from Boston University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in both international relations and economics.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: After college, Ocasio-Cortez moved back to the Bronx and took a job as a bartender and waitress to help her mother—a house cleaner and school bus driver—fight foreclosure of their home. She later launched Brook Avenue Press, a now-defunct publishing firm for books that portrayed the Bronx in a positive light. Ocasio-Cortez also worked for the nonprofit National Hispanic Institute.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: During the 2016 primary, Ocasio-Cortez worked as an organizer for Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign. After the general election, she traveled across America by car, visiting places such as Flint, Michigan, and Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, and speaking to people affected by the Flint water crisis and the Dakota Access Pipeline. In an interview she recalled her December 2016 visit to Standing Rock as a tipping point, saying that before that, she had believed that the only way to run for office effectively was to have access to wealth, social influence, and power. But her visit to North Dakota, where she saw others "putting their whole lives and everything that they had on the line for the protection of their community", inspired her to begin to work for her own community. One day after she visited North Dakota, she got a phone call from Brand New Congress, which was recruiting progressive candidates (her brother had nominated her soon after Election Day 2016). She has credited Jabari Brisport's unsuccessful City Council campaign with restoring her belief in electoral politics, in running as a socialist candidate, and in Democratic Socialists of America as an organization.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez began her campaign in April 2017 while waiting tables and tending bar at Flats Fix, a taqueria in New York City's Union Square. "For 80 percent of this campaign, I operated out of a paper grocery bag hidden behind that bar", she told "Bon Appétit". She was the first person since 2004 to challenge Joe Crowley, the Democratic Caucus Chair, in the primary. She faced a financial disadvantage, saying, "You can't really beat big money with more money. You have to beat them with a totally different game." Ocasio-Cortez's campaign undertook grassroots mobilization and did not take donations from corporations. Her campaign posters' designs were said to have taken inspiration from "revolutionary posters and visuals from the past".


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: The candidates' only face-to-face encounter during the campaign occurred on a local political talk show, "Inside City Hall", on June 15. The format was a joint interview conducted by Errol Louis, which NY1 characterized as a debate. A debate in the Bronx was scheduled for June 18, but Crowley did not participate. He sent former New York City Council member Annabel Palma in his place.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez was endorsed by progressive and civil rights organizations such as MoveOn and Democracy for America.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Then-Governor Cuomo endorsed Crowley, as did both of New York's U.S. senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, multiple U.S. representatives, various local elected officials and trade unions, and groups such as the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, the Working Families Party, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, among others. California representative Ro Khanna, a Justice Democrat like Ocasio-Cortez, initially endorsed Crowley but later endorsed Ocasio-Cortez in an unusual dual endorsement.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez received 57.13% of the vote (15,897) to Crowley's 42.5% (11,761), defeating the 10-term incumbent by almost 15 percentage points on June 26, 2018. The result shocked many political commentators and analysts and immediately garnered nationwide attention. Many news sources, including "Time", CNN, "The New York Times", and "The Guardian" mentioned how the win completely defied their predictions and expectations. She was outspent by a margin of 18 to1 ($1.5million to $83,000) but won the endorsement of some influential groups on the party's left. Merriam-Webster reported that searches for the word "socialism" spiked 1,500% after her victory. Crowley conceded defeat on election night, but did not telephone Ocasio-Cortez that night to congratulate her, fueling short-lived speculation that he intended to run against her in the general election.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Bernie Sanders and Noam Chomsky congratulated her. Several commentators noted the similarities between Ocasio-Cortez's victory over Crowley and Dave Brat's Tea Party movement-supported 2014 victory over House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary for Virginia's 7th congressional district. Like Crowley, Cantor was a high-ranking member in his party's caucus. After her primary win, Ocasio-Cortez endorsed several progressive primary challengers to Democratic incumbents nationwide, capitalizing on her fame and spending her political capital in a manner unusual even for unexpected primary winners.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Without campaigning for it, Ocasio-Cortez won the Reform Party primary as a write-in candidate in a neighboring congressional district, New York's 15th, with a total vote count of nine, highest among all 22 write-in candidates. She declined the nomination.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez faced Republican nominee Anthony Pappas in the November 6 general election. Pappas, an economics professor, did not actively campaign. The 14th district has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+29, making it New York City's sixth-most Democratic district, with registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans almost six to one.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez was endorsed by various politically progressive organizations and figures, including former president Barack Obama and U.S. senator Bernie Sanders. She spoke at the Netroots Nation conference in August 2018, and was called "the undisputed star of the convention".


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Crowley remained on the ballot as the nominee of the Working Families Party (WFP) and the Women's Equality Party (WEP). Neither he nor the WFP party actively campaigned, both having endorsed Ocasio-Cortez after the Democratic primary. Ocasio-Cortez called the WEP, which Governor Cuomo created ahead of the 2014 New York gubernatorial election, a cynical, centrist group that endorsed male incumbents over female challengers like her and Cynthia Nixon. Former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman, who won reelection in 2006 on a third-party line after losing the Democratic Primary in 2006, penned a July 17 column in the "Wall Street Journal" expressing hope that Crowley would actively campaign on the WFP ballot line. WFP Executive Director Dan Cantor wrote an endorsement of, and apology to, Ocasio-Cortez for the "New York Daily News"; he asked voters not to vote for Crowley if his name remained on the general election ballot.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez won the election with 78% of the vote (110,318) to Pappas's 14% (17,762). Crowley, on the WFP and WEP lines, received 9,348 votes (6.6%). Her election was part of a broader Democratic victory in the 2018 midterm elections, as the party gained control of the House by picking up 41 seats. Saikat Chakrabarti, who had been her campaign co-chair, became chief of staff for her congressional office. Co-creator of two progressive political action committees, he has been called a significant political presence. His departure in 2019 drew considerable speculation as to whether Ocasio-Cortez was trying to implement a more moderate strategy.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: The first media network to give Ocasio-Cortez a platform and extensively cover her campaign and policies was "The Young Turks", a left-wing online news program. After her primary win, she quickly garnered nationwide media attention, including numerous articles and TV talk-show appearances. She also drew a great deal of media attention when she and Sanders campaigned for James Thompson in Kansas in July 2018. A rally in Wichita had to be moved from a theater with a capacity of 1,500 when far more people said they would attend. The event drew 4,000 people, with some seated on the floor. In "The New Yorker", Benjamin Wallace-Wells wrote that while Sanders remained "the de-facto leader of an increasingly popular left, [he is unable to] do things that do not come naturally to him, like supply hope." Wallace-Wells suggested that Ocasio-Cortez had made Sanders's task easier, as he could point to her success to show that ideas "once considered to be radical are now part of the mainstream".


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Until she defeated incumbent Joe Crowley in the 2018 Democratic primary, Ocasio-Cortez received little coverage on most traditional news media outlets. Jimmy Dore interviewed her when she first announced her candidacy in June 2017. After her primary win, Brian Stelter wrote that progressive-media outlets, such as "The Young Turks" and "The Intercept", "saw the Ocasio-Cortez upset coming" in advance. Margaret Sullivan wrote in "The Washington Post" that traditional metrics of measuring a campaign's viability, like total fundraising, were contributing to a "media failure" and that "they need to get closer to what voters are thinking and feeling: their anger and resentment, their disenfranchisement from the centers of power, their pocketbook concerns."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez's campaign was featured on the cover of the June 2018 edition of "The Indypendent", a free New York City-based monthly newspaper. In a tweet she hailed the cover appearance on "NYC's classic monthly" as an important breakthrough for her campaign. Otherwise Ocasio-Cortez was barely mentioned in print until her primary win.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez was one of the subjects of the 2018 Michael Moore documentary "Fahrenheit 11/9"; it chronicled her primary campaign.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In an attempt to embarrass Ocasio-Cortez just before she took office, Twitter user "AnonymousQ" shared a video dating to Ocasio-Cortez's college years: a Boston University student-produced dance video in which she briefly appeared. Many social media users came to her defense, inspiring memes and a Twitter account syncing the footage to songs like "Mambo No. 5" and "Gangnam Style". Ocasio-Cortez responded by posting a video of herself dancing to Edwin Starr's "War" outside her congressional office.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Elizabeth Warren wrote the entry on Ocasio-Cortez for 2019's "Time" 100. The documentary "Knock Down the House", directed by Rachel Lears, which focuses on four female Democrats in the 2018 United States elections who were not career politicians—Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush and Paula Jean Swearengin—premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Ocasio-Cortez was the only one of the women featured in the film to win. It was released by Netflix on May 1, 2019. Ocasio-Cortez also appeared in Lears's 2022 film "To the End", which focuses on the effects of climate change. The film debuted at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was presented at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2022.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Michelle Caruso-Cabrera challenged Ocasio-Cortez in the 2020 Democratic primary. After Ocasio-Cortez won the nomination, Caruso-Cabrera reorganized and ran in the general election as the Serve America Movement nominee. Ocasio-Cortez's Republican challengers in the general election included nominee John Cummings, a former police officer, and Antoine Tucker, a write-in candidate.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: The "American Prospect" wrote in October 2020 that Ocasio-Cortez was "spending the 2020 campaign running workshops" for constituents on workplace organizing, fighting eviction, and organizing collective childcare. They noted that Ocasio-Cortez was often not featured in the streamed workshops, saying the "strategy decentralizes the candidate from her own campaign."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: On October 20, 2020, Ocasio-Cortez hosted a Twitch stream of the social deduction game "Among Us", with fellow congresswoman Ilhan Omar, along with many established streamers such as Pokimane, Hasan Piker, DrLupo, and mxmtoon. The stream peaked with over 400,000 viewers and, according to "The Guardian" Joshua Rivera, succeeded in humanizing her. Ocasio-Cortez again streamed "Among Us" on Twitch on November 27, 2020, with Hasan Piker, xQc, ContraPoints and Canadian MP Jagmeet Singh to raise money for food pantries, eviction defense legal aid, and community support organizations to assist those suffering economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. The stream raised $200,000 and Ocasio-Cortez wrote, "This is going to make such a difference for those who need it most right now."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez was unopposed in the Democratic primary. She defeated Republican Tina Forte in the general election.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Taking office at age 29, Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress, and also the youngest member of the 116th Congress.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: When the 116th Congress convened on January 3, 2019, Ocasio-Cortez entered with no seniority but with a large social media presence. "Axios" credited her with "as much social media clout as her fellow freshman Democrats combined". , she has 12million Twitter followers, up from 1.4 million in November 2018 and surpassing Nancy Pelosi. She has 8.9 million Instagram followers as of January 2019 and 500,000 followers on Facebook as of February 2019. Her colleagues appointed her to teach them social media lessons upon her arrival in Congress. In early July 2019 two lawsuits were filed against her for blocking Joey Salads and Dov Hikind on Twitter in light of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that it was a violation of the First Amendment for President Trump to block people on Twitter. On November 4, 2019, it was announced that they settled the lawsuit with Ocasio-Cortez issuing a statement apologizing for the Twitter block.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In a 2019 interview, Ocasio-Cortez said she had stopped using her private Facebook account and was minimizing her usage of all social media accounts and platforms, calling them a "public health risk".


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In November 2018, on the first day of congressional orientation, Ocasio-Cortez participated in a climate change protest outside the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Also that month, she backed Pelosi's bid to be Speaker of the House once the Democratic Party reclaimed the majority on the condition that Pelosi "remains the most progressive candidate for speaker".


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: During the orientation for new members hosted by the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter in December 2018 about the influence of corporate interests by sponsors such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies: "Lobbyists are here. Goldman Sachs is here. Where's labor? Activists? Frontline community leaders?"


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: When Ocasio-Cortez made her first speech on the floor of Congress in January 2019, C-SPAN tweeted the video. Within 12 hours, the video of her four-minute speech set the record as C-SPAN's most-watched Twitter video by a member of the House of Representatives.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In February 2019, speaking at a Congressional hearing with a panel of representatives from campaign finance watchdog groups, Ocasio-Cortez questioned the panel about ethics regulations as they apply to both the president and members of Congress. She asserted that no regulations prevent lawmakers "from being bought off by wealthy corporations". With more than 37.5 million views, the clip became the most-watched political video posted on Twitter.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: When President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen appeared before the Oversight Committee in February 2019, Ocasio-Cortez asked him whether Trump had inflated property values for bank or insurance purposes and inquired where to get more information on the subject. Cohen's reply implied that Trump may have committed tax and bank fraud in his personal and business tax returns, financial statements and real-estate filings. The president of the American Constitution Society named Ocasio-Cortez as the committee member best at obtaining specific information from Cohen about Trump's "shady practices, along with a road map for how to find out more". "New York Times" columnist David Brooks praised her skill in questioning Cohen. The exchange between Ocasio-Cortez and Cohen prompted an investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who referred to it in August 2020 when filing legal action to compel Trump's companies to comply with subpoenas about financial information, and to compel his son Eric Trump to testify.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: According to reports in March 2019, Ocasio-Cortez continued to receive media coverage early in her congressional tenure on par with that of 2020 presidential candidates and was considered "one of the faces of the Democratic party" and one of the most talked-about politicians in the United States. Between July8 and 14, 2019, she drew more social media attention than the Democratic presidential candidates. Tracking company NewsWhip found that interactions with news articles on Ocasio-Cortez numbered 4.8 million, while no Democratic presidential candidate got more than 1.2 million. David Bauder of the Associated Press wrote that Trump's supporters were thus having "some success" in having "Ocasio-Cortez be top of mind when people think of" the Democratic Party.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: According to a Media Matters for America study, Ocasio-Cortez has been intensely discussed on sister television channels Fox News and Fox Business, being mentioned every day from February 25 to April 7, 2019, for a total of 3,181 mentions in 42 days (an average of around 75 per day). "The Guardian" David Smith wrote that this is evidence that Fox is "obsessed by Ocasio-Cortez, portraying her as a radical socialist who threatens the American way of life". Brian Stelter of CNN Business found that between January to July 2019, she had nearly three times as many mentions on Fox News as on CNN and MSNBC, and seven times the coverage of James Clyburn, a Democratic leader in the House of Representatives. Stelter wrote that the attention Ocasio-Cortez is receiving has caused "the perception, particularly on the right, that her positions and policies are representative of the Democratic Party as a whole". In a CBS News and YouGov poll of almost 2,100 American adults conducted from July 17 to 19, it was found that Republican respondents were more aware of Ocasio-Cortez than Democratic respondents. She had very unfavorable ratings among Republican respondents and favorable ratings among Democratic respondents.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In March 2019, "PolitiFact" reported that Ocasio-Cortez is "one of the most targeted politicians for hoax claims, despite the fact that she just entered Congress as a freshman". Fake quotes attributed to her, fake photos of her, and false rumors about her have spread on social media. Some of these have originated from 4chan and r/The_Donald. By July 2019, the fake material included attributing things Trump said to Ocasio-Cortez, such as "I have a very good brain and I've said lots of things." On July 18, 2019, Charlie Rispoli, a police officer from Gretna, posted on Facebook an apparent threat to shoot Ocasio-Cortez, calling her a "vile idiot" who "needs a round, and I don't mean the kind she used to serve" as a bartender. Rispoli posted the comment in response to a fake news article that falsely quoted Ocasio-Cortez as saying "We pay soldiers too much". A photo from the article also had the label "satire". Rispoli was fired for his post and his Facebook account was deleted.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez is known to wear red lipstick, usually by the American makeup brand Stila Cosmetics in the shade "Beso", as a style trait of Latina women from the Bronx. In a skincare tutorial for "Vogue", she explained that beauty and femininity are important to her because these things are often used against women in politics and society, and that self-love is like a "mini protest" against misogynistic critiques.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez attended the 2021 Met Gala, which had the theme "In America: a Lexicon of Fashion". The Met Gala is an annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art that is overseen by "Vogue" editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who selects every invitee and designer pairing. Ocasio-Cortez wore an organza gown emblazoned with the phrase "Tax the Rich". As an elected official in New York City she was considered a guest of the museum, and as such did not have to buy a ticket, which costs at least $35,000. The dress's designer, Aurora James, also invited her boyfriend Benjamin Bronfman, the son of a billionaire. Critics, both conservative and liberal, rebuked Ocasio-Cortez for attending an event where guests were not required to wear masks but event staff were and for attending an event known for its opulent display of wealth and social status. She responded that they were using a sexist double standard and that she "punctured the fourth wall of excess and spectacle." James also believed that the extremely wealthy people in attendance needed to see the message in person.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In September 2021, the American Accountability Foundation filed an ethics complaint against Ocasio-Cortez for attending the Met Gala. The AAF claimed that her attendance amounted to accepting an illegal gift since her estimated $35,000 ticket was paid for by Conde Nast, a for-profit company, not a charity. The event itself is a charitable fundraiser.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez is a member of an informal group of progressive members of Congress called "The Squad," along with Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman. On July 14, 2019, Trump attacked the Squad (which had only four members at the time) in a tweet, saying that they should "go back and help fix" the countries they came from rather than criticize the American government. He continued to make similar comments over the next several days, even though three of the women, including Ocasio-Cortez, were born in the United States. Ocasio-Cortez responded in a tweet that "the President's words [yesterday], telling four American Congresswomen of color 'go back to your own country' is hallmark language of white supremacists." She later added, "We don't leave the things that we love, and when we love this country, what that means is that we propose the solutions to fix it." Days later, Trump falsely asserted that Ocasio-Cortez called "our country and our people 'garbage'"; she had actually said that Americans should not be content with moderate policies that are "10% better from garbage". Trump also falsely claimed that Ocasio-Cortez said "illegal immigrants are more American" than Americans who tried to keep them out; she actually said that "women and children on that border that are trying to seek refuge and opportunity" in America "are acting more American" than those who tried to keep them out.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez submitted her first piece of legislation, the Green New Deal, to the House on February 7, 2019. She and Senator Ed Markey released a joint non-binding resolution laying out the main elements of a 10-year "economic mobilization" that would phase out fossil fuel use and overhaul the nation's infrastructure. Their plan called for implementing the "social cost of carbon" that was part of the Obama administration's plans to address climate change. In the process it aimed to create jobs and boost the economy. According to CNBC, an initial outline the Green New Deal called for "completely ditching fossil fuels, upgrading or replacing 'every building' in the country and 'totally overhaul[ing] transportation' to the point where 'air travel stops becoming necessary'". The outline set a goal of having the U.S. "creating 'net zero' greenhouse gases in 10 years. Why 'net zero'? The lawmakers explained: 'We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren't sure that we'll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.'" Activist groups such as Greenpeace and the Sunrise Movement came out in favor of the plan. No Republican lawmakers voiced support. The plan gained support from some Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker; other Democrats, such as Senator Dianne Feinstein and House speaker Nancy Pelosi, dismissed the proposal (Pelosi has referred to it as "the green dream, or whatever they call it").


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In what Democrats called a "stunt", Senate Republicans called for an early vote on the Green New Deal on March 26 without allowing discussion or expert testimony. Markey said Republicans were trying to "make a mockery" of the Green New Deal debate and called the vote a "sham". In protest, Senate Democrats voted "present" or against the bill, resulting in a 57–0 defeat on the Senate floor. In March 2019, a group of UK activists proposed that the Labour Party adopt a similar plan, "Labour for a Green New Deal". The group said it was inspired by the Sunrise Movement and the work Ocasio-Cortez has done in the US.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In November 2021, Representative Paul Gosar posted a version of the title sequence of the anime series "Attack on Titan" on social media that he had edited with the faces of Ocasio-Cortez, Joe Biden, and himself superimposed on the show's characters, depicting Gosar attacking them with swords and killing Ocasio-Cortez. Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for law enforcement and the House Ethics Committee to investigate it as a threat.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Pelosi opened discussion on the House floor saying that Gosar's actions demanded a response. "We cannot have members joking about murdering each other or threatening the president of the United States. This is both an indictment of our elected officials and an insult to the institution of the House of Representatives. It's not just about us as members of Congress. It is a danger that it represents to everyone in the country."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: When Republican House members refused to condemn the video, Ocasio-Cortez responded that she believed the video was "part of a pattern that normalizes violence", adding, "I believe this is a part of a concerted strategy and I think it's very important for us to draw a strict line a strong line for material consequence". She gave a six-minute floor speech, saying, "This is not about me. This is not about Representative Gosar. This is about what we're willing to accept." The House voted to censure Gosar, mostly along party lines. The last time the House censured a lawmaker was in 2010.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: On July 20, 2020, Republican representatives Ted Yoho and Roger Williams accosted Ocasio-Cortez on the steps of the Capitol, where Yoho (as overheard by a journalist) called her "disgusting" and told her, "You are out of your freaking mind" for recently suggesting that poverty and unemployment were driving a spike in crime in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic amid her ongoing advocacy for cutting police budgets. Ocasio-Cortez told Yoho he was being "rude". As Ocasio-Cortez walked away from Yoho into the Capitol, Yoho called her a "fucking bitch". Yoho and, without naming Ocasio-Cortez, apologized for the "abrupt manner of the conversation" with her, claiming that "offensive name calling, words attributed to me by the press, were never spoken to my colleagues", and concluding: "I cannot apologize for my passion". Ocasio-Cortez with a speech stating that the incident was emblematic of a "culture ... accepting of violence and violent language against women ... In using that language, in front of the press, he gave permission to use that language against his wife, his daughters, women in his community, and I am here to stand up to say that is not acceptable."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In April 2020, Ocasio-Cortez was one of 77 representatives to call for public reports of data regarding COVID-19 cases in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. In March 2021, Ocasio-Cortez and Representative Jamaal Bowman called for New York governor Andrew Cuomo to resign, citing the sexual misconduct allegations against him, as well as the New York COVID-19 nursing home scandal about the Cuomo administration's reported undercounting of COVID-19 nursing home deaths.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In a nearly 90-minute Instagram Live video made in February 2021, Ocasio-Cortez said that she had previously experienced sexual assault, and recounted her experience of fear during the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, when she was in her office (in the Cannon House Office Building). She said she had hidden in her office bathroom before being startled by a Capitol Police officer who entered her office suite and shouted "Where is she?" before ordering her and her staff to evacuate to a different House Office Building. Ocasio-Cortez said the officer did not self-identify, and said she first believed the officer's voice was that of an attacker. She described sheltering in place in Representative Katie Porter's office and preparing for what she believed would be an assault by rioters on their offices. She said, "I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez reacted to the 2021 Texas power crisis by organizing a fundraiser to provide food, water, and shelter to affected Texans. The fundraiser, which began on February 18, raised $2million in its first day and $5million by February 21. The money went to organizations such as the Houston Food Bank and the North Texas Food Bank. Ocasio-Cortez also traveled to Houston to help volunteers with recovery.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: On April 15, 2021, Ocasio-Cortez and three other senators called a press conference to announce a bill that they had introduced to implement postal banking pilot programs in rural and low-income urban neighborhoods where millions of households cannot access or afford standard banking services. Ocasio-Cortez described the families she sees in her urban community who need to rely on check cashing companies that charge exorbitant interest rates due to the absence of mainstream banks. "They'll show up to a check cashing place and imagine cashing your stimulus check...and having 10 to 20% of that check taken away from you."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: On November 5, 2021, Ocasio-Cortez was one of six House Democrats to break with their party and vote against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as it was decoupled from the social safety net provisions in the Build Back Better Act.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In September 2022, in an interview for a feature article in GQ, Ocasio-Cortez was asked about her future and running for president. She said, "I hold two contradictory things [in mind] at the same time. One is just the relentless belief that anything is possible. But at the same time, my experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women. And they hate women of color. People ask me questions about the future. And realistically, I can't even tell you if I'm going to be alive in September [of 2022]. And that weighs very heavily on me. And it's not just the right wing. Misogyny transcends political ideology: left, right, center."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and embraces the democratic socialist label as part of her political identity. In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press", she described democratic socialism as "part of what I am. It's not all of what I am. And I think that that's a very important distinction." In response to a question about democratic socialism ultimately calling for an end to capitalism during a "Firing Line" interview on PBS, she answered: "Ultimately, we are marching towards progress on this issue. I do think that we are going to see an evolution in our economic system of an unprecedented degree, and it's hard to say what direction that that takes." Later at a conference she said "To me, capitalism is irredeemable."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez supports progressive policies such as single-payer Medicare for All, tuition-free public college and trade school, a federal job guarantee, the cancellation of all $1.6trillion of outstanding student debt, guaranteed family leave, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ending the privatization of prisons, enacting gun-control policies, and energy policy relying on 100% renewables. She told Anderson Cooper that she favors policies that "most closely resemble what we see in the UK, in Norway, in Finland, in Sweden".


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential election and appeared with him at speaking engagements. Campaign rallies she attended with him drew the largest crowds of any presidential rally. On January 25, she joined Michael Moore to fill in for Sanders at a rally at the University of Iowa while Sanders was attending the Senate's Trump impeachment trial.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez is open to using Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), a heterodox economic theory with little support among mainstream academics, as an economic pathway to fund and enable implementation of her policy goals.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In September 2019, Ocasio-Cortez introduced an anti-poverty policy proposal (packaged in a bundle called "A Just Society") that would take into account the cost of childcare, health care, and "new necessities" like Internet access when measuring poverty. The proposal would cap annual rent increases and ensure access to social welfare programs for people with convictions and undocumented immigrants. According to the U.S. census, about 40million Americans live in poverty.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In late 2020, Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib proposed a public banking bill to encourage creation of state and local public banks by giving them access to facilities from the Federal Reserve and setting national guidelines on public banking.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: In April 2021, Ocasio-Cortez announced a bill that she and three other senators had introduced to implement postal banking pilot programs in rural and low-income urban neighborhoods where millions of households cannot access or afford standard banking services.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez has been a vocal supporter of labor rights, including a $15 per hour federal minimum wage. In May 2019, she returned to bartending at the Queensboro Restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens, to promote the Raise the Wage Act, which would increase the minimum hourly wage for restaurant servers and other tipped workers from $2.13 to $15. Speaking to restaurant workers, customers and reporters, she criticized an exemption in U.S. minimum wage law for restaurants and the service sector that allows them to be paid less than $7.25 per hour, saying, "Any job that pays $2.13 per hour is not a job, it is indentured servitude."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: On January 20, 2021, Ocasio-Cortez skipped the inauguration of Joe Biden in order to join the 2021 Hunts Point Produce Market strike in the Bronx.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez has proposed a marginal tax as high as 70% on income above $10million to pay for the Green New Deal. According to tax experts contacted by "The Washington Post", this tax would bring in extra revenue of $720billion per decade. Ocasio-Cortez has opposed and voted against the pay-as-you-go rule supported by Democratic leaders, which requires deficit-neutral fiscal policy, with all new expenditures balanced by tax increases or spending cuts. She and Representative Ro Khanna have condemned the rule for hamstringing new or expanded progressive policies. She cites Modern Monetary Theory as a justification for higher deficits to finance her agenda. Drawing a parallel with the Great Depression, she has argued that the Green New Deal needs deficit spending like the original New Deal.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez opposed a planned deal by New York City to give Amazon.com $3 billion in state and city subsidies and tax breaks to build a secondary headquarters (Amazon HQ2) in an area near her congressional district, saying that the city should instead itself invest $3 billion in the district. Some commentators criticized her remarks on the grounds that she did not understand tax breaks are discounts on money paid to, not by, the government, that "New York does not have $3 billion in cash" it would "give" to Amazon, and that between 25,000 and 40,000 new jobs, in addition to the high-paying tech jobs Amazon would have created, disappeared when Amazon left. Conservative columnist Marc Thiessen argued that "her economic illiteracy is dangerous" because "by helping to drive Amazon away, she did not save New York $3 billion; she cost New York $27 billion."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez has called for "more environmental hardliners in Congress", calling climate change "the single biggest national security threat for the United States and the single biggest threat to worldwide industrialized civilization". Referring to a recent United Nations report indicating that the effects of climate change could become irreversible unless carbon emissions are reined in within the next 12 years, she has argued that global warming must be addressed immediately to avert human extinction.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez's environmental plan, the Green New Deal, advocates for the U.S. to transition to an electrical grid running on 100% renewable energy and to end the use of fossil fuels within ten years. The changes, estimated to cost roughly $2.5trillion per year, would be financed in part by higher taxes on the wealthy. She has said she has an "open mind" about nuclear power's role in the Green New Deal, but has been criticized for ignoring it in her proposals for the deal.


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez criticized the American companies Activision Blizzard and Apple for censoring pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. She co-signed a letter to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick that read, "As China amplifies its campaign of intimidation, you and your company must decide whether to look beyond the bottom line and promote American values—like freedom of speech and thought—or to give in to Beijing's demands in order to preserve market access."


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: A bipartisan letter by Ocasio-Cortez and seven other lawmakers fiercely criticized the NBA's handling of a controversy involving a tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. The lawmakers wrote that the NBA's response not only "sold out an American citizen" but also "reinforces the Chinese Communist Party view that those who point to Chinese repression in Hong Kong are as best stating opinions, not facts", as well as being "a betrayal of fundamental American values".


title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

text: Ocasio-Cortez voted to withdraw U.S. military aid for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. She criticized President Trump's administration for escalating tensions with Iran, saying that it would bring the country into a "military conflict that is completely irresponsible".