Fuck Tha Police: an Analysis of the Role of Hip-Hop in the Los Angeles Riots of 1992
Plan of Investigation
It is through Gangsta Rap subgenre of Hip-Hop, that the question: “What were the underlying cultural reasons for the Los Angeles Riots of 1992?” can be answered. This paper will examine rap lyrics from prominent Los Angeles Hip-Hop acts in order to investigate the deteriorating rapport between the city’s oft-biased police department and the city’s increasingly restless black urban youth, from the perspective of the latter group. These lyrics will be juxtaposed with statements various accounts of events involving racially motivated police actions, in order to assess their validity. In doing so, it is shown that hip-hop reveals the problematic culture of aggression that led to the riots-- the militant mindset of both the LAPD and the young inner-city African American community, and the increasingly antagonistic and violent relationship between the two.
Word Count (132)
Summary of Evidence
In the late 1980s, the hip-hop subgenre known as Gangsta Rap, which focused on the oft-violent lifestyles found in the poverty-ridden inner cities, emerged as a phenomenon.. The participants in the Gangsta Rap scene were not third person observers of the situations they depicted; the majority of these rappers were minorities and came from low-income backgrounds. If a rapper was not from the ‘hood’ he commanded no respect, and if he rapped about things he had never been through, he instantaneously lost all credibility. Songs were written in the first person, and subject matter came from personal experience. In the words of Ice-T, who is widely recognized as one of the forefathers of the genre , the goal of Gangsta Rap was to provide “street-level journalism, real-life observations told in poetry” . And at its best, it was successful in doing so. Its ability to inform the marginalized black youth about the problems plaguing their community led politically driven rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy to credit rap as the “Black folk’s CNN” . And its ability to
It is through Gangsta Rap subgenre of Hip-Hop, that the question: “What were the underlying cultural reasons for the Los Angeles Riots of 1992?” can be answered. This paper will examine rap lyrics from prominent Los Angeles Hip-Hop acts in order to investigate the deteriorating rapport between the city’s oft-biased police department and the city’s increasingly restless black urban youth, from the perspective of the latter group. These lyrics will be juxtaposed with statements various accounts of events involving racially motivated police actions, in order to assess their validity. In doing so, it is shown that hip-hop reveals the problematic culture of aggression that led to the riots-- the militant mindset of both the LAPD and the young inner-city African American community, and the increasingly antagonistic and violent relationship between the two.
Word Count (132)
Summary of Evidence
In the late 1980s, the hip-hop subgenre known as Gangsta Rap, which focused on the oft-violent lifestyles found in the poverty-ridden inner cities, emerged as a phenomenon.. The participants in the Gangsta Rap scene were not third person observers of the situations they depicted; the majority of these rappers were minorities and came from low-income backgrounds. If a rapper was not from the ‘hood’ he commanded no respect, and if he rapped about things he had never been through, he instantaneously lost all credibility. Songs were written in the first person, and subject matter came from personal experience. In the words of Ice-T, who is widely recognized as one of the forefathers of the genre , the goal of Gangsta Rap was to provide “street-level journalism, real-life observations told in poetry” . And at its best, it was successful in doing so. Its ability to inform the marginalized black youth about the problems plaguing their community led politically driven rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy to credit rap as the “Black folk’s CNN” . And its ability to