MASARYK UNIVERSITY Uncovering the US Gun Culture in Rap Music
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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