Combining what is written with what is performed, rap music challenges official histories and aims to gather both historical and current information as part of a larger process of ‘disseminating’ a new history of African-American peoples. In giving voice to those otherwise rendered silent, rap hopes to ‘fight the power’ with words and music that voice issues, experiences, and views that are silenced in mainstream mediums of expression, making it a vital participant in a Foucauldian ‘insurrection of subjugated knowledges.’ Rap uses its status as subjugated knowledge to put itself on the frontline of combating US cultural amnesia and create a sound that, through its embrace and mastery of sonic technologies, moves swiftly and loudly into the future.