Conscious hip hop or socially conscious hip-hop is a sub-genre of hip hop that focuses on social issues. Themes of conscious hip hop include religion, aversion to crime & violence, culture, the economy, or simple depictions the struggles of ordinary people.
The audience for artists who consistently produce conscious rap is largely underground. However mainstream artists are increasingly including elements of conscious hip-hop in their songs. There are hundreds of artists whose music could be described as "political": see the List of political hip hop artists page for a partial list.