I the PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS

THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE

SCHOOL OF BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

LISTENING TO REALITY: HOW ‘90S HIP-HOP ENGAGED WITH SOCIAL ISSUES

JAMIRCA NUESI SPRING 2020

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for baccalaureate degrees in Criminal Justice and Sociology with honors in Criminology

Reviewed and approved* by the following:

Adam Gustafson Ph.D. Associate Teaching Professor of Music, School of Humanities Thesis Supervisor

Jennifer Gibbs Ph.D. Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, School of Public Affairs Thesis Honor Advisor

* Signatures are on file in the Schreyer Honors College

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the world of Hip-Hop and major social issues during the 1990s. Using a variety of data sets, research, creative works, and primary sources, this study seeks to understand how Hip-Hop engaged with topics such as criminality, death, drug use, education, and poverty, and how that engagement helped to shape America’s perception of those issues.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ...... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... v Literature Review...... 1 Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 5 Chapter 2: Crack and Hip-Hop ...... 11 Chapter 3: Criminality and Hip-Hop ...... 18 Chapter 4: Death and Hip-Hop ...... 27 Chapter 5: Education and Hip-Hop...... 34 Chapter 6: Poverty and Hip-Hop ...... 40 Conclusion ...... 43 References ...... 45

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Death Rates of Young Males...... 29

Figure 2: Dropout Rates (Ages 16-24)...... 35

Figure 3: Employment Rates for Recent High School Graduates vs. Dropouts ...... 36

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Adam Gustafson and Jennifer Gibbs for helping me throughout this journey! I would also like to thank Ralph Godbolt. Through his passion for academia and Hip-Hop, I was able to see the vision of putting this thesis together.

Last but not least, I would like to thank David Witwer and Stephanie Ponnett for their dedication to the honor’s students. This is also dedicated to all the people who share the same opinion as Reverend Calvin Butts about Hip-Hop, I hope this paper changes your mind. If you are new to Hip-Hop and do not get the reference, listen to the intro of

“Thuggish Ruggish Bone” by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.

Literature Review

As a central figure in rap during the 1990s, Tupac Shakur’s music was part of an artistic tradition that wanted to do more than entertain. Shakur represents a major shift in

Hip-Hop that began in the late 1980s and 1990s. This new sound, which was developed by groups such as Public Enemy and N.W.A., was meant to educate and engage listeners with social issues that were plaguing the black community during the 1990s. For example, in 1991, Shakur released the song “Soulja Story.”

They cuttin off welfare/ Think they crime is risin’ now/ You got whites killin

blacks Cops killin blacks/ And blacks killin blacks/ Shit just gonna get worse/

They just gonna become souljas Straight souljas (Vaught, 2014)

This song is one of many that show Shakur’s willingness to use his music to cover a range of issues, including police brutality, education disparities, poverty, and teen pregnancy. Shakur’s music blended seamlessly with his social activism. During the

1990s, Shakur’s music, and Hip-Hop in general, became a worldwide call for social action. More than just entertainment, Hip-Hop became a tool for education, community building, and social engagement with what many perceived to be an oppressive and inherently racist American mainstream culture. This paper focuses on how Hip-Hop engaged with issues of poverty, education, criminality, crack, and death during the 1990s.

Hip-Hop has dominated American popular music for over 25 years, and this has led to a number of books dealing with the history of the genre, such as The Hip Hop

Movement: From R&B and the Civil Rights Movement to Rap and the Hip Hop

Generation by Reiland Rabaka. The book traces the lineage of Hip-Hop from Rhythm &

Blues of the late 1940s through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. It continues by

discussing the relationship of the soul movement of the 1960s and 1970s to the Black

Power Movement, and it shows how these earlier eras led to the era of Hip-Hop, an era that began in the late 1970s and is now the dominant popular music in America. The book mentions the rise of commercial and “gangsta rap” as the start of the Hip-Hop movement. Rabaka asserts that the use of digital and telecommunications technology is what makes the Hip-Hop movement unique from the other musical moments. Notably, he defines the Hip-Hop movement as being both a political and artistic movement that sought to “capture the ear of those listening for aesthetic reasons” while also pleasing those who were looking for a deeper meaning (Rabaka, 2013). Rabaka states that Hip-

Hop should not be reduced to just rap music which includes ghetto-gangsta-nigga-pimp- hoe-thug theme that does not align with Hip-Hop politics. However, because the book covers such a broad period of time, it is not able to go in depth about the social movements specific to the 1990s, which is one of the most important periods in Hip-Hop.

Rabaka does mention Hip-Hop’s relationship with small-scale activist movements such as sexism, horrors of low-income housing, immigration, environmental racism, police brutality, prison industrial complex, and class struggles, but he fails to provide specific correlations between the music and these movements. The book continues with an in- depth analysis of how the Hip-Hop movement entered white suburbia. The author states

Hip-Hop’s duality, having Hip-Hop culture and universal elements, is what allowed it to be accepted in “black ghetto youth” and “white suburban youth.” (Rabaka, 2013).

Another book that covers the History of Hip-Hop is Break Beats in the Bronx:

Rediscovering Hip-Hop’s Early Years by Joseph C. Ewoodzie. The book starts with the infamous DJ Kool Herc party in which the author claims is the beginning of Hip-Hop.

Unlike other perspectives of DJ Kool Herc, the author does not believe Herc invented

Hip-Hop. Instead, the author argues that it was inevitable due to the preexisting culture in

New York. The paper begins with an in-depth analysis of the socioeconomics of the

South Bronx during the 1970s. Ewoodzie’s in-depth review of the South Bronx is used to connect urban decay to the rise of social activism and rebellion, including graffiti and writing, as well as DJing and dancing. Ewoodzie argues that these four variables are what allowed Hip-Hop to form. But, the book only covers the beginning of Hip-Hop; it does not discuss how socioeconomic status, and other social issues, continued to influence

Hip-Hop as it grew beyond New York City.

Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide by Mickey Hess is another book in tune with Hip-Hop history. The book covers Hip-Hop from 1970s-1990s. The author breaks down the history of Hip-Hop geographically, and he identifies the unique Hip-Hop identities in each region. The book begins with the Boogie Down Bronx, the birthplace of

Hip-Hop, and he covers a number of notable rappers associated with the borough, such as

DJ Kook Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and KRS-One. The author alludes to social activism by suggesting that KRS-One was one of the first MCs to have “first-person narratives expressing various views and experiences of young black ghetto dwellers.” (Hess, 2010).

There are other notable moments when Hess ties Hip-Hop with social activism, such as his study of Fat Joe, another artist from the Bronx that rose in the 1990s. Hess links Fat

Joe’s gangsta persona to the book, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, by

Philippe Bourgois. The author lightly touches upon the influence of street life on Fat

Joe’s music. Hess goes on to cover Harlem and Upper Manhattan and continues to allude to the relationship between Hip-Hop and social issues by lightly covering the crack

epidemic and Hip-Hop. However, instead of viewing how crack influenced Hip-Hop music, Hess focused on how the crack era influenced fashion and the popularization of the street hustler image.

Another growing area of Hip-Hop inquiry seeks to understand the literary elements of the genre, such as Global Linguistic Flows: Hip Hop Cultures, Youth

Identities, and the Politics of Language by H. Samy Alim, Awad Ibrahim, and Alastair

Pennycook. The authors view Hip-Hop as a “living culture, constantly re-making itself”

(Alim et al., 2009) as well as a reflection of the concerns, struggles, hopes, and desires of its generation. The authors identify their research as “Hip-Hop Linguistics,” which they define as an “interdisciplinary field of scholars committed to the study of language and language usage in Hip-Hop communities.” (Alim et al., 2009). The book also explores the “sociolinguistics of globalization,” stating that abstract language itself is not what is globalized, but “specific speech forms, genres, styles, and forms of literacy practice” are.

Hip-Hop is a perfect example of this due to its popularity across the globe, it has been able to break cultural and language barriers. Rather than focusing specifically on social issues facing Hip-Hop in the United States, the book analyzes Hip-Hop culture globally, including studies of Hip-Hop in Africa, Australia, and the European Union.

Scholarship that specifically seeks to investigate the correlation between social issues and Hip-Hop is a growing field. “I See Death Around Around the Corner”

Nihilism in Rap Music,” by Charis E. Kubrin, looks for correlations between platinum- selling Hip-Hop albums from 1992-2000 and how people view their lives. Notably the article focuses how Hip-Hop creates a bleak outlook on life, a perceived or real sense of powerlessness, frustration and despair, fear of death and dying, and resignation or

acceptance of death in the music. Perhaps the most well-known scholar to write about

Hip-Hop as a form of social activism is Jeffrey O.G. Obgar. His book, Hip-Hop

Revolution, is a compilation of a number of his articles about the intersection of Hip-Hop and social issues. Ogbar’s book covers a range of issues, from poverty to criminality to gender. But, the scope of the book encompasses the entire history of Hip-Hop rather than being concerned specifically with Hip-Hop of the 1990s.

There is also a wealth of data sets and articles about social issues facing America during the 1990s. But, few of these articles focus on linking social issues with Hip-Hop.

This study will add to the growing body of research about the social impact of the genre as it specifically relates to the 1990s. Much of this study relies on primary sources from the 1990s and subsequent data sets about the issues being covered. This study utilizes articles from magazines, news sources, and other non-scholarly avenues relating to Hip-

Hop, such as interviews with Hip-Hop figureheads talking about the culture. Most importantly, this study seeks to focus on the music itself. By investigating the songs that defined the genre in the 1990s, it is clear that the artists who engaged with Hip-Hop in the

1990s had more on their minds than merely entertaining listeners.

Chapter 1: Introduction

The interlude, “Protest,” from the Niggaz4life (1991) album by N.W.A. begins with a news anchor reporting news while multiple gunshots are heard behind him. The gunshots in the song are meant to depict the violence of Southern California neighborhoods that had seemingly turned into warzones (Kennedy, 2017). On the same album, the song, “Real Niggaz Don’t Die,” provides a description of how the artists

thought African Americans were valued in their country. “Die nigga! We are born to die nigga, you’ve been dying for 400 years, niggas know how to die, niggas don’t know nothin else but dying, niggas dream about dying.” The song goes on to talk about the realities of African American identity amid growing violence within the black community brought about by police brutality. During the 1990s, songs like “Real Niggaz

Don’t Die” were saddled with the moniker, “gangsta rap,” and faced a backlash as they entered mainstream pop culture. Radio stations reacted by focusing only on commercially friendly rap tunes that were typically limited to nighttime and weekend programming slots. Warning stickers originally intended for inappropriate records of all genres that were introduced in 1985 by the Recording Industry Association of America took direct aim at Hip-Hop by the 1990s (Laurence, 2015). The impact of this targeted censorship had legal consequences.

Hip-Hop entered the courtroom when a federal court judge ruled that the 2 Live

Crew album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be,” was obscene (Clary, 1990). Following the ruling, two members of the group were arrested after performing songs from the album because of their obscenity. The ruling also made the album illegal to sell, causing record retailer Charles Freeman to be arrested for selling the album to an undercover cop (Huey, n.d). The obscenity case was later overturned by the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals because the music had artistic value. By the 1990s, the now-common, black and white

“Explicit Content” sticker was officially introduced (Schonfeld, 2015). The very first album to receive the sticker was 2 Live Crew’s album Banned in the U.S.A (Schonfeld,

2015).

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was clear that Hip-Hop had evolved beyond being a subculture. Even more, Hip-Hop that aggressively engaged with social activism started dominating mainstream music charts, fashion, movies, commercials, sports, and television. Rap was quickly moving from artists such as M.C. Hammer and Vanilla Ice toward Public Enemy and N.W.A. Hip-Hop’s rebels started to break through pop music charts. N.W.A. saw their album, Niggaz4Life (1991), claim the top spot in the Billboard

200 album charts (Thompson, 2015). N.W.A proved that a group known as the “most dangerous group” could be successful, even if its explicit lyrics caused major controversies.

By the late 1990s, Hip-Hop was a corporate machine and billion-dollar industry

(Hess, 2009). Mickey Hess, author of Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, cites Sean

Combs (P. Diddy) as one of the two most influential individuals in mainstream Hip-Hop culture. After being fired from Uptown Records, P. Diddy, created his own label, Bad

Boy Entertainment. In 1994, Bad Boy Entrainment released “Flava in Ya Ear” by Craig

Mack which hit No.1 on Billboard’s Hot Rap songs. Most notably, the release of Ready to Die by Biggie is what planted Bad Boy Entertainment on the map. Combs turned Hip-

Hop into a commodity by “making bigger moves than music” and dabbling in fashion and even cologne using his unique marketing tactics from his background as a business major at Howard (Kennedy, 2015). Combs signed trendsetters such as, 112, Faith Evans,

Busta Rhymes, Craig Mack, Mase, the Lox, and Lil Kim. He helped push the commercial appeal of Hip-Hop by having these trendsetters reach chart topping numbers. At its height, Bad Boy Entertainment was in a rivalry with L.A.-based Death Row Records founded by Dr.Dre and Suge Knight. This rivalry further cemented the notion that Hip-

Hop was both an artform and lifestyle when it reached a climax with the deaths of Tupac

Shakur and Biggie.

Hip-Hop in the 1990s was more than music. Films also created a visual space to address issues of race and class. In film, West Coast Hip-Hop culture saw immense growth in the emergence of the “hood film” (Bradley, 2017). Films like Boyz ‘n the Hood

(1991), New Jack City (1991), Juice (1992), and Menace to Society (1993) (Bradley,

2017) visualized the struggles of African Americans. Many of these films depicted the violence, poverty, and drug use plaguing communities in the 1990s. Hip-Hop cinema created a space for rappers to turn into actors. In 1995, Ice Cube played a role in the movie Friday. Set it Off (1996), featuring Queen Latifah, is a film about four black women who create a plan to rob a bank so they can have a better life for their families

(Bradley, 2017). Will Smith, LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, Method Man, and Tupac Shakur comprise a small list of the number of rappers who turned to acting. Due to the successes of these films, artists like Will Smith and Queen Latifah opened up their own production companies (Ali, 2018).

Hip-Hop’s presence on television also came of age in the 1990s. Shows like Yo!

MTV Raps and The Arsenio Hall Show adopted elements of Hip-Hop and appealed to primarily young audiences of all races. These shows allowed for the growth of Hip-Hop fans all around the globe. Speaking about the importance of Hip-Hop on television, the rapper Eminem stated:

When Yo! MTV Raps first came out, I was in my early teens and waiting for

something like that to come out. When it did, I was like, “this is dope!” because it

gave me and my friends a chance to see the artists that we were buying. What

they look like. Their style of dress. The way they move, the way they act. (L’Pree,

2002)

Yo! MTV Raps was of significant importance to Hip-Hop because there was a time when

MTV, then one of the most powerful cable television stations, would not play Hip-Hop.

As early as 1982, MTV was facing backlash for not including genres other than rock and for not including minority artists (L’Pree, 2002). The network’s response to critics was that inner cities were not wired for cable and therefore were not able to receive the channel (L’Pree, 2002) Two years later, “Rock Box” by Run DMC was the first rap song played on MTV. The music video for “Rock Box” showed Run DMC performing for an interracial crowd. Network television shows like In the House, In Living Color, Martin, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air introduced a wider American audience to the cultural diversity found within various African American communities. This was a fresh take on black families in television which had previously been portrayed as primarily middle- class on shows such as The Cosby Show and Family Matters.

Some shows launched Hip-Hop artists into worldwide superstardom, as was the case with rapper-turned-actor Will Smith, who starred as the main character in The Fresh

Prince of Bel-Air. The Co-Producer of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Benny Medina, stated:

As the show develops, we will start to deal with some of the same things as

N.W.A., Public Enemy, Ice Cube, and artists with a much more radical way of

communicating their lifestyle. But we'll do it Will's way, rather than in their

language. (Rohter, 1990).

Acting came easy to Will Smith as he stated he was “basically playing himself” (Rohter,

1990). The irony of Smith’s mainstream success is that only one-year prior he refused to accept the award for “Best Rap Performance” for the song “Parents Just Don’t

Understand.” Smith boycotted the Grammy’s in 1989 after finding out that the Grammy’s would not televise the “Best Rap Performance” category. In an interview Smith stated:

They don’t know anything about rap music. Our boycott was to open their eyes to

rap music so next year some rap group will be able to perform on the Grammy’s

and the award will be televised because the music is large enough and important

enough to be on that show. (All Def Music, 2018)

A year later in 1990 the Grammy’s televised the category, a victory for Hip-Hop made possible by Will Smith. That same year, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air became the second- highest rated new series of the season (All Def Music, 2018).

Hip-Hop’s transition into popular culture in the 1990s also influenced the fashion industry. Groups like Public Enemy and N.W.A started to project a style similar to the

Black Panther Party with baseball caps and coach jackets (DeLeon, 2018). Other Hip-

Hop fashion trends included one pant leg rolled up, Oakland Raiders hats, neon windbreakers, bandanas, Rocawear, Fila, and many more. One of the most notable brands that emerged in Hip-Hop was FUBU. The creator, Daymond John, made the acronym,

FUBU, which stands for “for us by us.” He used this acronym because he knew that a lot of fashion designers were not acknowledging the profit, they were making off the Hip-

Hop community (Harrison, 2014). Shows like Yo? MTV Raps played Hip-Hop music videos that allowed youth to see the clothing and want to emulate it. In 1998, FUBU aired a commercial with LL cool J that included a rap jingle for the brand.

Hip-Hop even made its way into sports. Arguably the most influential pair of shoes in Hip-Hop was the Air Jordan 5, released in 1990. The Air Jordan 5’s had a memorable Hip-Hop commercial with the phrase, “gotta be the shoes.” (HipHopDx,

2017). Mentions of the commercial slogan even made it into Hip-Hop with the song

“Chief Rocka” by Lords of the Underground. The shoes were featured in multiple episodes of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. From the 1990s up until today, Jordan’s are still linked to Hip-Hop (HipHopDx, 2017). In 1991, the Fab Five Michigan basketball team brought Hip-Hip culture to the court. The Fab Five were known for their long, baggy shorts, headphones, black socks, and for sporting basketball shoes that had not been seen in the sport before this. By the mid-1990s, basketball players such as Allen Iverson were bringing the same sensibility to the NBA.

Throughout the 1990s, Hip-Hop continued to move from being an underground movement to a mainstream form of identity. At the end of the decade, Hip-Hop was a dominant player in fashion, commercials, television, and movies. As Hip-Hop representation grew during the 1990s, so did the ideas and activist tradition of the movement. Notably, artists used the popularity of Hip-Hop to engage with issues affecting African American communities.

Chapter 2: Crack and Hip-Hop

One of the most influential rappers of the 1990s, Biggie started selling drugs in

New York City at the age of 12. He dropped out of school by age 17, and in 1991, he was arrested for possession of cocaine and marijuana with the intent to sell. In an interview,

Biggie stated, "I used to sell crack. My customers were ringing my bell, and they would come up on the steps and smoke right here. They knew where I lived; they knew my [sic]

moms” (Toure, 1994). Ready to Die (1994) was an album about the consequences of drug dealing and street life. He wanted others in the same position to understand they were not alone. In the song, “Everyday Struggle,” he raps:

I know how it feel to wake up . . . / Pocket broke as hell/ Another rock to sell/

People look at you like you's the user/ Selling drugs to all the losers/ Mad Buddah

abuser/ But they don't know about your stress-filled day/ Baby on the way/ Mad

bills to pay/ That's why you drink Tanqueray/ So you can reminisce/ And wish/

You wasn't living so devilish.

Biggie stated that he wrote this album to get a lot off of his chest (Toure, 1994). He was able to communicate his reality through Hip-Hop, and he used his music as a coping method. In his music, Biggie constantly talked about the struggles of poverty. One solution to get out of poverty was to sell drugs. In 1997, Smalls released the song “Ten

Crack Commandments.” In the song, the ten commandments are:

1. Never let anyone know how much money you have. 2. Never let anyone know

what your next move will be. 3. Trust no one. 4. Never use what you sell. 5.

Never give credit. 6. Never sell out of your home. 7. Keep family and business

separate. 8. Never park your stash on your person. 9. If you’re not being arrested,

never be seen communicating with the police. 10. G.C.G.C. (Great Consignment,

Grave Confinement).

It is important to understand that Biggie was not glorifying selling drugs. Rather, he states that following these rules might lead to a lot of money, but breaking them will either get you killed or locked up.

Another artist, Jay-Z, spoke candidly about selling crack in Brooklyn. In interviews, Jay-Z mentions seeing crack vials on the curbs and always smelling it in hallways (Gonzales, 2017). Jay-Z began selling crack in the 1980s, and while he now regrets having done this, he argues that he needed to do it for survival (Gonzales, 2017).

During an interview for Vanity Fair with Lisa Robinson, Jay-Z was asked if he felt guilty for contributing to the crack epidemic. He stated:

Not until later, when I realized the effects on the community. I started looking at the

community on the whole, but in the beginning, no. I was thinking about surviving. I

was thinking about improving my situation. I was thinking about buying clothes.

(Vanity Fair, 2013)

Jay-Z’s brother was addicted to crack and was shot by Jay-Z when he was 12 for stealing his ring (Topping, 2010). His brother survived and did not press charges. Jay-Z speaks on the shooting in “You Must Love me” (1997),

Never believed it would lead to be poppin' one in your shoulder/ Where my rings?

Knew you had it 'cause you took too long/ As Mickey, Annie and the girl that

bought it looked on/ Huffin' and puffin' gun in my hand told you step outside/

Hoping you said no but you hurt my pride/ Made our way down the steps/ Maybe

you thought it was just a threat/ Or maybe ya life was just that crazy/ And you

was beggin' for death/ Try to justify this in my young mind/ But the adrenaline

and my ego hurt combined/ Drove me berserk, saw the devil in your eyes/ High

off more than weed/ Confused, I just closed my young eyes and squeezed

(gunshot)

If something like this happened outside of the inner city, it more than likely would receive news coverage. But the violence erupting due to crack was not covered in a sympathetic light as you see now with our opioid crisis. For example, media often perpetuated the narrative of “unfit” black mothers by reporting the rates of crack babies born to black mothers (Lynch & Omari, 2018).

In lieu of accurate portrayals of inner-city life, Hip-Hop became the “Black CNN,” covering what many thought should have been in the news (Blanchard, 1999). In Tupac

Shakur’s song, “Keep Ya Head Up,” he raps, “I blame my mother for turnin’ my brother into a crack baby/ we ain’t meant to survive, cause it’s a set-up.” In this line, Shakur reflects that it is his mother’s fault that his brother was a crack baby, but also societies fault for turning its back on the Black community during this epidemic (Genius). At the beginning of the song he also mentions “Give the crack to the kids/ who the hell cares?

One less hungry mouth off welfare.” The lines continue to hold the society accountable for crack in impoverished neighborhoods to relieve the government from welfare payments (Genius).

The 100:1 disparity that the war on drugs created in the 1980s made it appear that all drug offenders were being held accountable. The 100:1 rule caused defendants convicted of crack offense to receive harsher penalties than cocaine offenses at a possession ratio of 100:1. Further, police departments were under pressure to show progress during the war on drugs, resulting in increased policing in disadvantaged neighborhoods (Bobo & Thompson, 2006). But in reality, these policies only increased the chances of minorities being sanctioned for drug offenses (Mitchell & Caudy, 2015) while letting drug usage in middle-class suburbia, where drug usage was much more

prominent, escape criminalization. The increase of sanctions against minorities distorted rates of drug usage and drug sales in inner cities (Mitchell & Claudy, 2013). Rather, a number of studies have found that these policies only increased racial bias which increased the probability of drug arrests (Mitchell & Claudy, 2013).

This distortion has been a major part of America’s understanding of inner-city neighborhoods, but a yearlong investigation by USA Today Network and Asbury Park

Press found that most crack users were European American and still are today (Mullen,

Kruse, Goudsward, Bouges, 2019). Despite this disparity in usage, drug offenses accounted for two-thirds of the rise in the federal inmate population and more than half of the rise in state prisoners between 1985 and 2000 (Netherland & Hansen, 2016). More than half of those prisoners were black men in large cities in the U.S (Netherlands &

Hansen, 2016). Crack was not being consumed in America’s inner cities any more than it was anywhere else, but it was being sold there, and Hip-Hop reflects this nuance. Hip-

Hop songs did not glorify the usage of crack; most songs are against it. But at the same time, Hip-Hop portrayed drug dealing as an alternative method for getting out of poverty.

In “Git Up, Git Out,” by OutKast, Cee-Lo raps:

Cause every job I get is cruel and demeaning/ sick of taking trash out and toilet

bowl cleaning/ but I’m also sick and tired of struggling/ I never ever thought I’d

to have resort to drug smuggling.

Drugs were easily visible in impoverished communities and also increased the means for illegitimate opportunities. In “Things Done Changed,” Biggie states:

If I wasn’t in the rap game/ I’d probably have a key knee deep in the crack game/

because the streets is a short stop/ either you’re slingin’ crack rock or you got a

wicked jump shot/ shit, it’s hard being young from the slums/ Eatin’ five cent

gums not knowin’ where your meals comin’ from/ And now the shit’s gettin’

crazier and major/ Kids younger than me, they got the Sky Grand pagers/ Damn,

what happened to the summertime cookouts?/Every time I turn around a nigga

gettin’ took out

Biggie’s lyrics argue that the only two options for impoverished youth are selling drugs or becoming famous because of athletic ability. His lyrics mourn the idea that young kids are selling drugs and using “sky pagers” which were useful tools for drug dealers in the

1990s (Genius). The same sentiments are seen in “Heavy in the Game” (1995) by Tupac

Shakur, where he states:

I’m just a young black male, cursed since birth/ Had to turn to crack sales if worse

came to worse/ Headed for them packed jails, or maybe it’s a hearse/ My only

way to stack mail [make money], is out here doin’ dirt/ Made my decisions do or

die, been hustlin’ since junior high/ No time for askin’ why, gettin’ high, gettin’

mine/ Put away my nine [9-mm handgun], cause these times call/ for four-five [45

magnum]/Cause life is hell and everybody dies

He also mentions crack again in “Starin’ Through My Rear View” (1997):

Now, I was raised as a young black male/ In order to get paid, forced to make

crack sales/ Caught a nigga so they send me to these overpacked jails/ In the cell,

countin' days in this livin' black hell

Both of these songs emphasize that there were few legitimate opportunities to make a decent living, and many turned to dealing drugs. Biggie’s “Ten Crack Commandments” serves a business guide from his own experience out of poverty. The commandments

explained the do’s and don’ts on how to sell to crack. In the Vanity Fair interview, Jay-Z also mentioned:

I know about budgets. I was a drug dealer. To be in a drug deal, you need to know

what you can spend, what you need to re-up. Or if you want to start some sort of

barbershop or car wash—those were the businesses back then. Things you can get

in easily to get out of [that] life. At some point, you have to have an exit strategy,

because your window is very small; you’re going to get locked up or you’re going

to die (Vanity Fair, 2013).

Both artists acknowledge that though crack was a method to get you out of poverty, it also has two consequences, prison or death. Rather than focusing on the criminal element, however, artists in the 1990s seem to be more focused on the social conditions that led kids to believe that selling drugs was their only option.

In “Eyes of a Killer,” Master P (1992) includes lyrics about selling crack like candy. He states, “I pack a fucking dis 9, you know the god daman turf is all mine.” In this context, nine is a reference to a 9mm pistol. Violence over turf disputes between rival drug dealers played a role in violence in the 1990s. One such hotspot was Little Rock,

Arkansas. In 1993, the city had the highest per capita murder rate in the country (Koon,

2015). Young black males were being killed in Little Rock while protecting gang territory or during crack sales (Koon, 2015). Master P was not the only person carrying a

“9,” in 1993. Cheap guns could be had for $100 dollars or less which led to a peak in the number of murders committed with firearms in 1993 (Yablon, 2018). But, Even Master

P, who sang about being the crack candy man, stated he left the streets after one of his siblings, Kevin Miller, was robbed and killed by a drug addict (Strauss, 1998). A part of

Hip-Hop does glorify drug usage and selling, but how artists depicted the crack epidemic is an example of how Hip-Hop also attempted to explain why drug dealing was necessary and to show the consequences of that lifestyle.

Chapter 3: Criminality and Hip-Hop

When Snoop Dogg released his album Doggystyle in 1993, he was on a $1 million bond for murder charges from witnessing his bodyguard murder a man (McShane, 1994).

Incarceration was common among rappers during this era. Many prominent artists, including Tupac Shakur (Tupac), Russell Jones (Ol’ Dirty Bastard), Shawn Thomas (C-

Bo), Christopher Roney (Cool C), Richard Walters (Slick Rick), and Moses Barrow

(Shyne) had spent time in prison. The high incarceration rate of black men during this period became a norm in the early lifecycle of a black man in the 1990s (Pettit &

Western, 2004). Since incarceration was a risk for black men and rappers, a lot of music during this time talked about the harsh reality of incarceration, police brutality, and about the lifestyles that led to incarceration.

Shakur released “16 on Death Row” in 1992. The song was about a young man who gets locked up and describes that this was the fate for a lot of inner-city black youth

(HHGA Staff, 2019).

Dear mama, they sentenced me to death / Today’s my final day, I’m

counting every breath / I’m bitter cause I’m dying, so much I haven’t seen / I

know you never dreamed, your baby would be dead at 16

Earlier in his career, Shakur rapped about the “ghetto” from an outside perspective, putting himself in the shoes of others. After getting shot in Manhattan, he started rapping about his own life.

In the 1990s, African American males by the age of 22 had an 83% greater chance of getting arrested than their white peers (Mitchell & Claudy, 2013). By 1999, one in 10

African American males in their twenties were in state or federal prison, and one in three were under criminal justice supervision (Bobo & Thompson, 2006). In 1954, 98,000

African Americans were incarcerated. By 2002, 884,500 African Americans were incarcerated (Bobo & Thompson, 2006). In “The Tower,” Ice-T (1991) expresses the conditions in prison ranging from rape, prison meals, and violence:

The minute I arrived/ Some sucker got hit/ Shanked ten times/ Behind some

bullshit/ Word in the pen the fool was a snitch/ So without hesitatin'/ I made a

weapon quick/ If found a sharp piece of metal/ Taped it to a stick/ Then a bullhorn

sounds/ That means it's time for chow/ My first prison meal/The whole feeling

was foul

The song ends with Ice-T killing another inmate. He reflects in the song that it does not matter what prisoner has power in the penitentiary because at the end of the day it is the prison’s gun tower who has the power.

Rapper, X-Raided, released his album Xorcist (1995) in jail awaiting trial for a deadly home invasion. The rapper recorded the songs over the telephone. In “Deuce-5 to

Life” he raps:

My homies got convicted for murder in the first degree/ Ain't no doubt about it,

they'll try to do worse to me/ They take me in the court room in front of an all

white jury/ With the family looking me with barely concealed fury/ My lawyer

standing next to me, prepared to represent/ And help me get convicted cause to

him/ I'm guilty till proven innocent...

Hip-Hop reflected the unfairness in the court system. “Penitentiary Blues” (1991) by the

Convicts mentions the broken public defender system:

I went to court today, them motherfuckers re-set it/ But I'm used to that shit now,

so I ain't gon' sweat it/ Damn court appointed lawyers, they don't do a damn thing/

Railroadin a nigga, they got paid anyway/ Take they funky-ass $200 and run/

Leavin a nigga locked up in this bitch just for fun/ (That's a damn shame) Hell

yeah, they be fuckin up/ Look how they certified that juvenile right there named

Buck/ Gave that motherfucker 50 years/ His life won't be worth shit by time he

get outta here

Lifers Group, “Belly of the Beast,” was released in 1991. The Lifers Group was formed in East Jersey State Prison by Melvin Maxwell and 12 inmates who were facing sentencing ranging from 25 years to double life for crimes ranging from robbery to murder (Lynch, 1992). In the music video, the inmates are shown with their inmate numbers. One member stated, “I used to have a name but now I got a number.” The song was made to scare youth using by emphasizing the realities of prison rape, mental torture,

AIDS, and physical brutality (Lynch, 1992). The group sold more than 50,000 records and was nominated during the 34th Annual Grammy Awards in 1991 for the “Best Music

Video” category. None of the members were able to attend the ceremony.

Proving authenticity in the 1990s was important, even if you did not come from the “hood.” “Keepin’ It Real” was an important term used to bolster the “thug hero” persona in Hip-Hop that was based on aggressive masculinity. The word “thug” has its racist roots, but during the Hip-Hop movement of the 1990s and the rise of gangsta rap,

“thug” took a different meaning. Hip-Hop made the term “thug life” popular which many

people equated to a criminal life. John McWhorter, an English professor at Columbia

University stated that “the word thug in the black community had a very different meaning by 1990 than it had had in 1980. But that thug image has never been a purely negative model. It's always been part ruffian and part hero” (NPR, 2015). The phrase

“Thug Life” is highly associated with Tupac Shakur. Shakur had the phrase tattooed across his stomach which is an acronym for “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks

Everyone” (Reid, 2018). Shakur considered himself a militant and a thug. In an interview he stated,

I’m not a religious person. But I believe that god wants me to do something and it

has to do with the thug life… I don’t consider myself to be straight militant. I’m a

thug, and my definition of thug comes from half of the street element and half of

the Panther element, half of the independence movement. Saying we want self-

determination. We want to do it by self-defense and by any means necessary. That

came from my family and that’s what thug life is. It’s a mixture. (Blank on Blank,

2013)

Tupac states in the interview that if he was white, he would be treated like John Wayne but instead he feels like a tragic hero in a Shakespeare play. In the documentary Tupac:

Resurrection; Thug Life, Tupac mentions the thug life again,

When I say 'thug' I mean, not criminal or someone that will beat you over the

head, I mean the underdog. I mean someone who goes out there and succeeds who

has overcame all obstacles… I don’t understand why America doesn’t understand

Thug Life America is Thug life. What makes me saying ‘I don’t give a fuck’

different than Patrick Henry saying ‘Give me liberty or give me death’? What

makes my freedom less worth fighting for than Bosnians or whoever they want to

fight for this year? (Tupac Resurrection; Thug Life)

Tupac equates thug to his pride and having the ability to take nothing and turn it into something. Tupac had a vision for putting order to violence. He even tried to establish a code of thug ethics for gangs to follow because he believed gangs could be positive if provided organization (Tupac Resurrection; Thug Life).

Part of being authentic was “talking the talk and walking the walk” if rappers wanted to keep their numbers up (McShane, 1994). Proving authenticity in rap was first about hardcore lyrics sparking feuds between rappers such as LL Cool J and Kool Mo

Dee and Dr. Dre against Eazy E (McShane,1994). Other notorious raps feuds include

NWA vs. Ice Cube and Boogie Down Productions vs. Juice Crew. The most notable feud is Tupac Shakur vs. Biggie which was a huge part of the rivalry between the West and the

East coast and often resulted in acts of violence. “Fuck Compton” by Tim Dog (1991) depicts the intensity between east and the west coast:

(Why you dissing Eazy?)/ 'Cause the boy ain't shit/ Chew him with tobacco, and

spit him in shit/ I'll crush Ice Cube, I'm cool wit Ice-T/ But NWA ain't shit to me/

Dre, beatin' on Dee from "Pump it Up!"?/ Step to the Dog and get fucked up!/ I'm

simplistic, imperialistic, idealistic/ And I'm kicking the ballistics/ Having that

gang war/ We want to know what you're fighting for/ Fighting over colors?/ All

that gang shit's for dumb motherfuckers!/ But you go on thinking you're hard/

Come to New York and we'll see who gets robbed!

Being seen as hard was very important because rappers risked the chances of being dissed or even assaulted if they did not uphold an image. For example, P.M Dawn was a

successful group that came to be seen as a soft. Members were even pushed off stage by

KRS-One once while performing at Manhattan’s Sound Factory nightclub (McShane,

1994).

By the early 1990s, there was a very blurry line between lyrics and lifestyle. Hip-

Hop would not accept an artist unless authenticity was proven. Arrested Development, for example, reached commercial success and was the first rap group to win a Grammy for the “Best New Artist” category. But the commercial success didn’t last long. As a group of rural rappers from the South, the group did not fit Hip-Hop’s urban, gangsta identity. With the rise of gangsta rap and the premium placed on proving authenticity, alternative sub-genres in Hip-Hop did not survive.

Keepin’ it real had obligations, which only served to fuel the perception of rappers as criminals. Suge Knight, co-founder and CEO of Death Row Records, played a significant role in violent feuds. Alleged rumors state that Suge Knight violently forced

Eazy-E to release rapper, Dr. Dre, from Ruthless Records. Before Dr. Dre left in 1991,

Ice Cube left in 1989 over royalty disputes. These feuds reflect real street codes that included acts of violence and disrespectful taunts. To build a reputation that one was from the streets, violence and robberies were used to gain prestige and personal security

(Kubrin, 2005). Studies showed that youth, like their rapper peers, often engaged in altercations to show they were quick-tempered and to build on their “juice” (Kubrin,

2005).

The concept of Keepin’ It Real caused controversy. C. DeLores Tucker, founder and president of the National Political Congress of Black Woman, was against gangsta rap calling it “pornographic filth” (Lamb, 2005). DeLores’s moral crusade led her to

picket record stores that sold rap music. She even purchased stock in Sony and Time

Warner and other companies in order to protest at shareholder meetings (Lamb, 2005). In

1994, Mrs. Tucker protested the NAACP nomination of Tupac Shakur for its Image

Award. There were other criticisms. A study conducted by the Prevention Research

Center of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation suggested that young people who listen to rap and hip-hop were more likely to abuse alcohol and commit violent acts

(NPR, 2006).

Hip-Hop’s supporters argued that Hip-Hop was not a cause of violence. Violence in rap is a form of self-expression that points to social issues in society that drives feelings of hopelessness (Blanchard, 1999). The issues, not the lyrics, should be the focus. The National Campaign for Freedom of expression released a statement to the

Senate hearing on Lyrics & Labeling, stating:

Discussions about direct correlation between media messages and actual acts of

violence distract us from getting at the real causes of mediated violence [...] The

discussion distracts us from the real causes of crime: things like child abuse,

poverty, parental neglect in care and time spent with their child. (Blanchard,

1999)

Further, Hip-Hop’s portrayal of street life was no different than other expressions of

American cultural values. Charis E. Kubrin the author of Gangstas, Thugs, and Hustlas:

Identity and the Code of the Street in Rap Music (2005) states that violence, sexist, patriarchal, materialistic, sexist, content in rap is a byproduct of American culture. In this context, Hip-Hop serves as a classroom to teach about violence, death, and poverty.

Keepin’ it real meant portraying street life, and that meant including discussions of

violence. Ice-Cube pointed out the hypocrisy of politicians who criticized rap. He stated,

"We do things on a small level, but America does it on a big level. It ain't just us. White people do everything we do” (Blanchard, 1999). Blanchard (1999) states that if rap music appears to be violent it is because it stems from a culture that has fought against political, social, and economic oppression. But it is also important to note that Hip-Hop is an art form that narrates reality, fiction, or even a mix of both. Not all of Hip-Hop stems from political, social, or economic oppression. But, much of the violence discussed in 1990s

Hip-Hop involve cases of state-sponsored police brutality.

The biggest case of police brutality in the 1990s was the case of Rodney King.

Rodney King was beaten by four police officers on March 3, 1991. He was assaulted 56 times with clubs and shocked twice with a 50,000-volt stun gun (Langer, 2019). The entire incident was recorded by a bystander and went viral on media outlets. Eventually, the four officers, Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, and Theodore Briseno, were acquitted, leading to a rebellion in Los Angeles that eventually spread throughout the country; the outrage was seen everywhere (Fuller, 1993).

There was a lot of anger over the acquittal of the officers by an all-white jury

(Fuller, 1993). Half of America felt the Rodney King case showed that police officers were hiding behind badges and guns and getting away with beating civilians (Michigan

Chronicle, 2012). The other half of America believed that Rodney King had deserved the beating. John Mack, president of the LA Urban League, stated that the acquittal of the officers showed that African Americans are not recognized by the Criminal Justice

System (New York Amsterdam News, 1992). He also stated that it is important for police to understand that they cannot assume that there is a criminal behind every black male

face and that crime is not an excuse for the brutalization of people (New York

Amsterdam News, 1992).

The Rodney King case made its way into Hip-Hop. Songs like Ice- Cube’s,

“Predator” (1992), showed support for Rodney king:

Fuck Laurence Powell and Briseno, Wind and Koon, pretty soon/We'll fuck them

like they fucked us and won't kiss 'em/Riots ain't nothing but diets for the system.

(Ice Cube- “The Predator” 1992)

Other artists were less supportive of King viewing him as a “sellout” after pleading on national television to end the rebellions. Willie D’s believed that King had “turned his back on black people and on himself” (Philips, 1992). In “Rodney King” (1992), he raps:

Fuck Rodney King in his ass/ When I see tha mothafucka I'mma blast/ Boom in

his head, boom, boom in his back/ Just like that/ Cause I'm tired of you good little

niggas/ Saying increase the peace and let the violence cease/ When the black man

built this country/ But can't get his for the prejudiced honky/ Rodney King, god

damn sell-out/ On TV crying for a cop/ The same mothafuckas who beat the hell

outcha (Willie D- “Rodney King, 1992)

The Rodney King case had an overwhelming impact on Hip-Hop, including the critique of police officers. Black communities were being overpoliced, leading to the decline in trust that African Americans had in the criminal justice system. The spike in homicide rates in big cities lead to a spike in police killings in the 1990s (Dovey, 2018). The war on drugs heightened police brutality because of the increased power police officers were given through policy (Cooper, 2015). During this time, “stop and frisk” policies were being overused by the police in impoverished neighborhoods. These policies were

supported by two Supreme Court cases, Whren v US (1996) and Illinois v Wardlow

(2000). These cases expanded police discretion and power for pretext stops and searches

(Cooper, 2015).

Rodney King was not an anomaly during the 1990s. In 1994, Anthony Baez was killed from being placed in a chokehold after his football hit a police car while playing catch. In 1999, Amadou Diallo was shot at 41 times and struck 19 times while unarmed.

Officers believed his wallet was a gun. The four officers were acquitted. Other victims of police brutality in the 1990s include Lyndon Stark (1996) and Kevin Pukisma (1996).

Both deaths were associated with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department. 1997 saw another case of police brutality against a Haitian immigrant in Brooklyn. Abner

Louima was sexually assaulted with a broomstick by an officer (Fertig & O’Grady,

2017). These are only a few victims of the police during the 1990s. The issue became so prominent that even popular sitcoms of the 1990s, such as Family Matters, In Living

Color, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, began dealing with the issue of police brutality.

Hip-Hop’s engagement with police brutality is a prime example of how social issues were intertwined with the art being produced.

Chapter 4: Death and Hip-Hop

In 1994, Biggie dropped his album, Ready to Die. It went double platinum by

1995. This concept album takes listeners on a journey from the birth of Biggie to his imagined death. In “Suicidal Thoughts,” Biggie talks about feeling worthless and committing suicide, stating “I swear to God I want to just slit my wrists and end this bullshit/ throw the magnum to my head, threaten to pull shit/ and squeeze until the bed’s completely red.” In this song, Biggie reflects on not making it to heaven because of all

the sins he’s committed. The New York Times reviewed the album and stated that “his raps acknowledge both the excitement of drug dealing and the stress caused by the threat from other dealers, robbers, the police and parents” (Toure, 1994). James Baldwin states that racialized social conditions and discrimination can produce psychopathology and mental health problems among blacks (Brown, 2003). Biggies’ album reflected a bigger issue going on in America during this time, a spike in African American suicides.

Biggie’s album about suicide brings up mental health which is something that is not highly discussed among those in the African American community.

In the 1990s, black males from 15-24 were dying at alarming rates in the United

States from homicide and suicide (Jones-Eversley, Rice, Adedoyin, James-Townes,

2020). The death rate for homicide was 81.7 per 1000,000 and suicide was 11.8 per

100,000 between the 1950-2010 (Jones-Eversley, Rice, Adedoyin, James-Townes, 2020).

Figure 1 shows a peak in the death of African American males in the 1990s. Death before the age of 25 among black males had become the norm in society (Jones-Eversley, Rice,

Adedoyin, James-Townes, 2020). The high death rates for African Americans played a role in why death is so visible in Hip-Hop:

One must understand that some young people bereft of hope for the future have

made their peace with death and talk about planning their own funerals. . . The

high death rate among their peers keeps many from expecting to live beyond age

twenty five (Kubrin, 2005).

The high death rates for African Americans made early death a high probability. Tupac

Shakur references this high probability in “So Many Tears” (1995):

Now I'm lost and I'm weary So many tears/ I'm suicidal so don't stand near me/

My every move is a calculated step, to bring me closer/ To embrace an early

death, now there's nothing left/ There was no mercy on the streets, I couldn't rest/

I'm barely standing, bout to go to pieces, screamin' peace

Figure 1: Death Rates of Young Males

Figure 5. Death rates of Black males and all males ages 15-24 from 1950-2010 (Jones-Eversley, Rice, Adedoyin, James-Townes, 2020). Table 3. 1950–2010 Homicide Death Rates of All Males & Black Males Aged 15 to 24.

The same question is answered in “Murder Was the Case” (1993) by Snoop Dogg. The song begins with Snoop Dogg being wounded in a drive-by shooting, which is also seen in the 16-minute film Murder Was the Case. In the song, he raps:

As I look up at the sky/My mind starts trippin’, a tear drops my eye/ My body

temperature falls/ I’m shakin’ and they breakin’ tryin’ to save the Dogg/ Pumpin’

my baby

Snoop Dogg describes his own death in detail in the song. In the short film, he is saved in the hospital by making a deal with the devil. He is then sent to prison and describes the violence and death occurring there:

They send me to a level three yard, that's where I stay/ Late night I hear

toothbrushes scraping on the floor/ Niggas getting they shanks, just in case the

war, pops off/ Cause you can't tell what's next/ My little homie Baby Boo took a

pencil in his neck/And he probably won't make it to see twenty-two

Snoop Dogg shows that, for young African American men, death whether in the streets or prison was inescapable.

The 1990s marked many memorial songs for lost friends and family. “How Long

Will They Mourn Me?” by Shakur is dedicated to his friend, Kato, who was killed in

Detroit in a dispute over car rims (Genius). In the first verse, Shakur raps:

Niggas cried to mourn a homie's homicide/ But I can't cry, instead I'm just a

shoulder/ Damn, why they take another soldier?/ I load my clip and though my

eyes blurry, don't worry/ I'll get them suckers back before you're buried/ Retaliate

and pull a one-eight-seven/ Do real niggas get to go to Heaven?

With the rise of homicides in the early 1990s, losing a friend or family member was not uncommon. Master P’s “I Miss my Homies” (1997) was another memorial song. The song was dedicated to Master P’s brother who was killed. The beginning starts with

Master P pleading:

I want ya'll to play this at funerals in the hood/ 'Til all this black on black crime

stop/ Some say the blind lead the blind/ But in the ghetto you never know when

it's gon' be yo time.

A sad tribute calling for the violence to stop that was taking many innocent lives. Another memorial song is “Dead Homiez” (1990) by Ice Cube. The song was written after one of

Ice Cube’s friends, T-Bone, was killed. A notable line in the song is, “While my nigga laid dead in the gutter (Shit!)/ And it's getting to my temple/ Why is that the only time black folks get to ride in a limo.” The “riding in the limo” refers to the struggle African

Americans have faced achieving financial success (Genius). The limo symbolizes that

African Americans get to taste wealth only when riding in a limo during mourning their dead.

For African Americans, success was no guarantee against dying a violent death as was the case of Shakur and Biggie. Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996, and the following year, Biggie was also killed in a drive-by shooting. In “Only Fear of

Death,” Shakur raps about his fear of death:

Fallin’ to sleep while I’m at service, when will I die?/ Forever paranoid and

nervous because I’m high/ Don’t mention funerals I’m stressin’, and goin’

nutty/And reminiscin’ ’bout them niggas that murdered my buddy/ Everybody’s

dyin’ am I next, who can I trust?/Will they be G’s [gangstas], and look at me

before they bust?/ Or will they kill me while I’m sleepin’,/ two to the head /While

I’m in bed, leakin’ blood on my satin sheets

Two contrasting views of death. Biggie welcomes it on his album “Ready to Die.” Shakur fears it. Both, however, acknowledged the high likelihood that they would both experience it at a young age.

Geoffrey Williams and Alan Bartley both believe that low priced pistols led to higher levels of gun homicide among young black men during the 1980s and early 1990s

(Yablon, 2018). Songs like “Eyes of a Killer” rapped about carrying a “9” for protection, but there was music against gun violence. “Tonz ‘O’ Gunz” (1994) by Gang Starr focuses on the violence due to the influx of guns in the streets:

Tons o' guns everybody's getting strapped/ Tons o' guns got to watch the way you

act/ Tons o' guns real easy to get/ Tons o' guns bringing nothing but death/ Tons o'

guns are in the streets/Nowadays/It's big money and you know crime pays/ Check

your nearest overpopulated ghetto/ They greet you with a pistol not trying to say

hello/ Mad kids packed 'cos the neighbourhood's like that/ Want some shit that's

fat catch a victim do a stick/ Kids pulling triggers, niggas killing niggas/ Five-o

they sit and wait and tally death-toll figures

The song was produced by DJ Premier who stated:

As far as the record, I just wanted to make it sound like chaos because that’s what

is going on when there are tons of guns in the mix. And those samples definitely

fit my vision of what it should sound like. (Cho, 2011)

Guns added to the violence on the streets and that is reflected in Hip-Hop. Songs like

“Lyrical Gangbang” (1992) by Dr. Dre portrays the harsh condition of being constantly surrounded by violence and gunshots:

Fuck it, niggas goin’ wild/ Every night they shoot, it’s like Beirut/ Maybe you

should get a Teflon vest for your chest Anytime stepping through my hood/ But

that’ll do you no good/ One slug to your face, no haste/ You’re gettin’ smoked

like wood/ Nasty nigga bloody pumps face flat/ On the concrete, here comes the

white sheet/ Mr. Coroner, cocked with some yellow tape/ But, the murderers

escape. (Kubrin, 2005)

The same harsh conditions are depicted in “Lord Knows” (1995) by Tupac Shakur:

Every single day it’s a test, wear a bulletproof vest And still a nigga stressin’ over

death/ When everyday it’s another death, with every breath, It’s a constant threat,

so watch yo’ step!/ My memories bring me misery, and life is hard/ In the ghetto

it’s insanity, I can’t breathe/ Got me thinkin’, what do Hell got?/Cause I done

suffered so much, I’m feelin’ shell-shocked/ And drive-by’s an everyday thang/ I

done lost too many homies to this motherfuckin’ game

Gun violence affect more than those who were involved with the street code life. Songs like “Stray Bullet” by Organized Konfusion (1994) show how violence impacts everyone in a community:

No remorse for the course I take when you pull it/ The result's a stray bullet/ Niggas

who knew hit the ground runnin' and stay down/ Except for the kids who play on

the playground/ 'Cause for some little girl she'll never see more than six years of

life/ Trifleing, when she fell from the seesaw

The song shows the extent of violence in the streets by portraying that even a park could turn into a warzone regardless of innocent children who themselves became casualties. A chilling parallel to this song is “Thangs Change” by Too Short (1995):

I tell you life just ain’t what it used to be/ Between you and me, exclusively/

Everybody’s changed, we’re losing our minds/ The government won’t help cause

they refuse to find/ A solution to the problem of the inner streets / It’s a shame

what our kids are beginning to be Pregnant teenagers, young gun slangers/ There

ain’t no love, there ain’t nothing but anger/ I know kids who went to school

together / Now they all grown up, tryin’ to kill each other/ Shootouts on the

playground is where it goes down/ But back in the day, we rode the merry-go-rou

The song shows how times have changed and that the same innocent children that were on the playground are the ones turning into individuals that shot up a park. It signifies a loss of innocence; children are growing up too soon due to the dangers of the streets. Hip-

Hop’s seeming obsession with death reflects a bigger debate about whether violence in the inner-city is an act of personal weakness or a result of cultural conditions

Chapter 5: Education and Hip-Hop

In the 1990s, 28% of the population 25 and younger in US cities had less than a high school education. In the areas of extreme poverty, 53% of residents had not completed high school (Chapple & Teitz, 1998). Figure 2 shows the dropout rate for black students declining in 1988 but remaining steady in the 1990s. Gaps in academic performance between black and white students appeared as early as age nine and though this gap narrowed slightly over time, there was still a gap (Smith, 1994). Black and white students had similar educational aspirations. But black students in the 1990s were less likely to transition immediately from high school to college compared to their white peers

(Smith, 1994).

Figure 2: Dropout Rates (Ages 16-24)

Figure 3 shows the employment rates from 1973-1992 between black and white recent high school graduates who did not enroll in college versus those who dropped out of high school. Between 1990-1991 only one-quarter of black students that dropped out of high school were employed (Smith, 1994). Black students that graduated high school were one-third employed. But white students who dropped out still had higher chances of employment than black students that graduated high school which is also seen in Figure 2

(Smith, 1994). “A Bird in the Hand” (1991) by Ice Cube talks about the struggles of finding employment out of high school:

Fresh out of school cause I was a high school grad/ Gots to get a job cuz I was a

high school dad/ Wish I got paid by rappin' to the nation/ But that's not likely, so

here's my application/ Pass it to the man at AT&T/ Cause when I was in school I

got the A.E.E/ But there's no SC for this youngsta/ I didn't have no money, so now

I got to punch the/Clock, gotta slave, and be half a man/ But whitey says there's

no room for the African/ Always knew that I would clock G's/ But welcome to

McDonalds; "may I take your order, please?"/ Gotta serve ya food that might give

you cancer/ Cause my son doesn't take no for an answer/ Now I pay taxes, that

you never give me back

Ice Cube’s lyrics reflect the despair in the limited options for work in black neighborhoods (Genius). He mentions being “half a man” pointing to the demeaning low- paid labor and referencing racial inequality that has existed since the founding of the country.

Figure 3: Employment Rates for Recent High School Graduates vs. Dropouts

During the 1990s, there was also a wage gap between black and white earnings. In

1992, white college graduates earned 23% more than black college graduates (Smith,

1994). The likelihood of the incarceration of black males was higher than the likelihood of receiving a bachelor’s degree (Provine, 2011). In the 1990s, states like New York and

California sent more African Americans and Latinos to prison than they graduated from colleges and universities (Provine, 2011).

One of the major disparities facing minority students – a disparity still in existence today – is the notion of minority representation in the teaching profession. A predominantly white profession, America’s educational system has years of built up mistrust between white teachers, who often bring their own biases toward minority students into their classrooms, and students of color, who often distrust those responsible for educating them. In 1994, Biggie reflected this tension in the song “Juicy.” The intro of the song is dedicated to “all the teachers that told me I’d never amount to nothin’.” The song continues with, “Considered a fool ‘cause I dropped out of high school/ stereotypes of a black male misunderstood.” In “NYMP” (1999), Jay-Z reflects on the same discouragement he received from teachers,

I empowered myself, teacher said I was a lost cause/ 'Cause I used to roam them

halls/ Still I spit knowledge, dropped out of high school, skipped college/ Who

woulda thought I'd make it "Big" like Ms. Wallace?

Lyrics such as these reinforce lived experience. In his biography, Unbelievable: The Life,

Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G. Biggie tells of one of his teachers telling the students in his class that some of them would become garbage collectors. Biggie proceeds to tell the teacher that garbage collectors make more than teachers.

By the 1990s, some rappers began to see themselves as educators whose job it was to shed light on things that were going on within their communities (Morrell &

Duncan-Andrade, 2002). One example of rappers being educators is Lauryn Hill. Her album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, was the first Hip-Hop album to win a Grammy for Album of the Year, and she was the first woman to win five awards in one night.

Throughout the album, there are a number of interludes of a teacher speaking with

students about the concept of loving themselves and each other. The teacher is Ras

Baraka, who is now the mayor of Newark, NJ. The album is described as a “young woman's journey from innocence to disillusionment and, finally, to the inner peace afforded by self-knowledge” (Ebony, 2010). The keyword is self-knowledge. The skits were inspired by the book, The Mis-Education of the Negro, by Carter G. Woodson, who is known as the “Father of Black History,” as well as the film The Education of Sonny

Carson (Genius, 2018). Interestingly, Woodson’s book focuses on the restricted access to education that African Americans historically have had (Ebony, 2010). This is even reflected on the album cover as it pictures her face etched into a school desk which is a rebellious school act. At the end of “When It Hurts,” the skit includes the teacher asking the students if television and music are the reason why people are confused about love.

The students all agree that it is, and one student states “because today we listen to a lot of

TV a lot of music and it sounds nice, but it may not always be right for you.” This skit encapsulates the whole song which focuses on how love can also be pain and “what you want might make you cry.” Another example of the album acting as an educator through songs is the main single from the album, “Doo-Wop,” which suggests: “Girls you’d better watch out/some guys, some guys are only about/ that thing that thing that thing.”

The song gives warning about men only wanting “that thing” meaning sex. The album was intended to be a tool for education about love, heartbreak, sex, life, and spirituality which was not being mentioned in schools.

In an interview, Hill states that miseducation is education that comes from life and experience even if it is not necessarily academic (Manufacturing Intellect, 2017). She stated:

The title of the album was meant to discuss those life lessons those things that you

don't get in any text book, things that we go through that force us to mature.

Hopefully we learn. Some people get stuck. They say that what doesn't kill us

makes us stronger, and these are some really powerful lessons that changed the

course and direction of my life. (Witter, 2013)

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill depicts an open dialogue about life lessons with a teacher who looked like his students.

This is not an album without context. In 1996, President Clinton signed the

Welfare Reform Act. This bill included a small provision that called for states to teach abstinence education to break the poverty cycle (Huber & Firm, 2014). The problem with teaching abstinence is that these programs do not effectively prepare youth for real experiences. Compare the governmental approach of abstinence to Hill’s song, “To

Zion.” In this song, Hill talks about the realities of sex: “Unsure of what the balance held/

I touched my belly overwhelmed/by what I had chosen to perform.” These particular lines focus on one of the outcomes of engaging in sex – a child. The song reflects on her fears that her pregnancy would ruin her career and social status, even though makes the choice to keep her child. The song is autobiographical. About a year before the album was released, she had a child, Zion, outside of traditional marriage. Abstinence programs taught students that the sex they were having was bad; Hill’s lesson taught students about how to deal with the realities of their sexual actions.

In place of an educational system that was full of bias, racism, and an overall lack of opportunity and resources for people of color, Hip-Hop often stood in as a surrogate teacher. Hip-Hop’s lessons ranged from how to survive on the streets to criticisms of the

American educational system itself to lessons on the importance of self-understanding and self-knowledge. In a decade where more African American men were going to jail than to college, Hip-Hop’s lessons arguably added more value than any inner-city high school was providing.

Chapter 6: Poverty and Hip-Hop

Compared to white Americans, African Americans are more likely to live in high poverty neighborhoods (Firebaugh & Acciai, 2016). Discriminatory real estate practices and de facto segregation is correlated to the high concentration of minorities in cities

(Pollard & O’Hare,1999). In 1990, 11 million people lived in urban ghettos, seven out of eight were members of minority groups, and one in five were black (Jargowsky, 1994).

“Ghettos,” a term that by the 1990s had come to define very poor, urban neighborhoods, were increasing at alarming rates, furthering the gap between the black people of the lower and middle class. This also affected school quality, limited access to health care, jobs, and social networks, and reduced quality of life for those living in these neighborhoods (Firebaugh & Acciai, 2016). Poorer urban communities during the 1990s saw higher crime rates, noise, and a lower quality of life compared to other communities during the decade. One of the major themes of Hip-Hop was how artists dealt with their own poverty. For example, in “All That I Got Is You” by Ghostface Killah (1996), he recounts his childhood:

Check it, fifteen of us in a three bedroom apartment/ Roaches everywhere, cousins

and aunts was there/ Four in the bed, two at the foot, two at the head/ I didn't like to

sleep with Jon-Jon he peed the bed/ Seven o'clock, pluckin' roaches out the cereal

box/ Some shared the same spoon, watchin' Saturday cartoons/ Sugar water was our

thing, every meal was no frill/ In the summer, free lunch held us down like steel/ And

there was days I had to go to Tech's house with a note/ Stating, "Gloria, can I borrow

some food I'm dead broke"/ So embarrasin' I couldn't stand to knock on they door/

My friends might be laughin', I spent stamps in stores/ Mommy where's the toilet

paper, use the newspaper.

“Sky’s The Limit” by Biggie (1997), also describes growing up in poverty:

Uh, a nigga never been as broke as me, I like that/ When I was young, I had two

pair of Lees, besides that/ The pin stripes and the gray/ The one I wore on

Mondays and Wednesdays/ While niggas flirt, I'm sewing tigers on my shirts, and

alligators/ You want to see the inside? I see you later

The lyrics above show that Biggie had to wear the same clothes every day. The reference to sewing shows that Biggie was wearing knock offs because he could not afford brand names. This is why the artist leaves when asked to show the inside of the shirt, an action that would show that it was a knockoff. In Tupac Shakur’s “Changes” (1992), he raps:

I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself/ Is life worth livin'?

Should I blast myself?/ I'm tired of bein' poor and, even worse, I'm black/ My

stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch

In this song, Shakur attempts to show that being poor was not as bad as being black and poor. It is telling that in the 1990s, the US Census showed that the poverty rates for inner cities were double those of surrounding suburbs (Chapple & Teitz, 1998). Specifically,

African American and Hispanic household poverty rates were above 25%, four to five times suburban rates (Chapple & Teitz, 1998).

Shakur’s message about race and poverty, however, was not the mainstream view in American culture. Rather than being seen as a victim of a broken system, much of mainstream America viewed poverty as a personal flaw. The 1980s and 1990s saw the rise of terms like “Welfare Queen,” which was used to describe women of color who were alleged to be giving birth for financial gain (Foster, 2017). It was a way to criminalize those on welfare and to make policy reforms that limited access to welfare resources. The 1990s saw a rehashing of stories from the 1980s. Politicians continued the

Ronald Reagan-era strategy of telling exaggerated stories of inner-city women committing fraud to receive money from the government. These exaggerated stories lingered into the 1990s and played a major role in steering welfare policy changes. For example, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 (Foster, 2017) included time limits on benefits, work requirements, and marriage incentives. In the song “Dear Mama” (1995), Tupac Shakur thanks his mother for being there for him, despite the odds being stacked against her. “A poor single mother on welfare, tell me how ya did it/ There's no way I can pay you back/

But the plan is to show you that I understand/ You are appreciated” In Too $hort’s song,

“Thangs Change” (1995), the rapper mentions the hardships of growing up in a single- parent household:

It’s kinda hard comin’ up as a youngster/ Gotta deal with the roof that I’m under/

Even though my mom’s got it hard/ My daddy passed away, now I’m stuck

without a father/But times have changed bro/ I never ever seen Santa Claus

comin’ through the ghetto

Hip-Hop in the 1990s broadcasted the issues of poverty that were not being talked about in the news. By offering new views that tried to locate the context of black poverty, rappers came to be viewed as the “voice of the poor” (Blanchard, 1999).

Conclusion

This paper focused on how Hip-Hop engaged with economic and social issues affecting African Americans during the 1990s. The rise of the notion of Keepin’ It Real in the 1990s changed the game for Hip-Hop, but it also sparked major controversy. Hip-

Hop certainly had problems during the decade. It was misogynistic and violent. It often hid behind being “entertainment” whenever criticisms were leveled against it. Rappers often glorified aspects of life that went directly against much of their own activism – sometimes in the same song. Hip-Hop limited the number of perspectives afforded to

African Americans, and it limited the perception of African Americans to one overarching medium. But Hip-Hop also provided a voice to the voiceless. It gave a platform to those who had been forgotten, ignored, and marginalized by American society. It comforted those whose lives resembled the songs they were listening to. It educated people about how to live and interact in their world.

From the outside looking in, the lyrics of Hip-Hop during the 1990s might seem hardcore. And, there is no arguing that criticisms of the genre are deserved. For those unfamiliar with the conditions that Hip-Hop reflected during the 1990s, Hip-Hop might seem to paint an intimidating and violent picture of inner cities. Keepin’ It Real was such an important part of an artist’s image during this time that upholding these values often led to success and failure – in some cases, in their own deaths. This is why much of Hip-

Hop was given the label, gangsta rap in the 1990s. But the artists did not call it that. For

the artists who became the voice of a decade, the street code that Hip-Hop presented was understood as a byproduct of the structural disadvantage, despair, and social isolation that defined the decade for so many Americans. During the 1990s, the context of Hip-Hop was the point.

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ACADEMIC VITA

Jamirca Nuesi

Education: Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice, Penn State University, Spring 2020 Bachelor of Science Degree in Sociology, Penn State University, Spring 2020 Honors in Sociology

Experience: Internship with Dauphin County Probation Services, Summer 2018 Supervisor: Kija Waithe Pennsylvania Student Power Fellowship Supervisor: James Cersonsky Honors Service Learning at WecARE Food Pantry Supervisor: TaLisa Ramos Penn State Alternative Spring Break Supervisor: TaLisa Ramos

Awards: Dean’s List Chi Upsilon Sigma Woman of Wisdom Penn State Lion Leader in Diversity Andrew S. Donahue Award

Activities/Presentations: Vice President, Chi Upsilon Sigma, 2018-2020 Public Relations Director for Programming and Activities Committee, 2018-2019 Public Relations Director for Caribbean Student Association, 2018-2019 Senator, Student Government Association, 2018-2019 Member of Chancellor’s Leadership Access Student Program, Spring 2018

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