Throughout history, music has been an outlet for people of African descent to express themselves and tell their stories. Music was a way of describing the struggles they faced as well as the beauty in the struggle. Work songs have dated all the way back to the eighteenth century, during slavery, as not only a means of occupying the mind while conducting a task but also to project hope for the future. During that time, most work songs included lyrics about the oppression they faced and the tasks they had to complete per their slave owner. Moving into the 50s and 60s, work songs reflected shouts of protests and the change that would transpire as segregation came to end. In today’s society, work songs have done a complete 180, and have transformed in order to reflect the experiences of the artist. Popular artists such as Future, have created work songs reminiscent of their illegal pharmaceutical past. Rap and recently formed Trap music has reflected the narrative of a rough side of African American living, to which many people with checkered pasts can relate to. Music is important because it doesn’t invalidate or judge the experiences of others, rather it creates and sustains the oral history of the people creating it.