MASARYK UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Education

Department of English Language and Literature

Uncovering the US Gun Culture in Rap Music

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2020

Supervisor: Author:

Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A., Ph.D. Klára Machalová Ondrášková

„Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou (bakalářskou, diplomovou, rigorózní, disertační práci) vypracoval/a samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty

Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.“

…..…………………. ……….……………………..

V Brně dne Klára Machalová Ondrášková

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my gratitude to Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A., Ph.D. for his supervision over my bachelor thesis, valuable advice, and patience.

Abstract

The bachelor thesis deals with American rap music and the gun culture in the United

States. The aim is to find and analyse the connection between rap music and the trend of rising violence, including the assumption that rap music has negative influence on individual's behaviour. First, we establish what gun culture in the United States is and how it presents itself in American society, then we follow with a description of the era when homicide rate by firearm reached its peak to put it into context. Next chapters describe conception of rap music, its early days and at last follows the analysis of sources relevant to violence present in lyrics of the American rap music and its culture.

Key words

gun culture, American rap music, violence in music, gun violence

Table of contents

1. Introduction ...... 6

2. Negative view of rap music ...... 9

3. Connection of music and violent tendencies ...... 11

4. Gun culture ...... 13

4.1. Defining gun culture in the United States ...... 13

4.2. Interpretation of The Second Amendment ...... 17

5. Socioeconomical situation in the United States during rise in gun violence . 19

5.1. Era shaping events ...... 19

5.2. Unemployment and crime rates ...... 22

6. Rap music ...... 24

6.1. Definition of rap ...... 24

6.2. History of rap ...... 25

6.3. Rap music popularity ...... 36

7. Rap music and violence ...... 37

8. Analysis of rap lyrics ...... 40

8.1. About The Chronic ...... 40

8.2. The Analysis...... 41

8.3. The Results ...... 43

9. Discussion ...... 48

10. Conclusion ...... 51

Sources ...... 53

Appendices ...... 65

1. Introduction

The mass shooting at Orlando night club Pulse in 2016 was the reason I started to be interested in gun laws in the United States and their surrounding culture. From my own personal experience before researching this thesis, guns were big part of the American culture, but I did not fully understand why. Even though mass shootings like the one in

Orlando are not frequent and only make up a small part of all gun violence committed, they attract extensive media coverage not only in the States but also in the Czech media, often leading to discussions about firearm possession laws.

The United States is a nation with the highest gun to person ration in the world. The

Small Arms Survey estimated there are 120.5 guns for every 100 residents in the USA, making it two times higher than the second highest nation (Karp 2018, p. 3). This high number of firearms mirrors the high homicide numbers in the States. Homicide trends in the

United States shows that the deadliest year in firearm-related homicides was 1993 (Fox and

Zawitz 2007), see Figure 1 and Table 2.

My goal in this thesis is to find and explain the connection between rap music and the trend of rising violence in the late 1980s and 1990s. If we look closely at the data of homicides committed by firearms, we can see that people in the age group 15-24 are most likely to die from a gun-related death (WISQARS Leading Causes of Death Reports 2020), see Table 1. I believe this shows a possible connection between music listening and violence because people from this age group are people most frequently listening to music. By 35 most people already have children and full-time jobs, therefore they must focus their attention and spare time on their family and household. Even from my own experience, students have much more free time to entertain themselves, listen to music and are also

6 generally more interested in it when going to concerts, buying merchandise and sometimes starting bands themselves.

It is evident that gun violence is present in books and movies, too, but I chose to focus on music because of my personal preference and knowledge. Even though I am just a consumer and not an artist, music still plays a big role in my life as I listen to it every day.

Because of reading and translating lyrics of the songs I liked, I gained extensive vocabulary in elementary school while English became the most interesting subject for me, eventually leading me to study it later in university.

I decided to investigate the connection between American rap music and gun violence mainly because of my participation in a street dance hip-hop group during middle school and high school. Back then, I listened to hip-hop and rap almost daily, read about the artist, learned the lyrics to my favourite songs, and talked about their music with other people. Now, when I think about rap music many connotations including gangsters, violence, and sex immediately come to my mind. A gangster is by definition a violent and dangerous individual, and rappers often talk about themselves and other people from their surroundings

- friend or foe - as gangsters. This is the primary reason I suspect rap music will have a strong connection with violence and gun violence. However, this is just a feeling, a personal image of rap music based on my limited experience that I and other people listening to rap music, or watching American movies, might have.

These stereotypes about rap music are what lead me to research the connection between rap music and gun violence. I will collect and evaluate evidence by establishing why are firearms a glorified symbol in the United States, explain the roots of rap music, its creation, and history. I will also include crime and homicide statistics in this rise in rap popularity to explore if these negative claims about rap music and violence are based on real evidence or just a stereotype glorified by the media. To confirm my findings in literature and 7 media, I will analyse lyrics from the rap 1993 album The Chronic by Dr. Dre. The swear words and slurs that are part of the lyrics, including the word “nigger” and its variations will not be censored in the analysis, because they are used exclusively in the context of the lyrics and are an important part of the rap culture and individual artistic expression.

8 2. Negative view of rap music

A stereotype is an expectation, often leading to biased opinions about a certain group and it might keep people from forming new positive views and engaging with said group.

For example, police from Colorado publicly blamed rap music and even clubs that play music “that typically glorifies, promotes criminal behavior and demeans women.” (Frosch

2007). Such claims are used to push certain agendas even in the world of politics. Mississippi senator Chris McDaniel blamed rap for social problems and violence: “It has everything to do with a culture that is morally bankrupt. What kind of culture is that? It’s called hip-hop.”

(Murphy 2014). This is not exclusively American phenomenon as French minister

Grosdidier reacted to riots by blaming violent rap lyrics: "When people hear this all day long and when these words swirl round in their heads, it is no surprise that they then see red as soon as they walk past policemen or simply people who are different from them." (BBC

News 2004). This might be the easy way out to “explain” problems happening under their jurisdiction, to blame the entire community, without broader evidence and ignoring all the other problems that might cause rising violence in the society.

Prejudice and ideas similar to the ones mentioned above are harmful to the African

American community as they can go hand in hand with racist ideologies. Politics often end up blaming Black people for not doing enough, being lazy and only relying on the welfare system. Supposedly violent and misogynistic rap music and videos accompanying the songs are fuelling the negative stereotypes about Black people the most (Reyna et al. 2009).

An online poll by YouGov asked respondents if rap musicians are positive or negative role models for young black men. Only 2% of respondents said that they are Very positive and 11% said Somewhat positive (YouGov 2014). Another evidence that rap music is seen as violent by default is presented by Fried, who did a study by asking random

9 respondents to evaluate song lyrics. All of the lyrics were taken from country songs, but when were the participants told it was rap, their stance toward it was much more negative and they perceived is as much more violent and aggressive than participants that were told nothing of the genre (Fried 1999). This shows how negatively can rap music be perceived.

These claims about rap music are a part of the reason that lead me to research the connection between rap music and gun violence.

10 3. Connection of music and violent tendencies

Music as well as other types of art is very subjective because people perceive and interpret songs and the lyrics in a different way, unique to their life experience or current mood. But to what extent can lyrics be subjective if they are explicitly violent? In music lyrics, as it is with poetry, there is often the use of figurative language, metonymy, and irony which sometimes very subtly transfers and twists the meaning of the words completely. This means that the original idea behind the words the artist meant to express can be completely lost to the listener and misinterpreted as a different idea entirely.

Obviously, a person's behaviour can be influenced by many other factors, but for the purposes of this thesis, I am most interested in the momentary behaviour and acts committed after violent music exposure. Barongan and Hall studied the influence of violent vignettes on participants and found out that people exposed to pictures with violent images then chose to share these disturbing images with female participants significantly more frequently, than people in the group exposed to neutral stimuli. “These findings suggest that misogynous music facilitates sexually aggressive behaviour and support the relationship between cognitive distortions and sexual aggression.” (Barongan and Hall 1995, p. 195).

According to different study Exposure to Violent Media: The Effects of Songs With

Violent Lyrics on Aggressive Thoughts, which studied 500 subjects, violent music leads to aggressive behaviour: “…college students who heard a violent song felt more hostile than those who heard a similar but nonviolent song. These effects replicated across songs and song types (e.g., rock, humorous, nonhumorous).” (Anderson et al. 2003, p. 960). Study

Music, Substance Use, and Aggression concluded that while substance use and violence may be related to frequent exposure, it can also mean it is a preference by a person with an already violent predisposition to listen to violent music (Chen et al. 2006). Other experiments that focused on influence of music during driving (Van der Zwaag et al. 2012) and behaviour 11 of shoppers connected with background music (Alpert J. and Alpert M. 1989) found that music can influence person's behaviour to a certain degree.

Violent gun-related encounters where the killer (or the collected evidence) suggest that they have been affected by music is often heavily talked about in the media. A real example is an alleged reaction to a song by Tupac Shakur. A well-known rapper going by the stage name 2Pac wrote a song Soulja's Story, which describes killing police officers. In

1994 two teenagers conspired to kill a police officer with a sniper rifle. "He told officers he wanted to shoot a police officer because he had listened to a rap recording by Tupac Shakur, and that rap recording talked about killing police and he thought it would be something he wanted to do…" (Worthington 1994). Another shooter who claimed to be inspired by violent music including Tupac shot a state trooper in June 1993 (Worthington 1994).

From the mentioned studies and experiments we can say that music can influence a person to a certain point. In some cases, it can eventually lead to violence, but listening to music is not the sole factor to “drive the person up the wall” so to speak. The wider context of the person’s life is an important factor to consider when studying this influence.

12 4. Gun culture

4.1. Defining gun culture in the United States

Before analysing any gun-related subject in the United States, it is important to understand why is the nation number one on the firearm ownership list (Karp 2018, pg. 3).

This thesis is based on the premise that the phenomenon of “gun culture” exists in the United States. First, we must explain what we mean by “gun culture” and how does it present itself in the behaviour of American citizens. Before researching this topic in scholarly literature, I had an idea of what gun culture might be. From my point of view as a

Czech citizen that studies the English language and consumes American-made entertainment in my free time, gun violence is something I am quite often in contact with. It is made clear that the right to own a gun is inseparable in American culture and in its individuals.

Who are gun owners? The biggest portion of gun owners consist of white men, which make 48% of all gun owners (Igielnik and Brown 2020). Why do these Americans own a gun? Many of them have more reasons for ownership but the vast majority of them have it for protection (67%), hunting (38%), sport (30%), collecting (13%), or for their job (8%)

(Igielnik and Brown 2020). These are one of the reasons why I see Americans as strong individuals who value their personal freedom and happiness, even though in some cases it can bring more harm than good.

There are plenty of films and television series where the protagonist, an ordinary

American citizen, survives a catastrophe and one of the reasons for this is the ever-present gun ownership and capability to use guns. For instance, the television series The Walking

Dead or The Purge movie series. Heavily reported and dissected mass shootings in Czech and foreign media are also shaping my perspective on this topic and every time a story like this breaks, I think to myself “How did they not ban guns yet? That would solve their

13 problem.” This is of course a limited and one-sided view of someone who has never lived or even visited the United States, but the constant use of guns for asserting dominance, personal protection, criminal acts, and mostly the stubbornness of keeping guns no matter what is how I personally see and understand gun culture.

The term gun culture was first most noticeably used by Hofstadter in 1970 who argued America is the only “modern industrial urban nation that persists in maintaining a gun culture” (Hofstadter 1970, p. 82). Utter and True examine this phenomenon in

The Evolving Gun Culture in America. According to them, the gun culture consists of

“people who view guns as a significant part of American life” (Utter and True 2004, p. 67).

This definition includes both groups: pro-gun control group (favour more government restrictions) and pro-gun rights group (oppose government restrictions). These groups compete with each other for the approval and support of the population, meaning of The

Second Amendment and naturally, they want to see their ideas represented in the laws and regulations of the states, because both sides believe they represent the majority of American people (Ibid, p. 67).

Pro-gun rights group believes that the right for individual power is more valuable than government control, for instance when protecting personal property, one will do a better job than law enforcement. People should have a guarantee they can protect themselves from the government – should it try to violate their freedom (Ibid., p. 77). This shows distrust for the government and authority, the need for self-defence and ultimately this reveals that the main value of the pro-gun rights group is the right of the individual. Firearms are also a significant symbol of freedom and represent the noble history of the nation founded on the precedent that the American individual has the right to bear arms (Ibid, p. 70). The goal of the pro-gun rights group is the same as of their opponents, to preserve their beliefs, way of life, and gun culture through increasing the number of followers. 14 This has become difficult as the number of households with firearms has declined in recent decades (Smith and Son 2015). Urbanization and following detachment of younger generations from their ancestors leads to different lifestyles and priorities and makes it harder to pass on and preserve the values of the preceding generation. A fitting example is hunting, which “attracted the greatest numbers of firearms enthusiasts, and this hunting tradition depended largely on passing the practice from generation to generation, from father to son.”

(Utter and True 2004, p. 73). Pro-gun rights activists also value the craftsmanship and technology behind the firearm which gives them an advantage in making positive statements about firearms and publish attractive commercial publications (Ibid, p. 75). They claim the opposing side has an irrational fear of guns and refuse to see them as a tool for evil individuals, but only views guns as an evil force independent from the user (Ibid, p. 67).

From this point of view, we could argue that banning firearms will not solve anything, because after all people have no problem committing violence by various means and they do not need firepower to execute their violent ideas.

Pro-gun control group believes that collective safety is more important than the individual right to possess a firearm, which they see as already questionable. Therefore, government has the right and duty to protect its citizens from firearms, which are sometimes compared to a virus (Ibid, p. 74). Gun is seen as an independent force that causes death and increases the probability of harm and not only as an object dependent on its wielder

(Kellermann 1986, in Utter and True 2004, p. 74). The gun-control group is recently trying to attract new supporters by rebranding and using stronger language and polemics. They highlight the burden gun violence places on the health care system, its workers, and the economy. They claim that gun manufacturers are motivated solely by profits and are careless about the consequences of gun violence (Utter and True 2004, p. 76).

15 Data from General Social Survey 1972-2018 show that “While the pattern of who owns guns in America has changed very little, there has been a long-term decline in the size of the population owning guns. “(Smith et al. 2015, quoted in Utter and True, p. 72). While examining the survey another anticipated connection was verified. Those who do not possess firearms want stricter laws than those who do. A majority of people from both sides of the gun debate agree with police permits (for gun ownership) however, there is a noticeable gap between the number of supporters (Utter and True 2004, p. 72).

In What is gun culture? Cultural variations and trends across the United States Boine and colleagues attempted to fill a gap by empirically defining and measuring gun culture in states. They identified 11 variables for the purpose of their research: “(1) the number of per capita hunting licenses; (2) the number of per capita NRA members; (3) the share of NRA members who subscribe to the magazine The American Hunter; (4) the share of NRA members who subscribe to the magazine America’s 1st Freedom; (5) the share of NRA members who subscribe to the magazine American Rifleman; (6) the per capita number of subscriptions to the most popular gun-related magazine (Guns and Ammo); (7) per capita purchases of handguns; (8) per capita purchases of long guns; (9) the presence of a “stand your ground” law; (10) the presence of a ban on assault weapons, and (11) the per capita number of federally licensed gun dealers.” (Boine et al. 2020, p. 2). These variables have been assorted into three components that could possibly reflect the motivation of people to willingly engage with guns and their culture (Boine et al. 2020). The results showed that recreational gun usage such as hunting has dropped over the years, the impulse to use guns for self-defence is rising steeply and The Second Amendment variable is fluctuating, but recently rising again, see Figure 2. Buying a firearm for sport and enjoyment is not as frequent reason anymore, but protection is becoming the leading cause for firearm possession. Are Americans becoming more paranoid or scared for their life or just losing 16 their leisure time? Perhaps nowadays they simply need to work harder and longer hours, which motivates them to protect the property they worked so hard to gain.

This shift from recreational use of firearms to self–defence is also described by

Yamane in “What’s next?”. He calls it Gun Culture 1.0 and Gun Culture 2.0 respectively

(Yamane 2018, p. 159). Consequently, Yamane also mentioned an interesting point about himself as someone not born and raised in the United States, meaning he was not used to being in such frequent contact with gun culture. This is called culture shock and applies to people in contact with other cultures in many different scenarios (Oxford Learner's

Dictionaries 2020). For example, a French culture blogger said "In France or Germany, I’ve never seen any shops, department stores, or whatever selling weapons. I also have no idea where I could buy a gun in my home countries…” (Abadi 2018). Another European born traveller notes “…gun issues (in Europe) are practically non-existent — go figure.” (Koraza

2019).

4.2. Interpretation of The Second Amendment

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” (U.S. Constitution - Second

Amendment: Resources: Constitution Annotated: Congress.gov: Library of Congress 2020).

This is the full text of the Amendment to the constitution that is undeniably a solid defence for gun rights activists.

As I mentioned in chapter Gun culture, many people interpret the meaning of the

Amendment differently. The pro-gun rights group argues that the amendment gives individuals gun ownership rights, and the government has no right to take them away. The opposition believes it gives the right to states only to maintain militia and government should limit individual gun ownership (Utter and True 2004, p. 77).

17 This case has been taken to court many times. In the notable ruling, District of

Columbia v. Heller from 2008, the US Supreme Court decided that: „The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.” It also stated that this ruling does not prevent further restrictions of firearm possession (District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008)).

18 5. Socioeconomical situation in the United States during rise in gun violence

5.1. Era shaping events

Current events, politics, entertainment, real estate market, job security, and many other things influence person’s moods and actions. Depending on their tastes and character, people seek out different types of entertainment. This includes the music they listen to and the music they create. With this in mind, if we are to analyse the music and the artist behind the lyrics, we must consider various factors shaping society during their life. This would mean analysing political situations, laws, government support of regions and communities dealing with crime, poverty, urbanisation, criminality, unemployment rate, but also incarceration rate, and abortion availability. These and many other factors can change behaviour of people living in certain communities and subsequently their creations – in this case, music.

As rap is a music genre created by African Americans, we need to take a look at what their life was like during the time its creation. Black Americans had to suffer under segregation laws, even after the end of World War II, though participating in the war helped their position in society to a certain degree. In the time of need, they started to work together with white people, not segregated anymore. Thanks to that, some of the whites came to the conclusion that African Americans should not be treated like second-class citizens anymore

(O'Callaghan 1990, p. 112).

Segregation laws were struck down slowly over time. Segregation in schools was ruled unconstitutional in 1954 and segregation on public transportation in 1956 – as a result of the protest by Rosa Parks (O'Callaghan 1990 p. 112, 113). However, it was not so easy to change the attitude of every citizen. Business boycotts by anti-segregation groups and 19 protests took place and culminated in the world-famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech by

Martin Luther King (Ibid., p. 113). President Kennedy planned to introduce laws to ensure the equality of all races in the US, but he was assassinated before he was able to finish this process. The laws were passed by his successor, President Lyndon Johnson (Ibid., p. 114), but it did not stop the everyday racism and prejudice the Black people faced in America.

After the murder of Martin Luther King in April 1968, Black activists started to realise that a more efficient way to move forward in gaining their rights is to get Black people elected to office and by 1985 five thousand elected officials were African Americans (Ibid., p. 114).

When Nixon became president in 1969, he had no intentions of helping the poverty struck population of America, believing they should work harder and not rely on welfare.

With the Vietnam war drawing to an end, Nixon was re-elected only to resign after the famous Watergate affair, which uncovered the rotten American system full of corruption

(Ibid., p. 110,111).

During the 1970s about half of the Black population lived in the north of the country

(Ibid., p. 112). Moving from the south where their ancestors were slaves and racism continued to rule in many forms, including lynching seemed like a logical decision (Abbott

2020). This era of resettling is called the Great Migration. Black Americans left the south to pursue better living conditions, work opportunities for themselves and for their children

(Tolnay 2003, p. 227). The south still held strong prejudice and many segregation laws in place, so they left for the North to gain a chance to simply be treated better, although it was not always the case (Ibid., p. 218). Industrial cities like New York, Chicago, and Detroit became the main target because of their rising job opportunities (Ibid., 216). Naturally, as a result, northern cities experienced a high rise in the population of Black citizens (Ibid., 220).

20 Lower quality of life and higher unemployment rates still plagued the African

Americans more than whites (Ibid., p.115). Then-President Ronal Reagan had a mindset similar to Nixon when it came to welfare and poverty eradication, but he managed to create jobs by supporting missile development during the Cold War (Ibid., p. 111). The Cuban

Missile Crisis, the Cold and Vietnam War worried many Americans during this time, but it seems the United States were more concerned with battling communism overseas than its own citizens (Ibid., p. 130). Nationwide protests held against the continuation of the Vietnam

War eventually contributed to its end. Martin Luther King helped the anti-war protests when he talked about the high number of African American casualties in the war (History.com

Editors 2010).

Women and sexual minorities also fought for their rights in the 1970s. The Equal

Rights Amendment was approved by Congress in 1972 but failed to be ratified, shockingly, to this day. There was also a rise in environmental awareness, after the nuclear accident at the Three Mile Island energy plant in Pennsylvania, and new laws to protect the environment were passed (History.com Editors 2010).

The 1980s were shaped by the rising AIDS epidemic (Senthilingam 2016).

Entertainment was also on the rise as music channel MTV debuted in 1981 (Peake 2017) and created an opportunity for artists of many genres, rap included. The first Star Wars movie was released and changed the movie industry forever (IMDb).

The horrific Central Park rape in 1989 saw five Black teenagers lynched by the media and convicted without sufficient physical evidence. Later already imprisoned Matias Reyes confessed to the heinous crime and after a DNA match, the five accused were acquitted

(Smith 2002).

21 A terrifying incident that shaped the decade happened in April 1995 when a bomb set by anti-government conspiracist McVeigh killed 168 people. Before the 9/11 attacks, it was the worst terrorist attack in the United States (FBI 2016). Another tragedy took place in four years on April 20th, 1999. The whole nation was shocked when the news of two high schoolers killing 13 people in Colorado Columbine High School broke. Injuring dozens more they turned the gun on themselves, leading many American schools to invest in private security (Encyclopædia Britannica).

The Los Angeles riots started after four officers (three of them white) were acquitted after brutally beating an African American motorist Rodney King. Even though the incident was caught on video camera, they were released and when the public learned the decision of the court, the riots began. Fires, looting, violence, and destruction followed the next five days, see Figure 5. The incident sparked conversation in the community about the treatment of African Americans by the police (Sastry and Bates 2017). Sadly, it is still evident that in

2020 not much has changed.

5.2. Unemployment and crime rates

Unemployment is a factor that cannot be omitted when studying crime and homicide rate because their numbers are tied together: “higher unemployment leads to higher crimes rates, both property and crime.” (Ajimotokin, Haskins and Wade 2015, p.14).

The unemployment rate was highest1 in 1992 but started to decline after its peak in

June 1992 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2020). Homicide rate peaked in 1980 and firearm-related homicides were at their highest in 1993 (Fox and Zawitz, 2007), see Figure

1 During the period relevant to this thesis. 22 3. The year 1993 was also the last year to have the total crime committed above 14 million

(United States Crime Rates 1960 - 2019). The data shows that when the unemployment rate declined in 1992 and the economic situation in the country improved, homicide and crime decline followed shortly later. This suggests that crime can be controlled by supporting the unemployed and helping them get back to work (Raphael and Winter-Ebmer 2001, p. 280-

281). New York, the birthplace of rap music, mirrors the numbers of committed homicides, the highest violent crime was in the period 1986 – 1993 and started to decline from 1990

(New York Crime Rates 1960 - 2019).

The overall crime rate is decreasing, but how are the statistics on a regional level?

The south is not doing so well. Murder, including those committed by firearms, is higher in the south of the United States compared to the rest of the country (Fox and Zawitz 2007).

On the other hand, the Northeast region has the lowest numbers (Ibid., 2007).

Why does this phenomenon exist? The reason might be because southerners are more aggressive in confrontations and tend to be more defensive when it comes to their reputation

(Cohen et al.,1996, p. 2). Climate and weather in the south may also fuel the violence as high temperatures are said to have an effect on aggressive behaviour (C. Anderson and K.

Anderson 1998, p. 253). Poverty has also been linked to crime (Imran et al., 2018) and although the overall numbers are getting better, the South is still less wealthy when compared to the North (Moore 2018).

23 6. Rap music

6.1. Definition of rap

Defining rap music might not be as easy as it looks. A common belief seems to be that the terms hip-hop and rap (referring to rap music) are equivalents. Such a theory finds consensus in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, where both are described as “type of popular music with spoken words” (Oxford Learner's Dictionaries 2020).

The differences between the two definitions are found in their ethnical origins and in the specific description of the musical genre, hip-hop is of US black and Hispanic origin, while rap music is of US black origin (Lexico Dictionaries 2020), similarly to what is found on the website Urban Dictionary, where hip-hop and rap share the same page and which states the following: “Musically, the only difference between the two is that rap always contains the vocal element of rhythmically spoken rhymes while hip-hop can be purely instrumental in nature” (Urban Dictionary 2020).

What seems to be even more widely accepted, is to understand hip-hop as a cultural phenomenon. For example, as stated by Merriam Webster Online, an American dictionary:

“A cultural movement associated especially with rap music” (Merriam-Webster 2020), understanding of hip-hop as a wider concept rather than a musical genre only, while still closely linking it to rap as its main type of music.

Alonzo Westbrook, a New York City-based journalist and therefore close to the context of the music origin, offers a passionate description of hip-hop defining it as: "The artistic response to oppression. A way of expression in dance, music, word/song. A culture that thrives on creativity and nostalgia. As a musical art form, it is stories of inner-city life, often with a message, spoken over beats of music. The culture includes rap and any other venture spawned from the hip-hop style and culture” (Westbrook 2000, p. 64).

24 Westbrook’s words seem inspired by the streets and boroughs of the Big Apple, where hip- hop was born, providing a wider angle to the topic and suggesting that the closer and the more in tune with the culture and the language a person is, the more these fine distinctions will be noticeable or even matter (Westbrook 2000).

Based on these definitions, on my own experience as a hip-hop/rap music listener and former street dancer, I have gradually started to use these two terms more consciously, being more aware of their differences, and therefore considering rap music as one of the arts belonging to the hip-hop culture, and hip-hop as an umbrella term including many aspects of culture music included. As stated on KRS-ONEs track Hip-hop vs Rap “Rap is something you do. Hip-Hop is something you live.” (KRS-One 2020).

6.2. History of rap

The journey of rap to become the worldwide phenomenon that it is today begins in

New York City in the early 1970s (Henderson 1996, p. 310). The post-war prosperity had come to an end and the city suffered particularly from the economic stagnation that hit the

United States. Facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis, the government took severe measurements to avoid bankruptcy, including drastic cuts to public services which decreased the city’s quality of life (Gramlich 1976, p. 415). At this time, Latin and African American youths centred around the South Bronx, an urban wasteland (Henderson 1996, p. 311), where living conditions had been worsened by the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway, a massive roadway that bisected the neighbourhood and displaced business activities and thousands of residents (Caro 1974, p. 893-894).

Middle-class workers, especially white families, moved out on a large scale in what became known as the white flight, while Afro-Americans and Puerto Ricans came in by hundreds of thousands (Viteritti 2014, p. 164). Progressive devaluation of properties and

25 deterioration of the area left the landlords unable to sell their buildings, allegedly starting to set them on fire in order to get insurance money (Purdy 1994, p. 1). This led to an increase in crime, murdering and drug abuse through its streets, with blocks of abandoned, demolished, or burned down buildings, giving the neighbourhood the appearance of a warzone (Henderson 1996, p. 311), see Figure 6.

Poverty and desperation, as well as a vision of life with no prosperous future, helped the formation of numerous street gangs, which Eric Schneider describes as "violent, short- lived, disorganized collections of misfits whose main purpose was thrill-seeking and immediate gratification." (Schneider 1999, p. 137). However, he also talks about gangs as means to achieve a sense of meaningful life to a group of people (Schneider 1999, p. 137), as they lived in the same area, shared similar problems and struggles, so bonding in a group was natural.

People of colour during that era might have experienced some sense of disillusionment following the assassination of important figures for Black Nationalism and the social rights movement such as respectively, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr, therefore these groups, in spite of the nature of their actions, seemed to be the only institution in the Black community to send a message to the youth, aggregating people to resist the harshness of that area (Henderson 1996, pg. 311). Many gang members were homeless, most have lost everything, and the need to belong to something was a strong motivation for joining a group that offered family, shelter, and protection (Nicholson 2015).

Rapidly escalating in a wave of uncontrolled violence, the thug activities of the gangs saw a peak in 1970 that culminated in the assassination of Cornell Benjamin, the peacekeeper of the Ghetto Brothers (Schneider 1999, p. 243). Overcoming the wish for revenge and therefore preventing a war that was on the edge of exploding, the gangs’ leaders reached an important truce at the Hoe Avenue peace meeting in which, despite not reaching a total

26 peace, new rules for dealing with conflicts were agreed in order to avoid street warfare

(Nicholson 2015). Some of these groups, however, were significantly more active and had a community-centric platform different from a lot of the outlaw gangs (i.e., The Ghetto

Brothers and The Black Spades). Their intentions were also aimed to bring unity and to help each other, being much more modelled after the Young Lords (Latino community) and the

Black Panthers Party (African American community) organizations that arose to fight for neighbourhood empowerment (Nicholson 2015).

These ideals started to spread, leading to a gradual transition of the gangs from purely criminal to more social. One example is Afrika Bambaataa, a former warlord of The Black

Spades who founded the Zulu Nation, a union of reformed street gangs. They would combine cultural events, local dance, and music movements, defusing potentially violent interactions between them by competing against each other in musical competitions (George 1998, p.

18). This is where the roots of both hip-hop and rap music lie.

Hip-hop culture has four central elements: B-boying (dancing), MCing (rapping),

DJing, and graffiti art. These elements developed in different moments, but the main figure of these early days was definitely the DJ, the person playing records at parties and entertaining the audience (Israel 2002). DJing has its roots in boasting, chatting, and toasting, which had been a major part of reggae and dancehall since the middle of the century, and its antecedents can be traced back even further, to the griot musicians of West Africa (George et al.1985, p. 4). Revolutionary mixing of “breaks” by DJ Kool Herc resulted in a piece of highly danceable and rhythmical music that set the standard for other DJs to play and improve it. Grand Master Flash perfectioned this technique and started to “scratch” the records using the needle in the groove, crafting a sound for which rap became famous

(George 1998, p. 17). Adapting to this new style of music and following the break-beat

27 played by DJs, people started to dance in a peculiar way called break-dance. DJ Kool Herc coined the term “B-boy” and “B-girl” to define these dancers (George et al., 1985, p. 6).

With DJs being more concentrated on their craft, they had less time to spend on the microphone, cheering and toasting as they previously used to do, so the figure of MC started to develop. The acronym MC stands for Master of Ceremony, for they were originally introducing the DJs, recognizing and rhyming about their friends in the audience and commenting the ability of a particular DJ while playing his records (Kelley 1997, p. 1-2).

Groups started to form until they became the norm in New York’s parties, where the MC’s particular style of continuously rhyming phrases to the beat became known as rapping

(Lommel 2001, p.18-20).

Born as a live performed genre, rap music was not initially recorded, until a group called The Sugarhill Gang, founded with the goal of making a record, managed to do so, and obtained commercial success with their famous track Rapper’s Delight 1979 (Daly). Many other groups and rappers followed in the next years with alternate fortunes (Kurtis Blow,

Eric B. & Rakim, Treacherous Three, Run-DMC just to name a few...) but one of the most important songs in hip-hop and rap music history is The Message, a 1982 track by

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, that was the first commercial song to openly speak about the conditions in the ghetto (Rolling Stone 2017). Considered one of the best hip-hop song of all time (Rolling Stone 2017), “The Message” had the power to unite the Black community, who identified in the daily topics addressed in the lyrics, while at the same time reported a first-person account of their life conditions, also reaching people farther from this context or less informed about it (George et al. 1985, p. 26).

The evolution of hip-hop music within the first decade of the genres’ existence just dipped into the many changes hip-hop would bring into the world. As the first radio hits widened the genres’ audience, the music industry took note, and the entrepreneurial spirit of

28 hip hop was formed. Russell “Rush” Simmons, a party organizer in New York, witnessed the excitement in the crowd while MCs were performing and was one of the first to recognize the financial value of this new music. He started managing performers under the name Rush

Management and had in Kurtis Blow his first (Biography.com Editors 2020). Blow had already made a name for himself with the track “Christmas Rappin” from 1979 (Adler

2019).

Simmons’ little brother Joey became initially Blow’s DJ, but later he started rapping with childhood friend Darryl McDaniels (DMC), and with the addition of Jason Mizell (Jam

Master J) as DJ they formed the group Run-DMC. During the same time, Simmons met Rick

Rubin, a producer who had just founded his own label, Def Jam Records. The two ended up joining forces, discovering, and signing a number of artists who would bring successful records to their company and helping to spread further hip-hop’s popularity (Wheeler and

Bascunan, The New Guard 2016, 20:38-20:45).

A notable group formed under Def Jam Records is The Beastie Boys. The first recognizable group white rappers mixed hip-hop beats with punk-rock elements, creating a very new and different style of hip-hop music. With this, a whole new fan base from outside the local urban communities was brought to rap – white people. Surprisingly, they were accepted by Black rappers as part of their group without any problems (Reyes, 2016).

By the late 1980s, the rock-infused rap of Run-DMC and The Beastie Boys became popular with white audiences. Run-DMCs rap song with only a beat and scratch was popular with the Black listeners because they were familiar with it, and it was an unusual song for the white listeners (Wheeler and Bascunan, The New Guard 2016, 10:17-10:28). The group became immensely influential, fans were talking like them and wearing similar clothes, including their iconic Adidas white sneakers with black stripes, which led to their endorsement by the brand (Wheeler and Bascunan, The New Guard 2016, 15:05-15:40).

29 An important development occurred when Run-DMC covered the 1970s Aerosmith track “Walk This Way”, which became a smash hit reaching number four on the Billboard

Hot 100; and certified gold status (Billboard). Thanks to this single they crossed over to mainstream American music and became the first rap group to be on the cover of the Rolling

Stone magazine (Wheeler and Bascunan, The New Guard 2016, 27:08-27:22). This also marked a remarkable comeback for Aerosmith, who had been out of the mainstream pop culture for several years thanks to the addiction problems of their lead singer Steve Tyler

(Biography.com 2020).

MTV’s show “Yo MTV Raps” played a vital role in making rap mainstream and introduced many artists including Public Enemy (Chang 2009). Public Enemy signed to Def

Jam label was a rap group lead by Chuck D, whose booming voice and politically driven lyrics about the conditions of the black community would mark the birth of a new generation for rap music. Their first album, “Yo! Bum Rush the Show”, became certified gold (RIAA) was revolutionary, but still reflected the life on the streets and rapped about issues of African

Americans (McCann 2020).

Rap artists continued to write about the reality of the ghettoes. The East Coast group

Boogie Down Productions 1987 release, “9mm Goes Bang”, is one of the first rap songs to address gun violence, describing a real event (Hur 2014, p. 314).

Boogie Down Productions MC KRS-One (Kris Parker) is known for his positive attitude and messages. He wrote a song titled “Stop the Violence” with his close friend Scott

La Rock. La Rock subsequently died from a gunshot wound when he tried to break up a street fight. The song would then become a symbol of peace in the rap community (XXL

Mag, 2002) and KRS-One’s message became more important to the MCs.

During this time, Public Enemy, also East Coast group, did not stop with describing the conditions of urban America but challenged it; their songs were about the impact of drugs

30 like cocaine on the urban neighbourhoods and their intention was to attack mainstream culture (McCann). Some of the members wore military uniforms and fake firearms while performing (Erlewine, Public Enemy: Biography & History).

Another frightening form of hip-hop during this era was the West Coast “gangsta rap.” West Coast rappers had the willingness to address what they consider the biggest problems in their community just like their New York-based counterpart, but there were many differences in their way of making hip-hop music (Wheeler and Bascunan, The Birth of GangstaRap 2016, 02:22-02:38).

The first local rap label, Rappers Rapp Records, was founded in 1981 (DailyRapFacts

2020) and inspired by records from New York. Release by Captain Rapp in 1983,

“Bad Times (I can’t stand it)”, a politically conscious song about sensitive community violence, of police brutality and AIDS epidemic is the West Coast version of the “The

Message“ (Captain Rapp 1983).

Uncle Jamm's Army was a crew of producers, DJs, and MCs that mainly threw parties at first (Jones 2016), but later went to release their first single in 1983 "Dial-a-Freak"

(Discogs). The group had an influence on the development of the West Coast hip-hop artists.

The East Coast was still more dominant when it came to hardcore and gangsta rap, but the

1987 album Rhyme Pays by Ice-T changed the game. It portrays life in the ghetto (AllMusic).

Album track “6 n the mornin” is seen as a defining gangsta rap moment (Hip Hop Wiki).

Similar to what happened in New York, rap music became a way to make money legally rather than hustling, pimping, or robbing. Making music became a factor that helped young gang members or affiliates to start their careers. As Ice-T said about those early years of rap in California, the local gangs enjoyed those songs because they were a real description of their lives, the song became a street anthem and gave to other artists the inspiration to tell

31 their own daily life stories (Wheeler and Bascunan, The Birth of GangstaRap 2016, 10:07-

10:47).

As Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions were writing about the self- destructive aspects of the African American community, an actual drug-dealer from

Compton, California, Eric Wright, founded a label (Ruthless Records) with a different focus.

Going with the stage name Eazy-E, he teamed up with Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Arabian Prince under the name N.W.A. (Niggaz with Attitudes) and released their first album, “N.W.A. and the Posse”, in 1987. N.W.A.’s second release, 1988s “Straight Outta Compton” became known for the harsh and threatening lyrics and depicting the reality they were living in

(Erlewine, N.W.A: Biography & History). “Talking about what really led into the style that we ended up doing, which is now called hardcore gangster rap. Back then we was calling it

‘reality rap’; ‘gangsta rap’ is the name that the media coined.” (Ice-T for Rolling Stone 2015 in Grow 2018).

One of the main topics discussed by the band was the brutality of the Los Angeles

Police Department, famously in the track “Fuck the Police”, which led to the FBI sending

Ruthless a warning letter. This version of rap, which openly described and discussed the violence in South Los Angeles related to gang-warfare and crack-laden streets came to be known as “gangsta rap” (Erlewine, N.W.A: Biography & History).

Following the success of the N.W.A., the general public started to notice the violence in rap music and grew scared and worried about their children listening to them and trying to replicate the thug acts described in such songs. Protests to ban selling of gangsta rap albums took place and some people were burning physical copies of these records. (Wheeler and Bascunan, The Birth of Gangsta Rap 2016, 25:43-25:58).

While the debates began taking place in the mass culture about the impact of such violent images, hip-hop kept producing financially successful albums. N.W.A. had broken

32 up by the early 1990s but spawned a solo artist who would continue in gangsta rap’s model:

Dr. Dre (L. Jones 2012).

For his first solo project, “The Chronic”, he showed his skills as a DJ/producer and

MC, originating a fresh and evolved sound, rooted in the past decade’s funk from such bands as Parliament-Funkadelic, combining effectively and innovatively hardcore rap lyrics with party and melodic tunes. Joining forces with Suge Knight in 1992, he launched Death Row

Records, a label company that started to sign all the best West Coast rappers at the time

(Biography.com – Dr. Dre). Simultaneously, another former member of N.W.A., Ice Cube, the most politically driven and gifted MC of the group, joined forces with The Bomb Squad,

Public Enemy’s production team, and began a new path in New York with his new group, da Lench Mob (Erlewine, Ice Cube: Biography & History).

Ice Cube’s music was deeply influenced by the East Coast, but his lyrics continued to be linked with an extremely violent imagery as it previously was during his time with

N.W.A. (Wheeler and Bascunan, The Birth of GangstaRap 2016, 35:36). Following the Los

Angeles riots 1992, people revolted, and others went to blame the rap music for this violence.

As the media began to pay more and more attention to the political and social debates that were taking place in society, the popularity and record sales of gangsta rap artists also increased (Ibid., 36:00-36-20).

During the following years, another problematic issue came to be. The rivalry between East Coast and West Coast. The emerging West Coast gangsta style was controversial and highly marketable and its graphic violence shifted media’s attention away from the New York City scene, where hip-hop began. Already in 1991, Bronx’s artist Tim

Dog showed his resentment towards Compton’s rappers Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and West Coast in his explicit song “Fuck Compton”, which provoked several responses by Western artists.

However, this did not stop collaborations between artists from both coasts from happening.

33 The same Ice Cube, as previously mentioned, was constantly working with New York-based

The Bomb Squad while Brooklyn’s Buckshot appeared on “Criminal Minds” by Death

Row’s Tupac Shakur (Hess 2009, p. xx-xxi).

Famous figure even outside the rap fanbase, Tupac was born 1971 in East Harlem,

New York. He moved to Baltimore, where he started to rap, and lately to Oakland, where he joined the band Digital Underground. His debut album, “2PacAlypse Now”, was certified

Gold but also criticised for its strong police brutality theme. Continuing to expose his socio- political ideas, Tupac obtained notable success with his second album, "Strictly 4 My

N.I.G.G.A.Z...", that combined some of the black political thoughts from the 1960s with the current urban reality (Erlewine, 2Pac: Biography & History).

Meanwhile, in 1993, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs founded a new record label, “Bad

Boy Records”, who had in its major artist the promising New York gangsta rapper The

Notorious B.I.G. (also known as Biggie Smalls), whose debut album, “Ready to Die”, helped New York to re-gain popularity and attention from the hip-hop and mainstream scene

(Bush). Surprisingly, Biggie and Tupac were friends, hanging out even after Tupac’s initial success. Their relationship got sour when Tupac was attacked in a building where Notorious

B.I.G. and his crew were recording. He suffered gunshot wounds but was not able to obtain any information from Biggie’s side about the identity of the shooters. In the following months, Biggie Smalls released a track entitled “Who Shot Ya”, which seemed to refer to the incident. Although this theory was denied by Biggie, who explained that the lyrics had been written months before the accident happened, Shakur expressed his suspicions (Sisavat

2018).

During the same year, a clash between NYC’s Bad Boy Records and L.A.’s Death

Row Records started and gripped the public’s interest. At the 1995 Source Awards, held in

New York City, saw West Coast artists, including Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, booed by the

34 local audience, responded by further provoking the Eastern artists, as did by Suge Knight when calling out Bad Boy CEO (Cantor 2015).

The ceremony was the boiling point for the East Coast/West Coast rivalry, that had climaxed after Death Row signed Tupac Shakur after having him released from jail

(arranging for the posting of his 1.4 million dollars bond), where he had been following a sentence in a sexual assault case. In 1996 after attending a Mike Tyson fight, Shakur was shot and killed in Las Vegas (Erlewine, 2Pac: Biography & History). Despite trying to defuse the tension, Biggie Smalls was also shot and killed in his car while in Los Angeles (Huey).

Violence is undeniably present in the beginnings of rap, starting from the gang members - the earliest audience and often creators. But even nowadays society sees what it wants to see in this subculture – only the violence. The devastating effects of the crack cocaine epidemic since the 1980s plagued the communities from which rap stars were born and where some of its listeners lived (Turner). Some of these issues have come to define hip- hop and rap. The misogynistic and violent nature of gangsta rap became the lens through which outsiders viewed rap music. The East Coast/West Coast rivalry that resulted in the deaths of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur have greatly overshadowed all other positive images of the hip hop community in the media during the mid and late 1990s. Eminem’s recent meteoric rise to the top of hip hop and popular music charts has brought a second wave of discussions about misogyny within hip hop as well as claims of rampant homophobia throughout the rap industry (McCoy 2014).

35 6.3. Rap music popularity

Music is becoming more available to consumers every day and there has been a rise in streaming songs and audio by 12.5% in the year 2017 (2017 U.S. Music Year-End Report

2018, p. 2). Nowadays digitalisation of music helps rap and hip-hop with its popularity: “For the first time ever, R&B/Hip-Hop became the most dominant genre in the U.S., with nine of the Top 10 most-consumed songs coming from that genre…” (2017 U.S. Music Year-End

Report 2018, p. 2). The availability was especially important for rap during the 1980s with the rise in music access through media like CD (RIAA). Cheaper mediums lead to more product availability, more listeners, and a wider fan base of the artist.

Figure 4 is a compilation of weekly Billboard Hot 100 made into a graph by Reddit user JeffSee. It shows a clear rise of rap music's popularity in the 1990s and this trend continues to this day (JeffSee 2018). Album “Niggaz4life” by N.W.A. shattered the glass ceiling on June 22nd, 1991, by surpassing R.E.M. and becoming the most popular album in the United States. The first-ever rap album to be number one on the Billboard 200 started a revolution (Thompson 2015).

In the study “The evolution of popular music: USA 1960–2010” the authors conclude: “The rise of rap and related genres appears, then, to be the single most important event that has shaped the musical structure of the American charts in the period that we studied.” (Mauch et al., 2015, p. 6-7). Rap might have some negative connotations and stereotypes hanging onto its name, but it is undeniably a popular genre that influences many artists from different genres. In 2020, nothing suggests that rap is slowing down with new artist like Cardi B, Post Malone, Lil Nas X, Lizzo or Travis Scott conquering music charts and awards alike (Billboard).

36 7. Rap music and violence

What is the connection with rap music to violence and how is it present in the life and work of the artist? Is rap music violent at its core? There are many rappers with criminal offences, including big names like Tupac Shakur (Kakin 2020), but can it paint a fair picture about a whole genre? Of course not, but when I spent hours sitting in front of MTV as a teenager, I could see from the music videos that rap has a stronger connection to violence than pop music.

According to the CDC data from 2003-2008 from the National Violent Death

Reporting System, a big part of homicides among young people is gang related. These homicides involved firearms more than other non-gang related homicides in the same age category (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2012). Rappers were often part of gangs, as evident from the beginnings of rap music, and therefore are more likely to encounter fatal gun violence, than perhaps other musicians – pop music again comes to mind.

This experience of being part of a gang or living in their community can then lead to artists expressing it in their songs.

The Rap Research Lab by Tahir Hemphil studies the connection between crimes and rap music. There is a significant decline in the crime rate in the years rap music popularity is on the rise (Rap, Crimes and Racial Issues 2015), see Figure 7. Emmanuel Kohdra from the project Rap Research Lab compared crime references in rap music and crime rates and found that: “The data showed very little correlation between the crimes in the lyrics and their counterparts. For example, a significant crime drop between 1993 and 1995 is easily seen while crimes mentioned in rap lyrics are steadily increasing." (Britton 2014).

37 Figure 8 from the interactive graph compiled by Kohdra shows, that the violent aspect of rap music lyrics and the references to gun possession, drugs, and robberies is rising, but the overall violent crime rate is still decreasing Figure 9 (Kohdra).2

“A Prospective Study of Exposure to Rap Music Videos and African American

Female Adolescents’ Health” described longer exposure to the visual aspect of rap music – music videos and found a link between aggressive behaviour, sexually risky behaviour, and exposure to the rap videos (Wingood et al. 2003).

Sexist and misogynistic themes are frequent in rap lyrics (Weitzer and Kubrin 2009, p.25) and the videos are full of sexual objectification. When it comes to substance abuse,

Denise Herd examined lyrics of most popular rap songs in reference to drugs and discovered that the references between 1979 and 1997 increased significantly (Herd 2008).

However, rap music is not exclusively talking about negative or violent topics. As with any other genre, it deals with love and happiness, celebrates the culture of Black people, and the success of other rappers. Rap and hip-hop are also serving as a tool for the empowerment of young African Americans (Travis 2012, p. 162). Many famous rappers are helping their community by donating to and starting programmes for school education.

Chicago native and Grammy winner Lupe Fiasco co-founded organisations We Are

M.U.R.A.L, The Neighborhood Start-Up Fund, and many others, that provide meals, clothing, education, and support to develop valuable skills to youth (LupeFiasco.com 2020).

Kendrick Lamar’s album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” a 2012 release produced by

Dr. Dre, reflects on Lamar’s experience of growing up in violent Compton city full of gang violence and drugs (Rolling Stone 2020). The album was ranked as number 115 of the 500

2 Note: I was not able to find the original source of Kohdra’s data to confirm his findings. 38 greatest albums of all time by the Rolling Stone magazine (Rolling Stone 2020). Lamar chosses to rise above the violence of his upbringing and wants to avoid participating in its continuation (Taysom 2020). This makes him a positive role model for young listeners, especially African Americans, and he continues to care for his hometown by donating to the city’s educational programs for young people (Selby 2016).

39 8. Analysis of rap lyrics

8.1. About The Chronic

Dr. Dre’s first studio album The Chronic reached number 3 on Billboard 200 in

February 1993 (Billboard 2020). Billboard 200 lists the most popular albums in the US, so we can guarantee this was an immensely popular release and therefore had the opportunity to reach and potentially influence a wide audience. The album was released in December

1992 and consisted of 16 tracks (Dr. Dre 2020). Andre Romelle Young going by the stage name Dr. Dre started as a DJ living in Los Angeles and worked hard from recording his own songs to co-founding Death Row Records label and signing now-famous rappers like

Eminem and 50 Cent. In the course of his life, he had numerous troubles with the law and fellow rappers which he described in many of his songs (Biography.com – Dr. Dre).

Dr. Dre stated in an interview that he was in a bad place while recording the record

“During that process, my house burned down, I was shot in the legs.” (Dr. Dre Full Interview

(Part 2) 0:53 - 0:57). The album was recorded during the 1992 Los Angeles riots sparked by acquitting officers in the case of brutal beating Rodney King an African American man

(Sastry and Bates 2017). This influenced the record and songs like The Day the Niggaz Took

Over (Shipley 2017) and Dr. Dre even used recording of the protesters in some of the songs

(The Day The Niggaz Took Over 0:00-0:20). The album was originally supposed to include one more song titled “Mr. Officer” with the release, but the track did not make the final cut.

After Body Count had to pull out their controversial song “Cop Killer”, Dr. Dre decided not to release it as it was of the similar hateful theme (Shipley 2017).

This album is not a solo project by Dr. Dre, but it features several artists like Snoop

Dogg, RBX, The Lady of Rage, and many others, who contributed to lyrics and music

40 creation. This is valuable to the purpose of this thesis as it reflects the life and work of more than one artist, giving us a wider perspective.

8.2. The Analysis

To verify the claims about violence in rap lyric, I analysed above mentioned 1993 rap album The Chronic by Dr. Dre. My objective was to confirm or deny that rap lyrics are violent and to measure the frequency of those violent references present in the songs. I used a mixed method of research, qualitative method to code references in the lyrics by using a colour for each violence reference in the text, and a quantitative method to count the number of references per song.

The lyrics for analysis were retrieved from the Genius website that contains a massive database of music lyrics and knowledge (The Chronic by Dr. Dre). The link to all the analysed songs and cited texts can be found in the Appendices and the title of the song the lyrics belong to follows the verse.

I have classified the mentions of violence and firearm possession into five codes: murder, gun reference, shooting reference, the threat of violence, and other gun violence references.

Lyrics coded as Murder included direct and indirect references to homicide by gun.

Even if it did not explicitly state the murder was committed by gun in the verse, if it was mentioned in verse that precedes or follows it was coded as murder. Examples:

• “and one-eight-seven skills3”(The Chronic (Intro))

• “And kill, at my own risk, if I may”( The Day the Niggaz Took Over)

3 187 a police code for homicide in California (Police Radio Codes). 41 • “'Cause slowly but surely send you on a stairway to heaven” 4 (A Nigga Witta

Gun)

Code Gun reference included firearm types, names, and nicknames, gun possession or parts of firearm:

• “I got my Glock cocked 'cause niggas want these” (Let Me Ride)

• “Four-four, tray-eight or AK-47” (A Nigga Witta Gun)

Code Shooting included different phrases for shooting a gun or gun sounds:

• “No soon as I said it, seems I got sweated” (Let Me Ride)

• “Rat-tat-tat-tat, tat-ta-tat, like that, and I” (Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat)

Code Threat of violence included threat and violence that was not acted upon:

• “You're quick to talk shit I whoop your ass, nigga” (Lyrical Gangbang)

• “That a gat'll make any nigga civilized” (A Nigga Witta Gun)

• “You can't talk with a gun in your mouth? (Nah, it wasn't me, Dre!)”(Ibid.)

Other gun violence or threat category includes verses with general reference to violence or phrases that are not entirely clear in meaning to me:

• “And I'ma continue to put the rap down, put the mack down” (Nuthin' But A

'G' Thang)

• “Dem wonder why mi violent, dem no really understand” (The Day the

Niggaz Took Over)

4 Preceding and following verse are referencing to firearm, hence why it was coded as murder. 42 Non-gun related violence and mentions of death that were not related to shooting or guns were not included. The references in the title of the songs were also included.

8.3. The Results

I anticipated finding the content of the album fairly violent and aggressive, because of the context, creative forces, and also its overall reputation (from my own experience as a listener). The analysis found that only two songs from the whole album have no violent references (see Table 3 for the total number of references for all the track). Number 10 The

$20 Sack Pyramid, which is about televised games show when contestants can win money, mentions marihuana and is full of swear words, but no gun violence. Track number 15 The

Roach (The Chronic Outro) is also about smoking, a frequent topic of Dr. Dre, after all the album title “The Chronic” is a reference to a type of marihuana (Genius).

The most frequent reference in this album was Shooting with 52 mentions. The number is significantly high because track number 9 Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat repeats reference to the sound a gun makes while discharging “Rat-tat-tat-tat, tat-ta-tat, like that, and I”. The sound repeats in the chorus and the whole song has 21 mentions. The track with the second- highest shooting references is number 4 The Day the Niggaz Took Over.

“Mi not out for peace and mi not Rodney King

De gun goes click, mi gun goes bang

Dem riot in Compton and dem riot in Long Beach

Dem riot in L.A. 'cause dem no really wanna see

Niggas start to loot and police start to shoot” (Dre, Dr. Dre - “Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat"

Lyrics)

Even though this song is filled with 24 violent references and on the surface looks like it only supports riots and encourages more violence, shooting and killing police officers, 43 the reason for its creation goes deeper. As I mentioned in earlier chapters, this track is a reaction to the Los Angeles 1992 riots and directly references it numerous times, talking about the injustice of the system and supporting the riots that took place after the court freed the police officers (Sastry and Bates 2017). In my opinion, the artist is trying to relay a wider message about how the current system in America is broken and does not help its African

American citizens but also encourages the injustice against them to continue by ignoring the violence committed against the members of the community.

Reference for Gun was found 47 times, most mentioned in track number 8,

A Nigga Witta Gun. The title itself is a reference to gun possesion and is used heavily in the chorus:

“Who's the man with the master plan?

A nigga with a motherfuckin' gun

Who's the man with the master plan?

A nigga with a motherfuckin' gun.” (Dre, Dr. Dre (Ft. Snoop Dogg) – A Nigga Witta

Gun)

However, it also references firearms by its name or type:

“Four-four, tray-eight or AK-47

I straight put my forty-four Desert Eagle to his motherfuckin' dome” (Ibid.)

The third most frequently used reference in the album is Murder with a total of 21 mentions. Thought it does not appear significantly in one song, it is present four times in songs A Nigga Witta Gun and track number 12 High Powered. The topic of High Powered is similar to other songs from the album, if we simplify it, the rapper is talking about spending time with his group of friends and complains about their enemies and people they quarrel with. The first verse however starts with very violent description: 44 “Seven execution style murders

I have no remorse 'cause I'm the fuckin' murderer” (Dre, Dr. Dre (Ft. Daz Dillinger,

The Lady of Rage & RBX) – High Powered)

This is not a concrete reference to a particular person, but something I feel rappers generally rap about. It is an intention to appear dangerous and to keep anyone who would want to “mess” with them from doing so.

“It's Daz, that mass-murdering motherfucker” (Ibid.)

In this verse, the rapper Daz Dillinger states outright that he is a mass murderer, however, from what I was able to find when examining his biography, there was no record of any incidences with the law, that could serve as a base for this claim. His recent drug arrest is not relevant to songs written before the year 1993 (The Source, 2019), so this leads me to think of this violent reference as an expression similar to the already mentioned threat to keep others from messing with him.

Reference number four Threat of violence appeared 17 times, most notably in track

8 A Nigga Witta Gun and 3 Let Me Ride.

Nigga Witta Gun is a song with the most violent references of the whole album.

“I'm talking about cocking a gauge in between your eyes

It'll make you drop to your knees 'cause you realize

That a gat'll5 make any nigga civilized” (Dre, Dr. Dre (Ft. Snoop Dogg) – A Nigga

Witta Gun)

5 “Gat” is a slang word for gun. 45 Here Dr. Dre raps about threatening people with a gun to make them do what he considers to be correct behaviour, but the line “gat'll make any nigga civilized” stands out to me. It says that anyone will bend to his will if he uses guns. On another note, it could be interesting to find out what Dr. Dre sees as civilized, considering his violent, threatening, and misogynistic language. It would probably mean to submit to his way of life.

Overall, loyalty seems to be a particularly important characteristic to Dr. Dre and other artists that appear on the album, and if you end up breaking their trust, you have to be prepared to pay with your life. This is a topic reappearing throughout the album, including

Let Me Ride.

Let Me Ride heavily references the history of Black people in the United States.

Chorus samples African American spiritual song Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, which some interpret as a song about death and rather dying that continuing to like a slave (BBC News,

2015).

“Swing down, sweet chariot, stop and let me ride”

“Some niggas like lynchin', but I just watch 'em hang” (Dre, Dr. Dre (Ft. Jewell,

Ruben Cruz & Snoop Dogg) – Let Me Ride)

Lynching is a murder committed by a mob under an idea of justice, but without any official conviction by “inflicting torture and corporal mutilation”, often used on African

Americans (Abbott). The song also serves as a warning not to betray their group and community under the threat of shooting them with hollow bullets.6

6 A hollow bullet expands and therefore causes greater damage to the victim (Bigfoot Gun Belts 2019) 46 “Clockin' all the riches, got the hollow points for the snitches” (Dre, Dr. Dre (Ft.

Jewell, Ruben Cruz & Snoop Dogg) – Let Me Ride)

Code for Other gun violence or threat was used 11 times. It included indirect gun violence references or words and phrases that I am not sure are 100% reference to guns, as

I am not familiar with the language and its local variations to such a high level. Track number four The Day the Niggaz Took Over includes a chorus with the verse:

“I got my finger on the trigger, some niggas wonder why

But livin' in the city, it's do-or-die” (Dre, Dr. Dre (Ft. Daz Dillinger, RBX & Snoop

Dogg) – The Day the Niggaz Took Over)

I interpret this part as being ready to defend oneself with a gun in the dangerous city they live in. If you are not ready, you can be the one to die, which can often the motivation behind gun citizen ownership.

“Bust one to his head while he munches on a donut” (Ibid.)

This verse might be talking about either beating up or shooting a police officer. In my opinion, it is not supposed to inspire violence or fuel it, but it is just a reference to the violence American police commits on African American people, in the aftermath of the 1992

Los Angels riots.

Track number five Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang has a similar verse:

“And if you bitches talk shit, I have to put the smack down” (Dre, Dr. Dre (Ft.

Snoop Dogg) – Nuthin' But a "G" Thang)

I am not sure of the exact meaning, but it seems to me like a threat of shooting if the people Dr. Dre is talking about will continue to harass him:

47 9. Discussion

My analysis shows that rap music is indeed very violent and refers to gun violence constantly, but other genres also sing about violence and firearms. There seems to be an unfair prejudice to judge rappers as the only inspiration for violence. After Colorado police blamed rap music for the rising violence, many local residents did not agree: “If we were talking about a rock bar or a country bar here, none of this would be happening,” said James

Baldrick, who runs a local hip-hop promotions company, Dirty Limelight. “. (Baldrick James in Frosch, 2007).

From my own experience as a music listener heavy metal bands also frequently mention violence, substance abuse, war and murder in their lyrics and music videos. Some bands like Marilyn Manson7 are heavily criticised for it but the genre itself does not seem to have a reputation as bad as rap music. Rock musicians also commit violent crimes and use drugs, an infamous example is the British punk rock band member Sid Vicious of the Sex

Pistols, who stabbed his then-girlfriend, who later died from her wounds (Wakeman 2017).

Many rock musicians have been accused and convicted of sexual abuse (Murphy 2016) and country music is no exception here, frequently referencing substance use (Scaccia 2017).

It is evident that Dr. Dre and many other rappers use violent language, that can be interpreted literally. In that case, there might be someone to take the lyrics to the heart and be inspired to commit violence, but I believe in many cases the purpose of these violent lyrics is just artistic expression.

7 Marilyn Manson are an American band blamed by media in connection with the Columbine High School shooters. 48 What is the reason behind the violence in rap music lyrics? The explanation might be found during an in-depth analysis of all the correlative factors, but there might be a bit simpler explanation. “The world is violent, and rap, perhaps more than other music, is about what's going in the world around us.” (Gale 2013). Rappers, just as any other artist, react to their surroundings, describe their live, express their feelings through songs and try to convey their thoughts and ideas to other people – the listeners.

If they live in an ostracised neighbourhood with high criminality and poverty rates, gang wars, and a government that in their eyes does nothing to prevent it - and often only blames the community for being too lazy – they release their frustration through their art, in this case, rap and its lyrics. This is supported by evidence in the album, The Chronic, which is full of violent references and came out just before the rising homicide rate reached its peak in 1993. It would also explain the immense rise in rap popularity during the high-violence rate period, see Figure 7. People like to listen to songs they can relate to, to confirm that their feelings are justified. For example, when I am feeling sad or angry, most of the time, the music I listen to matches my mood and it is in some aspect like tone or lyrics in match with my emotions.

If people feel threatened by the violent world around them, rap music might help them feel empowered – especially in the case of African Americans being targeted by law enforcement, a problem still reoccurring to this day. Artists want to represent their community and show it to the world, so they describe their problems, perhaps hoping to shed some light on the situation or to hear from others with similar problems. For many rappers during the 1980s, to attack was also their response to the critics (McCann 2020).

I am aware that not everyone can accept this explanation and there are still some that persist in blaming the artist, ignoring their original message, and not acknowledging the real

49 cause of the problem. But, if the presumption about rap music was that it creates violence through talking about it in their songs, the crime and homicide rate should rise together with the popularity of the genre. The evidence clearly states this is not the case. Crime is declining

(Figure 9) yet the supposed initiator of violence – rap music is rising in popularity (see Figure

7).

It must be said that there are many variables that have an effect on crime and homicide rates, from incarceration rates, abortion availability, government support programmes for poverty-struck regions, economic stability of the country, quality of education, law enforcement numbers to laws and regulations. That would however require extensive research that is stretching behind the scope of this thesis.

Another important thing to consider is the element of the African American experience of rap music. I have only slightly talked about the problems Black people experienced in America and still face today, as prejudice and racism influence rap artists and their music immensely. A study dealing with race and rap music perception find out that when asked if they liked rap music the gap between Black and White respondents was not significant (Sullivan 2003, p. 613). On the other hand, Black respondents knew more about the genre, named more artist, and agreed that rap music reflects reality, which suggests that while rap is becoming more widespread it is still more popular within the African American youth when compared to White respondents (Ibid., p. 614).

50 10. Conclusion

The collected data and analysis of Dr. Dre’s album, The Chronic revealed two main results: the assumption that rap music is violent might be indeed based on facts, but the music itself does not affect the overall crime or homicide rates. While rap music was becoming popular and acknowledged and widely available, the crime and homicide rates were decreasing, see Figure 7.

Rap music had a bad reputation from the beginning. The new genre was stereotyped and sometimes used as propaganda to shift the blame for rising violence and even though the rise of rap music popularity during the end of the 1980s is substantial, it does not have a direct link to overall gun homicides and crime rates, as some might assume.

The analysed data showed that the homicide numbers in the United States were highest in 1980 and even though there has been some slight decline, it quickly rose again in

1991. Unemployment statistics also mirror this rise in homicide. This is the era that rap music became immensely popular. Rap music is indeed violent and references gun violence frequently, but it does not influence overall crime or homicide numbers, because after 1994 criminality and homicide continued to decline but rap music was soaring.

After collecting all this evidence, I believe rap does not create violence but reacts to it and describes it. In many cases, the rappers are talking about violence only to threaten others and keep them at distance, or to show the harsh conditions in their community. Rap is of African American origin, so rappers are showcasing the problems of their neighbourhood, the racism and prejudice they face from white people in power (e.g., police officers or government that is not intending on helping them in a crisis, as evident from the

Los Angeles 1992 riots). The problems piling up in their community (unemployment, persistent racism, oppression from the police, negative stratification, gentrification) are reflected in their music. Rappers frequently talk about these problems, but not with the 51 intention to incite and start more violence, but to describe their life and environment. It is also important to understand that at least to a certain degree, rap music was not created for white people, but for the members of their own community with a message that is not violent by default. The content of rap lyrics has started many confrontations and tension inside the

African American community (and gangs) and also with “outsiders”. There obviously were and still are some rappers with the intention of starting problems and sparking violent confrontations, but that should not put a label on a whole genre.

The compiled data showed that rap had no influence on the overall crime and homicide numbers, yet this might be a different story if we would look at more detailed regional statistics of states, cities and neighbourhoods where the rappers and their fans lived.

But since the US population and rap music fanbase are extensive and music was slowly but surely becoming more and more available on radios, television, and CDs amid the rising gun violence, so there would too much data to analyse. This would be beyond the scope of this work.

In future research, it would be better to analyse more artists from varying time periods to present a sufficient representation of the rap genre. It could probably be more efficient for someone more suitable, with knowledge of the regional language to analyse the lyrics, as I am not able to understand certain words and phrases the way the artists meant them.

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64 Appendices

Figure 1 Deaths by firearms 1987-1999 (Fox and Zawitz 2007)

Figure 2 Change in gun culture elements from 1998-2016 (Boine et al 2020, p. 6.)

65

Figure 3 Homicide victimization 1950-2004 (Fox and Zawitz 2007)

Figure 4 Genre Composition of the Billboard Hot 100 over Time (JeffSee, 2018)

66

Figure 5 The 1992 riots in Los Angeles: https://www.npr.org/2017/04/26/524744989/when-la-erupted-in- anger-a-look-back-at-the-rodney-king-riots

Figure 6 Camilo José Vergara Photographs, 1970s. Bronx, New York., https://allthatsinteresting.com/bronx-

burning-1970s#26 67

Figure 7 Rap popularity and violent crime rate (Rap, Crimes and Racial Issues 2015)

Figure 8 Violent Crime, Gun Possession, Drugs and Robberies references in rap lyrics (Kohdra)

Figure 9 Violent Crimes rate (Kohdra)

68 Percentage of deaths caused by firearm in 1981 -19998

Age group 10-14 15-24 25-34 35-44

Unintentional injury 7% 2,8% 1,8% 1,5

Homicide and legal interventions 68,7% 77.6% 70,1% 64,9%

Table 1 Percentage of deaths caused by firearm in 1981 – 1998 (WISQARS Leading Causes of Death Reports,

2020)

Year Handgun Other gun Knife Blunt object Other weapon

1976 8,651 3,328 3,343 912 2,546

1977 8,563 3,391 3,648 900 2,618

1978 8,879 3,569 3,685 937 2,490

1979 9,858 3,732 4,121 1,039 2,710

1980 10,552 3,834 4,439 1,153 3,061

1981 10,324 3,740 4,364 1,166 2,927

1982 9,137 3,501 4,383 1,032 2,957

1983 8,472 2,794 4,214 1,098 2,731

1984 8,183 2,835 3,956 1,090 2,626

1985 8,165 2,973 3,996 1,051 2,794

1986 9,054 3,126 4,235 1,176 3,018

1987 8,781 3,094 4,076 1,169 2,980

1988 9,375 3,162 3,978 1,296 2,869

1989 10,225 3,197 3,923 1,279 2,877

1990 11,677 3,395 4,077 1,254 3,037

1991 13,101 3,277 3,909 1,252 3,161

1992 13,158 3,043 3,447 1,088 3,024

1993 13,981 3,094 3,140 1,082 3,233

1994 13,496 2,840 2,960 963 3,071

1995 12,050 2,679 2,731 981 3,169

1996 10,731 2,533 2,691 917 2,777

1997 9,705 2,631 2,363 833 2,678

1998 8,844 2,168 2,257 896 2,805

1999 7,943 2,174 2,042 902 2,461

2000 7,985 2,218 2,099 727 2,556

2001 7,900 2,239 2,090 776 3,032

2002 8,286 2,538 2,018 773 2,588

69 2003 8,830 2,223 2,085 745 2,645

2004 8,299 2,355 2,132 759 2,593

Table 2 Homicide by Weapon Type (Fox and Zawitz 2007)

Track list number Murder Gun reference Shooting Threat Other

1. 1 1 2

2. 2

3. 1 2 1 4 1

4. 3 11 11 1 5

5. 1 1 2

6. 1 1

7. 1 1 3 1

8. 4 17 1 4

9. 1 1 22

10.

11. 3 7 7 2 2

12. 4 3 1

13.

14. 3 5 4 1

15.

16. 3

Table 3 Number of violent references in the album The Chronic by Dr. Dre

70 Lyrics of The Chronic album by Dr. Dre The full text of the album’s lyrics I used for analysis can be accessed through the following links: 1. The Chronic (Intro) https://genius.com/Dr-dre-the-chronic-intro-lyrics 2. Fuck wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin') https://genius.com/Dr-dre-fuck-wit-dre-day-and-everybodys-celebratin-lyrics 3. Let Me Ride https://genius.com/Dr-dre-let-me-ride-lyrics 4. The Day the Niggaz Took Over https://genius.com/Dr-dre-the-day-the-niggaz-took-over-lyrics 5. Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang https://genius.com/Dr-dre-nuthin-but-a-g-thang-lyrics 6. Deeez Nuuuts https://genius.com/Dr-dre-deeez-nuuuts-lyrics 7. Lil' Ghetto Boy https://genius.com/Dr-dre-lil-ghetto-boy-lyrics 8. A Nigga Witta Gun https://genius.com/Dr-dre-a-nigga-witta-gun-lyrics 9. Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat https://genius.com/Dr-dre-rat-tat-tat-tat-lyrics 10. The $20 Sack Pyramid (Skit) https://genius.com/Dr-dre-the-s20-sack-pyramid-lyrics 11. Lyrical Gangbang https://genius.com/Dr-dre-lyrical-gangbang-lyrics 12. High Powered https://genius.com/Dr-dre-high-powered-lyrics 13. The Doctor's Office (Skit) https://genius.com/Dr-dre-the-doctors-office-lyrics 14. Stranded on Death Row

71 https://genius.com/Dr-dre-stranded-on-death-row-lyrics 15. The Roach (The Chronic Outro) https://genius.com/Dr-dre-the-roach-the-chronic-outro-lyrics 16. Bitches Ain't Shit https://genius.com/Dr-dre-bitches-aint-shit-lyrics

72