--- description: The late poet told TIME last year that rap music kept her optimistic about the future of poetry title: Maya Angelou Inspired Rappers and Hip-Hop: Tupac, Kanye West, Common image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8e96a3ac5fa89f5/6986910f3617608f0190c308/maya-angelou-common.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # A Brief History of How Maya Angelou Influenced Hip Hop  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 28, 2014 6:02 PM CUT  Common greets Maya Angelou at a garden party at Angelou's home in 2010. Common greets Maya Angelou at a garden party at Angelou's home in 2010.Nell Redmond—AP  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 28, 2014 6:02 PM CUT The renowned poet Maya Angelou, who died at age 86 today, was a major inspiration to the hip-hop community — Wu Tang Clan, Mary J. Blige and mogul Russell Simmons are among [the celebrities who mourned her death on Twitter today](http://time.com/123133/maya-angelou-tweets/ "undefined"). But Angelou’s relationship with rap runs deeper than just a few memorial tweets. Tupac Shakur’s posthumous 1999 release _Still I Rise_ (released as 2Pac+Outlawz) borrowed its title from Angelou’s poem of the same name; the rapper and the poet met on the set of the 1993 movie _Poetic Justice_, an experience that brought him to tears, [as Angelou once told it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os6Sl6SORqk "undefined"): --- > “” --- “Still I Rise” was also the title of a track on Nicki Minaj’s 2009 mixtape, _Beam Me Up Scotty_. Though the rapstress doesn’t name-check Angelou specifically, her lyrics about continually overcoming hardship match the themes of Angelou’s poem. There are plenty of others who do mention her explicitly, however: As [_XXL_ also points out](http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2014/05/15-rap-songs-maya-angelou/ "undefined"), Angelou is referenced in a number of songs by Nas, Wale, Danny Brown, Lupe Fiasco, Jean Grae and The Roots. Kanye West, too, has referenced Angelou throughout his career. The recently married rapper mentioned her on a 2002 remix of Talib Kweli’s [“Get By”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItWuyCGyxS0 "undefined") and on [“Hey Mama”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZXlnJ5o63g "undefined") from 2005’s _Late Registration_. He also cited her as an inspiration alongside other greats in a [2010 blog post](http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.10369/title.kanye-west-speaks-on-new-outlook "undefined") written several months before he released _My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy_: --- > “” --- Common took his appreciation of the poet one step further by collaborating with her on his 2011 song, “The Dreamer,” which features Angelou reciting a poem toward the end of the track. (Similarly, Kendrick Lamar uses a recording of her voice on[ “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntSfUZx0zWE&feature=kp "undefined") from _good kid, m.A.A.d city_.) Angelou, however, wasn’t thrilled with Common’s final product: She told the New York _Post_ that she was [“surprised and disappointed”](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/maya-angelou-says-shes-disappointed-with-common-after-collaboration/ "undefined") by Common’s use of the N-word on the song, which she hadn’t been warned about. “I don’t know why he chose to do that,” she said. “I had never heard him use that \[word\] before. I admired him so because he wasn’t singing the line of least resistance.” Later, Angelou called into the BET program _106 & Park_ to clarify her feelings on the matter: --- > “” --- Angelou believed that rap music was a portal for youth to discover poetry. As she put it [in one old interview](http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ang0int-8 "undefined"): “Take ‘A Negro Love Song’ by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Mr. Dunbar wrote this poem in 1892\. It could have been written last week for Queen Latifah, or M.C. Hammer or L.L. Cool J or whoever they are.” Last year, [talking with TIME](http://time.com/123087/10-questions-with-maya-angelou/ "undefined"), Angelou said she was optimistic about the future of poetry. “All I have to do is listen to hip-hop or some of the rappers.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/125901/maya-angelou-rap-hip-hop/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/125901/maya-angelou-rap-hip-hop/"},"headline":"A Brief History of How Maya Angelou Influenced Hip Hop","datePublished":"2014-05-28T18:02:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:05:14.989Z","description":"The late poet told TIME last year that rap music kept her optimistic about the future of poetry","url":"https://time.com/125901/maya-angelou-rap-hip-hop/","keywords":["Music","Hip-Hop","Maya Angelou"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8e96a3ac5fa89f5/6986910f3617608f0190c308/maya-angelou-common.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8e96a3ac5fa89f5/6986910f3617608f0190c308/maya-angelou-common.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Common greets Maya Angelou at a garden party at Angelou's home in 2010.","caption":"Common greets Maya Angelou at a garden party at Angelou's home in 2010.","creditText":"Nell Redmond—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/125901/maya-angelou-rap-hip-hop/","name":"A Brief History of How Maya Angelou Influenced Hip Hop"}}]}] ```