Hip-hop, gangsta rap and
crime
1
Key issues
• How far negative attitudes towards rap are really
negative attitudes towards black people
• Denigration of black cultural forms
• The social context of rap/hip hop- inequality,
racism, etc.
• Commercial interests
• Moral panics about popular culture
• The problem of ‘effects’
2
Origins of hip hop
• NY dance and party
culture of 1970s –
encompassing
poetry, dance,
performance, visual
art, multimedia,
fashion and attitude
• Hip hop has been
one of the most
influential cultural
trends in the last 30
years
3
Social context
• Conservative politics of Reagan-Bush
era
• Welfare cuts, tax changes, deterioration
in living conditions and opportunities for
poor blacks
• Rise of crime, teen pregnancies, AIDs
and urban violence
• Widening social differences and
divisions
4
Political function of rap
• Microphone seen as
symbol of power –
reclaiming of words –
rejecting terms
accepted by white
culture which
euphemise the actual
conditions faced by
blacks
• Protest - calls attention
to the problems of
police violence and
widespread racism and
tacit segregation 5
"Where Is The Love?"
Overseas, yeah, we try to stop
terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin'
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the
KKK
But if you only have love for your
own race
Then you only leave space to
discriminate
And to discriminate only generates
hate
And when you hate then you're bound
to get irate, yeah
Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me
questionin‘
Where is the love (Love)? 6
Best and Kellner
Rap is, at best:
• A powerful indictment of racism, oppression
and violence
• A positive valorisation of blackness
• A voice for a social group excluded from
mainstream communication
• A resource for groups struggling for justice
and liberation
• A potential wake-up call to African-Americans
and others
• “the great refusal” - Marcuse
7
Rise of ‘gangsta
rap’
• West Coast competition
• Upped the ante – more
extreme
• East Coast responded in
kind
• High profile shootings
• Boundaries between art
and life became blurred
• Driven by business
imperatives
8
Specific attributes of ‘gangsta
rap’?
• Uses crude terminology to refer to
women or female anatomy
• Professes sexual prowess and
domination
• Glorifies gang activity
• Expresses hatred, dislike or
frustration with law enforcement
• Brags about the use of firearms
• Celebrates the use of drugs
• Encourages criminal activity
• Portrays a prison sentence as a
routine, expected fact of life
Russell-Brown (2004:36)
9
Best and Kellner on gansta rap
At worst:
• It is itself racist, sexist and glorifies
violence
• Reproduces problematic images of black
man as outlaw, pimp, hedonistic
pleasure seeker and drug dealer (the
bad buck stereotype)
• A money-making vehicle that is part of
the problem rather than the solution
10
Commercialisation
• Market forces drives hip hop rather than
commitment to some essential truth
• Largest audience for rap is white suburban
youth (wiggers) where the dominant norms
are consumerism and careerism
• Market demand for ever more shocking and
provocative products
• Gangsta rap as cornerstone of multi-billion
dollar market
• Alienation occurs when something human is
taken from us and commodified – sold back
to us
• Corporate involvement 11
The ‘threat’ of hip hop
• Just a small part of a society which places sex
and violence at the centre of its media culture
and which uses violence to defend elite
interests
• Henry Louis Gates Jr.: The rappers take the
white western culture’s worst fear of black
men and make a game out of it.
• Rage directed at own people and other
oppressed groups, reinforcing own
oppression and subordination
• Gives ammunition to racists
12
Attacks on hip hop
• History of attack from establishment – police,
conservative activists , head of congress of
black women; church leaders, etc. – their
political and social prominence guaranteed
airtime for their complaints
• Parents’ Music Resource Center (PMRC)
looked at lyrics of rap and heavy metal
• Tendency to confuse all rap with gangsta rap
• Hypothesis: “does violent rap perpetuates
violence?”
13
Links between rap and crime
• Public perception of strong link
• Pervasiveness of hip hop culture
• Prevalence – many cannot distinguish
between gangsta rap and other forms
• Criminal records of some key figures
• Valorisation of anti-authoritarian
attitudes
• Visual portrayal of macho posturing
14
Has gangsta rap caused London
riots?
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14513517
16
I gave her a push, I Early one mornin' while makin' “I didn’t come
gave her a shove. the rounds
here to start a
I took a shot of cocaine and
shot my woman down fight, but I’m
I pushed with all my
I went right home and I went to up for
might, I pushed with
bed anything
all my love. I stuck that lovin' forty-four tonight. You
beneath my head.
know you
I through my child
Got up next mornin' and I broke the
into a bottomless pit.
grabbed that gun wrong heart,
Took a shot of cocaine and baby, and
She was screaming as away I run drove me …
she fell, but I never Made a good run but I run too
crazy.”
heard her hit. slow
They overtook me down in
Juarez Mexico. (Song about
(Song about child
(Song about domestice domestic
abuse) violence and murder) violence)
17
NAME THE ARTISTS
Tyler Farr
Top 10 in 2013 – “redneck
crazy”
Violent
Femmes, came
21 in the best
albums of the
80s. Still very
popular.
18
Official responses
• Latest in history of moral panics
• Bans and boycotts
• Congressional Hearings
• FBI investigations
• Withdrawal of corporate investment
• BUT VERY LITTLE RESEARCH
19
Brandon Duncan (aka Tiny Doo)
May face 25 years in prison for violent
lyrics; however, he has no criminal record,
never been involved in a gang activity and 20
has no association with a gang.
Research findings
Gardstrom (1999)
• Found no significant link between exposure to
rap music and criminal behaviour
Barongan and Nagayama (1995)
• Found link between listening to misogynist
rap and preference for watching sexual
violence – but no link to actually doing it
Fischoff (1999)
• Found link between public perception of
criminality and use of rap music
21
Consequences of stereotypes
• Reyna et al, 2009: responsibility stereotypes
• Negative attitudes to rap coincided with
negative attitudes towards black people, e.g.,
that Blacks are responsible for negative life
outcomes, have lower levels of innate ability,
and do not suffer discrimination
• Opposition to policies that benefit black
people, even those who do not conform to
rap stereotypes
22
What are they afraid of?
• Easier to demonise black youth than to
examine the social context from which hip
hop comes
• Reactivates old stereotypes and fears
• Rap portrayed as dangerous to society while
heavy metal tends to be portrayed as only
dangerous to the listener
• Rush to judge, without evidence, says as
much about mainstream fears and prejudices
as it does about the music
• Thomas Kockman: rap may actually reduce
violence 23
Gangsta rap as ‘myth’
• Fictional names
• Symbolic battles
• Two choices – reject the stereotype or live it
and/or parody it
• Shock value
• Frustrations taken out on ‘enemies’ without
consequences
• Convenient way to legitimize existing
stereotypes and intolerance
24
• What is grime?
• How and why is grime criminalised?
• How does consumerism factor into overall
growth of gangsta rap?
• The use of videos and lyrics as evidence
within CJS is a troubling practice – why?
• Does drill music drive knife crime?
25
