1. Bibliography
1.1. "Alright." To Pimp a Butterfly, performance by Kendrick Lamar, Top Dawg Entertainment, 2015. Bradley, Regina. Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip Hop South. N.p.: The University of North Carolina Press, 2021 "Hands On." Jesus is King, performances by Kanye West and Fred Hammond, GOOD; Def Jam, 2019. McCann, Bryan J. The Mark of Criminality: Rhetoric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-on-Crime Era. 2017, p. 1-34. "Trapped." 2Pacalypse Now, performance by Tupac Shakur, Interscope Records, 1991.
2. Paragraph 4: In Hip Hop
2.1. Songs
2.1.1. “Trapped” by 2Pac
2.1.1.1. Lyrics
2.1.1.1.1. “I changed my name, played a different game Tired of being trapped in this vicious cycle If one more cop harasses me, I just might go psycho”
2.1.1.1.2. “They got me trapped, can barely walk the city streets Without a cop harasskin' me, searching me, then askin' my identity Hands up, throw me up against the wall, didn't do a thing at all I'm telling you one day these suckers gotta fall Cuffed up, throw me on the concrete Coppers try to kill me, but they didn't know this was the wrong street Bang bang, count another casualty But it's a cop who's shot for his brutality”
2.1.1.2. Analysis
2.1.1.2.1. “Trapped” by Tupac explores the topic of police brutality, specifically in his hometown of Oakland, and his first hand experience with the corrupt police department. Further adding to the message of the track, Tupac was assaulted by law enforcement officers around a month after the song debuted. This amplified the discussion around police brutality around the country but especially in Oakland. Tupac uses slang from his hometown about police brutality, such as “harasskin’ me”, a phrase coined from police officers asking unnecessary and confrontational questions to innocent people in order to provoke a reaction, and thus a reason for an arrest.
2.1.2. “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar
2.1.2.1. Lyrics
2.1.2.1.1. “What you want you, a house? You, a car? 40 acres and a mule? A piano, a guitar? Anything, see my name is Lucy, I'm your dog Motherfucker, you can live at the mall”
2.1.2.1.2. “And we hate po-po Wanna kill us dead in the street for sure, n-- I'm at the preacher's door My knees gettin' weak and my gun might blow But we gon' be alright”
2.1.2.2. Analysis
2.1.2.2.1. A lot of Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly” explores the issue of the treatment of black people in the United States. Kendrick references the Special Field Order No. 15 of 1865, which black people would for receive reparations from slavery. Kendrick points out how laughable this solution or “reparation” is, and how these “freedoms” actually just enforce consumerism.
2.1.2.2.2. Kendrick Lamar’s track “Alright” discusses a lot of aspects wrong with the United States and its relationship with black peoples. It discusses the facts of police brutality and the effects it has on the black community through generations. The song analyzes how these tragedies can make daily life unbearable and how it can shake the faith of an individual.
2.1.3. “Hands On” by Kanye West
2.1.3.1. Lyrics
2.1.3.1.1. “Got pulled over, see the brights What you doin' on the street at night? Wonder if they're gonna read your rights Thirteenth Amendment, three strikes Made a left when I should've made a right”
2.1.3.2. Analysis
2.1.3.2.1. “Hands On” by Kanye West discusses police brutality and faith, similar to “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar. The track sees Kanye detailing a visual of an unfair traffic stop and how these situations actually help him get closer to God in an effort to find meaning in the senseless tragedy. Kanye also talks about the 13th Amendment, which has been deemed a form of modern slavery by many in the modern age, as it amplifies and encourages forced labor in prisons. Kanye talks about the modern forms of persecution of black people and compares them to those from the earlier years of the country, drawing comparisons and telling the listener we’re not actually far from where we started as a country.
3. Paragraph 1: Mark of Criminality
3.1. Quotes
3.1.1. “While the United States has always, to one degree or another, waged war against crime, the period comprising the late 1980s and 1990s was a watershed of racialized moral panic regarding the perceived threats that criminality posed to civil society” (McCann 1)
3.1.2. “Studies of capital punishment reveal that cases involving white victims are significantly more likely to result in a death sentence than those involving a minority victim, suggesting that prosecutors and juries are less sympathetic toward victims of color” (McCann 2)
3.1.3. “While gangsta rap became one of the most widely consumed and controversial musical genres of the twentieth century by drawing on many of the same themes that prevailed in mainstream law- and- order discourses, its artists revised many of these themes to suit their own ends” (McCann 4)
3.2. Analysis
3.2.1. The United States has always needed a scapegoat. This has been the case since its inception, and people of color have always been at the receiving end of this unfortunate trend. Every scapegoat needs a visual. In the case of the 20th century’s moral panic and fear of crime, the most blamed individuals were black people. The black community was falsely assigned the label of contributing greatly, or even entirely, to the crime trends in the country at the time. Since the country was just barely beginning to explore civil rights for black people, making them out to be bad actors in the country had no moral issue in their eyes.
3.2.2. Anything deemed “black” was also deemed dangerous. This is clear from the perception of hip hop at the time. Beliefs that the genre is inherently violent or over sexualized come from these being taboo and immoral values of the time in the eyes of white people. Assigning stereotypes of violence and classlessness to hip hop furthered and provided “evidence” for their prejudiced beliefs.
4. Paragraph 2: Political and Cultural Impact
4.1. Quotes
4.1.1. “This cultural politics of law and order delivered staggering electoral fortunes to those officials who staked their political capital on their predominantly white voting base’s fears of a savage, racialized criminal threat” (McCann 1)
4.1.2. “While politicians and culture warriors relied on a bricolage of campaign speeches and commercials, popular culture, and legislation to advance their tough- on- crime agendas, hip- hop artists who traded in gangsta rap set rhymes to beats to weave sensationalistic tales of crime in the inner city” (McCann 3)
4.1.3. "Hip-hop was my means of personal and cultural transition into being southern. Not until a decade later would I find the language to articulate—or recognize— that my fondness of southern hip- hop and OutKast was a segue into the larger question of where the South fit into not only hip- hop culture but contemporary American society in general" (Bradley 4)
4.1.4. "The black American South seldom has room to expand past three major historical touchstones: the antebellum era, Jim Crow, and the modern civil rights movement. Non- southerners take comfort and plea sure in being able to restrict black identities to these markers of southernness because of their accessible narratives, romanticization in mainstream American culture, and lagging agency outside of a white imagination. In the same way that the American South embraces being a regional poltergeist, living with and benefiting from the haunts of the past, southern black folks too are haunted by white people" (Bradley 4)
4.2. Analysis
4.2.1. The idea of black people being a perceived threat to national security was a huge talking point for politicians from all sides of the spectrum. Uniting against a common enemy is the best way to get people to come together under one belief or figurehead - people love to hate and if you give them validity in that hatred, they will follow you. So, uniting in the face of “criminality”, or in reality: innocent black people, allowed for political leverage with largely white voter bases.
5. Paragraph 3: Ch.2 Parody, Space, and Violence
5.1. Quotes
5.1.1. “However, the governor’s campaign sustained an irreparable blow when a conservative political action committee aired its ‘Weekend Passes’ ad. The television spot told the story of Willie Horton, an African American prisoner released in 1986 on a weekend furlough in Massachusetts while Dukakis was governor” (McCann 34)
5.1.2. “The ad used a blue background, white text, and still photographs of Bush, Dukakis, and Horton. After distinguishing Bush’s pro- death-penalty stance from Dukakis’s opposition to the sanction, the segment reveals an ominous picture of Horton and describes his original incarceration for murder. The male narrator—speaking in a deep, stern voice—explains how Horton used his furlough to kidnap a young couple, “stabbing the man and repeatedly raping his girlfriend.” The words “Kidnapping,” “Stabbing,” and “Raping” appear on the screen below Horton’s image in cadence with the narrator’s lurid account of the horrific night.” (McCann 34)
5.2. Analysis
5.2.1. There’s no better testament to the prejudice against black people than Bush’s “Weekend Passes” political advertisements. Using visuals of black people and examples of real life individuals, the candidate vowed to be harsh on crime and be pro death penalty. Effectively, the term criminal and the visual of black people were synonymous. The framing of the black community as violent and dangerous people and vowing to be harsh on them, political leverage was gained rapidly via validating underlying hate that was already deep within the country.