Felix Near

2014-15 JOHN NEAR GRANT Recipient “Straight Outta Compton”: Hip-Hop and the 1992 Los Angeles Riots Felix Wu, Class of 2015

“STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON”: HIP-HOP AND THE 1992 LOS ANGELES RIOTS

Felix Wu John Near Scholar Mentors: Mr. Damon Halback, Ms. Susan Smith April 13, 2015

Wu 2 Don’t Shoot.

Introduction — Unrest in Ferguson, MI “Hands in the sky, still was left in the cold, Ribbon in the sky, Michael Brown, another soul, Stole by the system, black men we pay the toll.

The price is your life, Uncle Sam want a slice, Black dress code now we looting in the night, Now we throwing Molotovs in this holocaust.”

- Rick Ross On November 25th, 2014 a St. Louis County grand jury found no probable cause to indict the white police officer that had killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager.1 Protests erupted in cities across the nation. #BlackLivesMatter trended on social media. From backyard barbeques to street corners, Brown’s death ignited a national conversation about race and police brutality.

Michael Brown’s murder also caused waves in the hip-hop world. J. Cole paid tribute to Brown’s death with his song “Be Free”, while Common welcomed Michael Brown’s parents on stage at the Black Entertainment Television Awards.2 Sean “Diddy” Combs likened the incident to past examples of interracial violence, referencing Emmett Till, Ezell Ford, Sean Bell, and Trayvon Martin.3 G-Unit struck a more violent tone in their track “Ahhh Sh**”. “Ever since Mike Brown went down, my whole city like, ‘f*** a cop.” Young Buck screeches. “Run the red light, f*** a stop. / Bust his head when you pump the Glock.”4 The violent rhetoric reflected a community that was angry and fed up with repeated incidents of police brutality.

Meanwhile, The Game assembled a star-studded group of thirteen artists to produce the record “Don’t Shoot”, which was dedicated to Brown. In his verse, Los Angeles-based rapper The Game spits: “Seen the pictures, feel the pain, scandalous how they murder son / Tired of them killing us, I’m on my way to Ferguson…they killin’ teens, they killin’ dreams.”5 The Game

Wu 3 does not mince his words, accusing the police officer involved in the incident — Darren Wilson — of outright murder. On the same track, Rick Ross’ verse was even more controversial. He references authorities leaving Brown’s corpse on the street for four hours: “Hands in the sky, still was left in the cold.”6 His “hands in the sky” imagery is chillingly powerful. Not only does Rick Ross suggest Brown was helplessly surrendering to police, his language also suggests a hand reaching upwards for opportunity and respect from society. He paints Brown as a young teenager with a bright future ahead of him; a pure life cut short with unjust cause. This image of youthful naiveté provides a grim contrast with the last line of his verse: “Now we throwing Molotovs in this holocaust.”7 Rick Ross compares the persecution of African Americans with the worst genocide in human history, conveying an indelible message to the listener. A triple-syllabic rhyme links the words “Molotovs” and “holocaust”, stressing two terms that connote mayhem and destruction.

One of the most well known hip-hop references to Ferguson appeared in John Legend’s Academy Award-winning accompaniment to the film Selma, in the gospel-inspired record “Glory”. In a poignant verse that tells the story of the marches to Montgomery that resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Common portrays the uproar in Ferguson as just one event among many in the battle for civil rights. “True and living in us, resistance is us. / That’s why Rosa sat on the bus,” he raps. “That’s why we walk through Ferguson with our hands up.”8 The bass drum strikes at the end of the line, emphasizing the image of two hands hoisted in the air in solidarity with Brown’s death. More importantly, Common places the Brown incident in the context of a broader struggle and the universally celebrated Civil Rights Movement. He takes on a defiant tone, asserting that resistance is the very essence of the black identity. This is why we do what we do. Resistance is us. He ends the verse with the same rhetoric of unity, while also

Wu 4 critiquing of the media’s unwillingness to deal with racial issues: “They stay ‘stand down’, / and we stand up. / Shots, we on the ground, and the camera panned up.”9 Common makes the bold claim that the media shies away from displaying the realities of racism; the camera pans away at times of violence and hardship. He creates two disjointed images — the first of injured protestors falling to the ground, and the second of a camera swiveling away from the scene, ambivalent to the suffering of the individuals below.

Simply put, Brown’s killing inaugurated a deluge of politically charged hip-hop music that refused to sugarcoat the issue of race. A prime example was Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album, The Pimp a Butterfly, which received critical acclaim for its multifaceted study of race relations.10 With an album title that plays off of Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Kendrick Lamar explores black issues through a diverse range of songs. “King Kunta” alludes to Kunta Kinte, the protagonist of Alex Haley’s 1976 novel Roots, and highlights the character’s royal status being subjugated by the foreign white man. “The Blacker the Berry” appeals for reflection not within the white community, but within the ghettos of Compton. Kendrick calls upon African Americans to condemn black-on-black violence as they would white-on-black violence, claiming that doing otherwise is hypocrisy. Meanwhile, the Grammywinning single “i” strikes a more uplifting tone as an anthem for self-empowerment in the community: “They want to say it’s a war outside, bomb in the street. / Gun in the hood, mob of police…Sky could fall down, wind could cry now, / Look at me motherf***er I still smile.”11 The idea of soul-searching and self-improvement within the black community is a pervasive theme in hip-hop culture. In many ways, Lamar’s arguments are similar to the rhetoric of Afrocentric leaders who came decades before him.

Wu 5 All of these different tracks represent varying responses to police brutality. Most telling, however, was A$AP Ferg’s song “Talk It”, which harkened back to the days of hip-hop’s “Golden Age” in the 1990s: “N.W.A blastin’, we screamin’ ‘F*** tha Police’, / ‘Cause they don’t give two sh**s about me. / I mean when I say Ferguson, they talk about me.”12 Indeed, this was nothing new. Hip-hop has its roots in racial and political division. Those bonds were especially strengthened in April 1992, as riots flared across South Central Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers who had beaten Rodney King, an unarmed black man.

Throughout the late 20th century, the Los Angeles rap scene began to grow both culturally and commercially — the riots represented an opportunity for the music to express African American anger bred from decades of racism and poverty in the city. Musical dialogue shifted towards public issues including police brutality, institutional discrimination, and economic inequality.

Black nationalism, a pervasive undercurrent of the African-American experience during the late 20th century, had a profound influence on artists of the era, as did radical movements defined by groups like the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam. The legacy of the 1992 riots lives on in the hip-hop of today through music that celebrates black identity.

Don’t Kill Him! The Tragedy of Rodney King “Not guilty, the filthy, devils tried to kill me.

When the news get to the hood the n**gas will be Hotter than cayenne pepper...”

– Ice Cube On the night of March 3rd, 1991, construction worker Rodney King was returning home from a basketball game with two friends, Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms.13 King was speeding on the Foothill Freeway with a blood alcohol level at twice the legal limit.14

Wu 6 As King raced down the highway, red and blue lights soon flashed in his rearview mirror.

Worried that being pulled over would violate his parole on a previous robbery conviction, King attempted to escape the pursuing police cars.15 A chase that reached 115 miles per hour ensued, involving multiple California Highway Patrol cruisers and a helicopter.16 After eight miles, King pulled over on Foothill Boulevard in the middle class, mixed-race neighborhood of Lake View Terrace.17 The sound of the chopper woke many of the residents in the usually quiet community.

Fifteen police officers approached King’s car, all of them white.18 When King exited the vehicle a few minutes later, he danced and spun in a drunken stupor, waving at the helicopter and shaking his butt at a female officer.19 What happened after King left his Hyundai differs among eyewitness accounts; some claim he punched and kicked his apprehenders, while others say he simply avoided being handcuffed.20 Police authorities contended that he reached for his back pocket, leading police to think he was searching for a weapon.21 Five LAPD officers — Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno, and Rolando Solano — rushed King and wrestled him to the ground.22 Sergeant Koon pulled out his Taser and stunned King with 50,000 volts.23 “After they shocked me the first time, they paused for a minute and then they struck me across the face real hard with a billy club,” attested King, “I was lying face down with my hands tied, and they shocked me again on the other side of my shoulder.”24 Across the street, 31-year-old George Holliday was roused from sleep by the blare of police sirens. A manager at a small, local plumbing business, he had just recently purchased a new Sony camcorder.25 He pulled it out and began filming the scene unfolding outside his apartment illuminated by police cruiser headlights. 26 The footage begins with King crawling to his feet and trying to flee, with stun gun wires still attached to his body.27 He falls to all fours and Powell moves in, beating King with his

Wu 7 baton. After several blows, Koon is heard yelling, “That’s enough! That’s enough!”28 Powell pauses briefly before continuing to strike King with his baton. Officer Wind soon joins him, and the two take turns beating King. They aim for his joints. For a moment, King lifts his head, but Briseno stomps it back down. In the video, neighbors are heard screaming, “Stop!” and “Don’t kill him!” from balconies in adjacent apartments.29 Almost two minutes into Holliday’s footage, the beating stops. King is left bleeding on the street in a supine position for another three minutes before he is told to sit on the curb and await emergency medical services.30 After enduring fifty-six baton blows and seven kicks, King suffered eleven fractures and was lucky to be alive. Holliday would send his tape to the LAPD, with no response. He would then bring the footage to local news station KTLA, who covered the story on the evening news.31 King’s beating caused uproar. The video of his beating spread like wildfire, appearing on every major news station. A Los Angeles Times headline read: “Witnesses Depict Relentless Beating,” while mayor Tom Bradley decried the incident as “shocking and outrageous.”32,33 The story spurred an hour-long special on ABC News about police brutality.34 King’s incident also brought a spotlight on tensions between police and African-Americans. “We no longer want to have to wake up each morning not knowing what fear to expect next. Today, we are not sure that the police is there to protect us.” California NAACP president Jose de Sosa declared.35 An “ashamed” LAPD chief Daryl Gates publicly apologized and called for criminal charges against the officers present at the beating.36 The Los Angeles District Attorney charged four of the police officers with assault and excessive use of force — Powell, Wind, Koon, and Briseno.37 All eyes were fixed on the case. As Ice Cube describes in “We Had to Tear This Muthaf***a Up”, the black community was poised to respond in a grisly way: “Not guilty, the

Wu 8 filthy, the devils tried to kill me. / When the news get to the hood the n**gas will be hotter than cayenne pepper.”38

The Batterram Economic Trends & Police Tactics “The Chief of Police says he just might Flatten out every house that he sees on sight Because he say the rockman is takin’ him for a fool And for some damn reason it just ain’t cool.”

— Toddy Tee

The obliteration of South Central that would follow the case came after years of grievances concerning both the city’s economy and law enforcement tactics. Systemic racism targeting African Americans was not the only catalyst — only about 36% of those on the street during the 1992 riots were black, while almost half of them were Latino.39 The Latinos who took to looting and burning down retail outlets were not so much affected by a racial history as they were by destitution. As Spencer claims in Race, Gender & Class, “…working-poor Latinos participated because of deep frustrations with the persistent economic inequality they saw in their neighborhoods compared to others, while the African American response was more closely tied to police-community relations.”40 Indeed, in 1990, Latino males earned 47% of median white male earnings, while African American males earned 73%.41 Almost 40% of Hispanics in South Central fell below the poverty line in 1990, compared to 31% among African Americans.42 That is not to say African Americans had it easy — the unemployment rate for South Central blacks was a stunning 25%.43 Overall, both racial minorities saw a remarkable decline in income level and home ownership rates from 1970 to 1990, while whites saw an increase.44

Wu 9 There are several reasons for this contrast. As Tricia Rose writes in Black Noise, “shifts in the occupational structure away from blue-collar manufacturing and toward corporate and information services, along with frayed local communication patterns, meant that new immigrant populations and the city’s poorest residents paid the highest price for deindustrialization and economic restructuring.”45 Meanwhile, the government cut welfare programs that often benefited underprivileged African American and Latino households. California’s Proposition 13, passed in 1978, capped property taxes and cut education funding, reducing opportunities for young people who would become working-age by the time of the 1992 uprising.46 At the same time, President Ronald Reagan gutted government safety net programs during the 1983 recession, hurting the poor.47 In Know What I Mean,” Dyson links hip-hop’s popularity with the ailing economy: “Resources were sparse, especially in the inner-city schools targeted by cruel budget cuts that depleted arts programs and denied poor children access to instruments and broad musical literacy…[hip-hop] grew out of a culture of political and social suffering.”48 Big corporations also began reducing their investment in the area. In the 1980s, Firestone, Goodyear, and General Motors all shut down their assembly lines in South Central. “131 plants shuttered during the 1980s, eliminating unionized manufacturing jobs in the rubber, steel, and auto industries and leaving 124,000 people unemployed in the center city,” Chang writes in Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.

“Job growth shifted to service and information industries located beyond the rim of the ten-mile ring.”49 Times got especially difficult in South Central. While Los Angeles County’s unemployment rate reached a worrying 11%, South Central’s climbed to 50%.50 In 1987, areas that would later experience rioting had 0.25 jobs per capita, compared to 0.35 jobs per capita in the County as a whole.51 Residents lagged in employment for all sectors, including manufacturing, retail, and service industries.52

Wu 10 The economic problems associated with South Central continued to exacerbate moving into the early 1990s. Home values in riot areas averaged $225,846 — $75,593 below the average home values in Los Angeles County.53 Spencer argues that home values are a crucial statistic to note when assessing the overall standard of living in South Central, as “[home values] include a range of neighborhood factors such as public safety, physical appearance and overall neighborhood attractiveness that are not captured in the income statistics.”54 Economic hardship aside, South Central communities faced increased scrutiny and violence from law enforcement authorities over the decades. Arguably the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) most controversial figure, William H. Parker served as police chief from 1905 to 1966.55 When he took over, he inherited a corrupt force that struggled to contain mafia activity going on in the city.56 Parker sought to revamp the LAPD, making it a more “professional” and militaristic agency.57 He implemented tougher training programs and reduced the number of police officers, believing that a smaller force would be subject to more oversight.58 To accommodate this reduction in personnel, Parker expanded the usage of police cars and reduced the number of foot patrols. In doing so, he also reduced officers’ interactions with the individuals they pledged to protect and shifted away from a community policing strategy.

In addition, Parker was an effective salesman. He appeared on television and gained recognition as a public figure, thus garnering popular support for his police reforms. His positive public image translated into institutional support from elected officials and the private sector. As Edward J. Escobar writes in the Pacific Historical Review, “Los Angeles government leaders, including the mayor, the district attorney, the overwhelming majority of the city council, and even members of the judiciary, valued a strong, independent, and professional police department that maintained order and stability above one that strictly adhered to the rule of law. Non-

Wu 11 governmental elites, such as members of the business community and segments of the press, concurred.”59 However, Parker’s heavy-handed strategies proved to be divisive in minority communities. On December 25, 1951, around fifty LAPD officers violently beat seven individuals in a tragedy that would be known as “Bloody Christmas”.60 That Christmas Eve, a group of LAPD officers assaulted several bar-goers, accusing them of underage drinking.61 The brawl would result in one officer’s eye being injured and the arrest of the bar-goers. Hearing of their colleague’s eye wound, drunken police officers at a nearby Christmas party travelled to the City Jail, where they proceeded to attack the young men arrested earlier.62 The victims sustained serious injuries — one individual required blood transfusions and several suffered internal bleeding.63 Five of the seven victims were Latino. For the next three months, the LAPD would attempt to cover up the incident despite mounting pressure from community watchdog groups, which accused the department of racial profiling and police brutality.64 As controversy built, Parker remained defensive, meddling with investigations and claiming that anything less than a hardline approach to crime would result in increased gang activity. Escobar notes three particular responses on the LAPD’s part: “First, Parker and his allies thwarted some investigations and limited the scope of others. Second, they failed to uphold the rule of law by ignoring obvious cases of perjury and obstruction of justice by officers involved in the beatings. Finally, in keeping with Cold War sensibilities, local leaders tried to discredit the LAPD’s critics by questioning their motivations and by arguing that charges of police brutality damaged police morale.” Parker largely succeeded in defending his operations. By the end of the incident, only five police officers were convicted and only one of them faced over a year of jail time.

Wu 12 Parker’s aggressive reforms were reaffirmed with the Watts Riots in 1965. The neighborhood of Watts was mostly black, and the area was nicknamed “the Bottoms” for its scarce jobs and economic opportunities.65 After a drunk driving stop turned into a physical brawl between white police officers and the black Frye family, riots erupted across South Central on August 11th. The tenuous relationship between minorities and the establishment resulted in looting, setting fire to credit records, and sniper fire aimed at police choppers. Street gangs — both black and Latino — temporarily ceased their fighting to unite behind opposing police personnel.

However, Parker’s response remained steely cold, refusing to acknowledge the rioters’ concerns. “This situation is very much like fighting the Viet Cong,” he said. “We haven’t the slightest idea when this can be brought under control.”66 He garnered even more controversy and accusations of racism later when he labeled the rioters “monkeys in a zoo.”67 Two days into the riots, Parker ordered his officers to shoot on the demonstrators, killing six unarmed rioters. He then called in the National Guard. By the end of the unrest, thirty-four people had died.68 Through his unyielding position on Bloody Christmas and the Watts Riots, Parker set a precedent for autonomy within the LAPD and an uncompromising approach to community relations that heightened racial division. He also showed disdain for the bureaucratic nature of the criminal justice system. “One night recently, an officer surprised two men prowling around an empty warehouse,” Parker told Coronet magazine for an article titled “America’s Most Controversial Cop.” “A thorough on-the-spot search turned up opium on them. Yet the judge freed the men on the ground that we had no right to run our hands over the suspects in such a detailed manner prior to their booking. The human rights argument again! It’s typical of the decisions we get — the reason why crime is up 35% in Los Angeles in a decade. We’re the most

Wu 13 lawless nation on earth…”69 In 1966, Parker succumbed to a heart attack. However, his vision for the LAPD remained, and his successors followed suit in organizing a police force that had little regard for political constraints or community policing strategies.

In 1978, Commander Daryl Gates was sworn in as LAPD Chief of Police. He adopted similar policies as Parker. “We went after crime before it occurred,” Gates told Frontline. “Our people went out every single night trying to stop crime before it happened, trying to take people off the street that they believed were involved in crime. And that made us a very aggressive, proactive police department.”70 One oft-criticized initiative was Operation Hammer, an undertaking that A.T. Callinicos describes as “repression on a spectacular scale.”71 In December 1987, Karen Toshima was mistakenly killed in a drive-by shooting in the Westwood entertainment district of Los Angeles.72 With the mayoral election going on at the time, political leaders like City Councilmember Zev Yaroslavsky made plenty of noise about the incident, decrying a lack of police presence in Westwood.73 In response to the sensationalism, community activists accused the LAPD of only paying attention to shootings in wealthy parts of Los Angeles, while ignoring criminal activity in the ghetto.74 As Alex Alonso writes in Black Los Angeles, “Compared with how the LAPD responded to inner-city murders, where gang rivalry and territorial disputes had been part of the landscape for nearly twenty years, the attention this shooting received was unprecedented, and black residents were outraged by the double standard.”75 For Gates — who had gubernatorial aspirations himself — this was his opportunity to make a bold policy move that would resonate with Los Angeles residents.76 In April 1988, he was granted $2.5 million from the city budget to implement a comprehensive new anti-gang program called “Operation Hammer”.77 The measure was even more heavy-handed than its namesake; in the first week, the LAPD questioned 2,466

Wu 14 individuals.78 45% of those stopped had no gang affiliation.79 Nevertheless, officers continued to comb the streets of South Central Los Angeles row-by-row in their squad cars, interrogating and arresting people who loitered in public places. The pace of arrests picked up so quickly that the parking lot in the nearby Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum became an LAPD processing center for the alleged gang members.80 Gates’ strategy also included a number of seemingly arbitrary raids. On August 1st, 1988, almost one hundred LAPD officers stormed two apartment structures on the corner of 39th Street and Dalton Avenue.81 According to the Los Angeles Times, “the police smashed furniture, punched holes in walls, destroyed family photos, ripped down cabinet doors, slashed sofas, shattered mirrors, hammered toilets to porcelain shards, doused clothing with bleach and emptied refrigerators. Some officers left their own graffiti: ‘LAPD Rules’,”82 Scores of inhabitants were severely beaten by police.83 The raid yielded little more than the damage of homes — less than an ounce of cocaine and six ounces of marijuana were found, and nobody was charged.84 However, twenty-two people were left homeless, and the Red Cross provided aid reserved for disaster relief to the apartment’s families.85 “There wasn’t a lot of care taken,” one officer conceded. “That was the mentality. At the time, if you were selling dope, we were going to knock your house down with a battering ram. And we were sure going to dump the sugar on the counter.”86 Other policemen claimed they had orders to render the apartments “uninhabitable”.87 In just the four years between 1984 and 1989, there was a 30% increase in reports of police brutality.88 But that statistic did not seem to bother Gates. “I think that people believe that the only [policing] strategy is to harass people and make arrests for inconsequential types of things,” Gates told the press. “Well, that’s part of our strategy, no doubt about it.”89 Gates also sought to separate the LAPD from any governing body that could oversee its activities. “Gates

Wu 15 and [Mayor] Bradley didn’t speak for two years prior to the riots,” recalled current LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. “There was no interaction. I don’t understand how you could police the city without having a relationship with the political structure.”90 Gates also shared a strained partnership with the FBI.91 The LAPD’s uncompromising and aggressive approach towards policing had a profound impact on the dynamic of black communities, and those attitudes were particularly well documented in hip-hop music. One seminal track on the issue was Toddy Tee’s 1985 hit “Batterram”. The title was a reference to an armored vehicle by police forces to demolish doors and walls in countless drug raids. The record begins with the ominous, repetitive growl of an engine before a funky beat kicks in. “Drug busters, you better beware. / And don’t turn your head as if you don’t care,” Toddy Tee begins. “Because they got it, they got it, they say they got you, / Right in their hands and they don’t need no clue.” From the first few lines, Toddy Tee accuses the police of raiding crack houses indiscriminately and without proper evidence. “They don’t need no clue,” he claims — the police do not need a search warrant and are unrestrained by any institutional forces. With its arbitrary behavior, the police force lost its legitimacy among the community. Even the image of the battering ram itself is a powerful metaphor. The battering ram represents an instrument that has the sole purpose of destruction and nothing else. Toddy Tee claims that the LAPD seeks neither to improve nor restore the communities it polices; its officers are only out to damage crime-ridden neighborhoods.

The second verse of “Batterram” is even more forceful with its rhetoric. Toddy Tee tells a story of an undercover policeman coming to his door and asking for drugs: But when I went to the door I thought it was a dud, ‘Cause he kept asking me to sell him drugs.

Wu 16 I said, “Listen homeboy, what you talkin’ about?

You’re mistakin’ my pad for a rockhouse.

Well, I know to you we all look the same, But I’m not the one slinging ‘caine.

I work nine to five and ain’t a damn thing changed.

Toddy Tee accuses the police force of institutional racism, claiming that in the eyes of the undercover policeman, all African American men “look the same.” Toddy Tee also casts a shadow of doubt over the authority of the police department by making the encounter a personal one. The exchange is not one of law enforcement attempting to improve the community — it is an interaction in which the police officer tries to deceive and entrap an innocent civilian. Simply put, the police force is out to get black men. Perhaps more importantly, Toddy Tee asserts that most African Americans are ordinary law-abiding citizens. They work “nine to five” and lead regular lives. Despite the racism of the police force, the speaker in the track remains composed, giving him the moral high ground.

The third verse, however, is remarkably politically charged. The first line directly targets Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, who ran for Governor of California and lost in 1982: Mayor of the city, what you’re tryin’ to do?

They say they voted you in ‘82 But on the next term, huh, without no doubt, They say they gon’ vote your jack ass out.

Toddy Tee does not hold back in his accusations of political wrongdoing, claiming that those in the government who repress blacks are unfit to hold office. It is also important to note that Bradley was Los Angeles’ first black mayor. However, Bradley acquiesced to business interests

Wu 17 during his term and oversaw the appointment of Daryl Gates as the new LAPD chief. From that perspective, Toddy Tee’s rhetoric takes on new meaning — he paints Bradley as a spineless politician who has betrayed the black community in South Central. He also takes aim at Chief Gates: And the Chief of Police says he just might, Flatten out every house he sees on sight.

Because he say the rockman is takin’ him for a fool, And for some damn reason it just ain’t cool.

Toddy Tee suggests that Gates’ decisions are arbitrary in nature — Gates simply wants to “flatten out every house he sees on sight.” with no evidence or oversight. Like he does in the first verse, Toddy Tee also connects with the listener by translating a broader political conflict into a personal one; he mentions that the drug dealer is “takin’ [Gates] for a fool.” The war on drugs becomes a petty cat-and-mouse game framed by pervasive institutional racism and self-interested politicians.

The racial tensions that plagued Los Angeles had their roots in economic and political division that had festered over decades. They encompassed government cutbacks in welfare, gentrification, the militarization of the LAPD, and a whole host of other factors that had profound effects on the social order. Perceptions of law enforcement authorities changed over time, and hip-hop music became the medium through which those evolving attitudes were conveyed. By the time Rodney King was pinned to the tarmac, chaos was ready to break out.

CAN WE ALL GET ALONG? The Los Angeles Riots “Dem riot in Compton and dem riot in Long Beach.

Wu 18 Dem riot in L.A. ‘cause dem no really wanna see N**gas start to loot and police start to shoot.”

– Daz

After a week of deliberations, the jury had their verdict. At 3:15PM on April 29, 1992, the court clerk announced that all four police officers were found not guilty.92 Outside the courthouse, a violent scuffle ensued as the defendants left the building. The verdict was like a slap in the face for the black community.93 As N.W.A member DJ Yella put it, “ It was if they had said, ‘okay niggers, okay, back up’.” 94 Filmmaker John Singleton was among the crowd and exclaimed on national television, “They lit the fuse to a bomb!”95 His prediction was not far off. Two hours later, South Central Los Angeles was ablaze.

At 6:00PM that same evening, truck driver Reginald Denny was just going about his usual day. He was on assignment, shipping twenty-seven tons of sand to nearby construction site in his red dump truck.96 As he neared the intersection of Florence and Normandie, he wondered why traffic was so sparse. Suddenly, a rock struck his window. Then another. Someone shrieked, “Stop!” Then he saw — men and women were running in all directions, and stores on every street corner were being looted. When he pulled into the intersection, he stopped. A man tore open his driver side door and viciously pulled Reginald out of the truck. Reginald was knocked unconscious. He was violently assaulted by a concrete slab, a hammer, and bricks.97 Other rioters pelted beer bottles at him and flashed gang signs at the news helicopter filming above.98 There was one sole motive — Reginald was white, and the rioters were black.

For the next six days, the mayhem continued. The anger that had built up over decades of police brutality had reached a tipping point, and the beating of Rodney King was the trigger.

Stores were burned to the ground. Cars were stolen. Even as King tearfully appealed at a press conference, “Can we all get along?” the destruction rolled on.99 Mayor Tom Bradley imposed a

Wu 19 curfew, while Governor Pete Wilson ordered reinforcements from the California Highway Patrol.

President George H. W. Bush deployed 11,000 National Guard troops and insisted he would “use whatever force necessary” to stop the “random terror and lawlessness”.100 On the fourth day, 1,500 United States Marines entered Huntington Park. By the end of the riots, fifty- two people had died and over two thousand were injured.101 Over eleven thousand people were arrested and 16,000 riot-related crimes had been reported.102 Los Angeles sustained almost $450 million dollars in property damage.103 Many residents lost their jobs, and 85% of job losses afflicted blacks, Latinos, or Asian Americans.104 377 buildings were destroyed, 94% of them commercial structures.105 As an art form inextricably linked with the black experience, hip-hop reflected both the terror and anger of the rioters. In the months after the riots, hip-hop records from all over the West Coast mused on the turmoil that wracked South Central.

Many were violent. “The Day the N**gaz Took Over” on The Chronic (1992) brimmed with hostility targeted at authorities: Creepin’, with the quickness to the cut, Bust one to his head while he munches on a donut.

And crack up, so now he best to back up, I guess I got to pack up, filling the clip up, I zip uptown but motherf***in’ cops are all around.106 RBX celebrates the sinister and aggressive side of the riots. He describes “creepin” through the city undetected and attacking a police officer in first-person, with no qualms about the consequences. He never gives his actions any context, nor does he mention the King beating. The imagery is raw, but it expresses the anger of the looters who sought to wreack havoc on South

Wu 20 Central. Ultimately, “The Day the N**gaz Took Over” is a song of the unadulterated rage felt by many after the jury’s verdict. Many artists felt compelled to join the riots themselves. Even Snoop Dogg was on the streets: “I was lootin’ like the rest of them. I had a record out and I was lootin’, you know what I’m saying?”107 Other artists took a more nuanced perspective. Ice Cube’s album The Predator was released the November of 1992, and it tackled many of the cold, hard truths that had plagued the black psyche during the riots. In “Who Got The Camera?” he acknowledges that cases of police brutality happen often, but are left unaddressed. Without the incriminating videotape, King’s case would have been unknown and forgotten, just like many others before it. Ice Cube raps: “If the crowd wasn’t around, they would’ve shot me, / Tried to play me out like my name was Rodney. / F***in’ police getting’ badder / ‘Cause if I had a camera, the sh** wouldn’t matter.” While it never found widespread appeal, “Who Got the Camera?” came to symbolize the frustration that had permeated the black community after decades of suffering without recompense. Ice Cube also places the riots in the context of a long history of racial discrimination. “We Had to Tear This Muthaf***a Up” begins with a 1960 speech from Nashville mayor Benjamin West in response to sit-ins protesting segregated lunch counters in urban Tennessee. “Peace, quiet, and good order will be maintained in our city to the best of our ability,” the recording says. “Riots, melees, and disturbances of the peace are against the interests of all our people; and therefore cannot be permitted.”108 The quote becomes ironic when juxtaposed with the destruction of the Los Angeles riots, and sounds eerily similar to the calls for order made by President Bush and Mayor Tom Bradley. Ice Cube satirizes the appeals of the government to maintain calm when faced with its own dysfunction and wrongdoing. By using the sound bite from West, Ice Cube also draws a parallel between the riots and the civil rights

Wu 21 movement that emerged in the South during the 1960s. In doing so, he exposes the battle African Americans had been fighting for decades against a justice system that was rigged against them.

From Kingston to Compton The Origins of Gangsta Rap “’Cause the boys in the hood are always hard, You come talking that trash we’ll pull your card.

Knowing nothing in life but to be legit, Don’t quote me boy ‘cause I ain’t said sh**.”

– Eazy-E

Hip-hop has a long history of bringing police brutality and other political issues to the forefront of the public consciousness. Rap music emerged in the 1970s as a fusion of Jamaican reggae and street culture in The Bronx, New York.

In Jamaica, music was intertwined with politics. As Jamaica became independent from Great Britain in 1962 and forged a new government from the fires of resistance, national pride was growing.109 As nationalism surged, so did indigenous music and local Rastafarian culture.110 In poorer towns, reggae emerged as an iteration of traditional African music and Caribbean calypso rhythms. Understandably, politics in Jamaica was tenuous at the time, and reggae music became the voice of the common people during the 1970s, even in the realm of politics. Delroy Wilson’s “Better Must Come” (1971), for instance, became both an anthem for hope and the theme song for a socialist presidential campaign.111 As Jeff Chang puts it in Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: “Every Jamaican politician knew what every Jamaican musician knew — the sound systems were crucial to their success…All any prime minister had to do to gauge the winds was to listen closely to the week’s 45 rpm single releases; they were like political polls set to melody and rhythm. The message was becoming decidedly roots and radical.”112

Wu 22 Fifteen hundred miles away in New York City, Afrika Bambaataa was taking those melodies and mixing them with beats from rock music and electro. Bambaataa traveled around the Bronx River East with his powerful stereos, capable of filling a dance hall or even a street block with his mixes.113 DJ Kool Herc did the same in the West Bronx, and their street parties attracted high school students from all around the boroughs.114 In the South Bronx, Grandmaster Flash pioneered the art of scratching, revolutionizing the way samples were incorporated into the burgeoning street music scene. And with the incorporation of all kinds of sounds and genres of music into the Bronx’s mixes, turntablism was born. All around New York, DJs created their own sounds and traded their cassette tapes with one another. They also found commercial success — Grandmaster Flash’s “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” (1981) and Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” (1982) both reached the Billboard Hot 100.

Artists also began rhyming over the beats at clubs, and rapping became an inseparable element of hip-hop culture. The emcee was part of the party and a member of the community. A whole host of hip-hop artists experienced international success in the 1980s — Run-D.M.C., Rakim, KRS-One, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. They also spawned subcultures.

Breakdancing found mainstream recognition. With Run-D.M.C.’s “My Adidas” (1986), sneakerhead culture was born. Battle rap became prominent as an offshoot of braggadocio culture in hip-hop. Rap music cropped up around the United States in urban centers with large black populations, such as Chicago, Atlanta, and Detroit. In Los Angeles especially, hip-hop found a home.

By the late 80s, many songs became political, inseparable from the daily difficulties of the ghetto when the party was over. Across the country — in Los Angeles included — African Americans faced economic challenges and political obstacles the found an avenue for expression

Wu 23 in hip-hop music. Conscious music that was centered sociopolitical consciousness gained popularity, spearheaded by Public Enemy’s 1988 album It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. In “Caught, Can We Get a Witness?” Chuck D raps: “Caught, now in court ‘cause I stole a beat, / This is a sampling sport. / But I’m giving it a new name, / What you hear is mine.” Chuck D makes a powerful statement on racial profiling in just four bars. He draws a parallel between sampling in hip-hop music and the stereotype of criminal theft that is associated with African Americans. While many people racially profile blacks and consider them thieves, Chuck D argues that sampling is not theft — he is making the music his own. He is not only defying racial stereotypes, but also developing a new independent black identity through his music. If sampling is a crime, then Chuck D’s listeners are his witnesses, ready to exonerate him. On the album’s last track, “Party for Your Right to Fight”, Chuck D plays on the title of a popular party song by white hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right to Party” (1986).

Instead of referencing a celebratory party, however, he alludes to the Black Panther Party: “I know some of you ain’t with it, / this party started right in ’66.”115 Public Enemy calls upon its listeners to channel their attention away from party music and towards pressing political issues, while also asserting hip-hop’s racial history. One of Public Enemy’s most well known tracks, “Rebel Without a Pause,” takes on governmental authority: “Impeach the President, pulling out the ray gun, / Zap the next one, I could be your shogun.”116 Besides featuring a nifty “ray gun” and “Reagan” pun, the record marked Public Enemy’s growing influence in pop culture. Chuck D claims to be a “shogun” — a guiding figure for the people. Furthermore, a shogun in ancient Japan was the ultimate ruler of Japan; his presence made the emperor a mere figurehead of power. Chuck D suggests that although Reagan and other politicians hold elected office, Public Enemy and other similar groups are the ones who have the real ability to affect the masses.

Wu 24 Across the East Coast, the new wave of conscious hip-hop dealt with issues like government ineptitude and commercialism in the music industry.

In Los Angeles, this switch to political music occurred differently. Los Angeles had a history of interracial tensions since the establishment of a large black population in the 1920s.117 Instead of calling for unity among black peoples (as was the case in many East Coast conscious rap records), Los Angeles artists began to focus on systemic racism and police brutality. They emphasized poverty, crime and injustice in their ghetto communities. The prison system and gang violence became prevalent motifs for their struggle against oppression. While some artists sought to glorify their status, others lamented their underprivileged situation. Many did both.

This new age of artists called their subgenre of hip-hop music “gangsta rap”. Many of them hailed from Compton, a city in Southern Los Angeles County that was one-third African American.

The first major gangsta rap record to attain mainstream success was Eazy-E’s 1987 debut single “Boyz-N-The-Hood”. West Coast hip-hop went from obscurity to center stage: “[Eazy-E] went from selling the record out of the trunk to swap meet vendors and retailers to a distribution deal with indie vanity label Macola…A year after they had cut “Boyz”, the single was taking hold on the streets, selling thousands of copies every week.”118 “Boyz-N-The-Hood” was a hit because it idealized life in the ghetto; the protagonist leads a carefree existence with all of his materialistic and sexual desires fulfilled. He vanquishes his enemies with ease and has a circle of friends in the community. In the song, he begins his day by driving around town.119 He sees his friend, “Kilo-G”, looking for cars to rob, then spots another friend, “J.D.,” trying to steal his Alpine car radio. However, he chases J.D. down the street and shoots him dead. Bored, the protagonist then heads to a friend’s house, where they

Wu 25 drink. He goes to see his girlfriend, but she says something that upsets him, so he slaps her. He then knocks out her father too. On the way home, he spots his friend Kilo-G once again, this time getting arrested. The last verse flashes to Kilo-G’s trial. Just as the judge gives his sentence, Kilo-G’s girlfriend enters the scene and shoots up the courthouse.

While laced with misogyny and violence, “Boyz-N-The-Hood” found its appeal by portraying society’s underdog — the poor, black man — as superior. He is omnipotent, serviced by others, and ends up destroying the establishment that seeks to alienate him. As Dr. James Peterson posits, “There are components to masculinity for the people who live and breathe hiphop culture. One of them is verbal ability, and the second is the ability to negotiate violence.”120 Most subsequent gangsta rap tracks by artists like Snoop Dogg, Above The Law, and Ice-T followed a similar model.

With the LAPD’s increasingly oppressive tactics in the late 1980s, many gangsta rap records especially focused on police as the savage oppressors. Released on N.W.A’s groundbreaking album Straight Outta Compton (1988), “F*** Tha Police” became the seminal track for music on the topic of police brutality and the anthem for young black males who felt oppressed by the justice system. The incendiary record begins by satirizing a courtroom: “Right about now, N.W.A court is in full effect, Judge Dre presiding. / In the case of N.W.A versus the police department, / Prosecuting attorneys are MC Ren, Ice Cube, and Eazy-motherf***ing-E.” From the opening seconds, N.W.A mocks the justice system as an invalid institution. The tables have turned — now they are the prosecution, and the police will be made to suffer for having treated the community unfairly. Ice Cube then comes in with his iconic opening lines: F*** the police coming straight from the underground!

A young n**ga got it bad ‘cause I’m brown,

Wu 26 And not the other color, so police think They have the authority to kill a minority.121 Immediately, Ice Cube accuses the police of racism. He uses strong language, stressing that police believe that they are entitled to killing African Americans. Young, black men suffer not because of their circumstances, but because they are brown. Using a first-person perspective, Ice Cube makes his predicament and allegations all the more salient to the listener. Further on in the verse, he raps: “You’d rather see me in the pen / than me and Lorenzo rolling in a Benz- O.”122 In this lyric, Ice Cube makes an even bolder claim that resonated with many black youths. He charges the police with being opposed to African American advancement. He argues that the police are ultimately public servants and should support the empowerment of impoverished, disenfranchised communities. Instead, he claims, the government seeks to kick the black community down the rungs of the societal ladder and prevent them from ever rising. In just those two lines, he rejects the assertion put out by many critics of the black community that the community does not work to advance its own economic well-being and that the African American plight is self-imposed. The establishment is dead set against blacks, and police officers would rather have African Americans in prison than owning a “Benz-O” — a Mercedes Benz luxury car. At its core, the argument is clear: cops are racist. Ice Cube also references “Lorenzo,” fellow N.W.A member MC Ren’s real name. Instead of becoming a more productive member of society, Ice Cube’s friend is left with few other options than to enter the entertainment industry.

Lorenzo could be an engineer, scientist, or doctor. Instead, a lack of opportunities forces him to adopt the moniker MC Ren and become a rapper.

Wu 27 The rest of “F*** Tha Police” features similarly intricate wordplay. The track is also littered with inflammatory threats to beat police officers, and ends with the openly racist and confrontational: “the jury has found you guilty of being a redneck, chickensh** motherf***er.”

Back the lyricism up with a bass-heavy and scratchy beat that rings in the ear, and “F*** Tha Police” became the voice of an aggravated South Central Los Angeles.123 “F*** Tha Police” caused a whirlwind of controversy across the nation. The FBI cautioned Priority Records, claiming that the song “encourages violence against, and disrespect for, the law-enforcement officer.”124 But among the ghettos of Southern California, many embraced the song. As Kurupt put it, “’F*** tha Police’ was a unification song for anybody that’s in the streets. ‘Hey it’s time to stand up and ride out,’ And N.W.A was basically saying, ‘We’re gonna lead the parade’.”125 In the words of Complex Magazine, “[N.W.A] did more than glorify street life. They represented a people who were willing to fight back and say what was on their minds.”126 “F*** Tha Police” spawned a new consciousness in hip-hop, awakening many artists to the topic of systemic racism and police brutality. The track also perpetuated police misconduct as a theme that would stay in rap music up to the 1992 Los Angeles riots and beyond. “[N.W.A] awakened Los Angeles to an old identity Los Angeles had forgot about,” posited KRS-One. “Hip-hop came out and reminded LA that you are gangsta, that you are revolutionary.”127 For the next few years, anti-police sentiment would become a prominent subject matter in hip-hop. Too $hort’s “The Ghetto” (1990) once again attacked police officers, while Ice Cube’s “Endangered Species” (1990) conveyed a similar message to listeners. Another pioneer of the genre, Ice-T, released the protest song “Cop Killer” (1992) with his metal group Body Count right before the riots in April. The track includes threats to police officers and even mentions Daryl Gates, LAPD

Wu 28 police chief. “Cop Killer” caused such controversy that President Bush publicly denounced the song and Ice-T had to withdraw the single from his debut album.

After the beating of Rodney King surfaced, gangsta rap’s anti-police machismo was reinvigorated. The fury and violence of the rioters were reflected in the music. While the subgenre N.W.A had founded was still growing in popularity before the riots, after 1992, it went mainstream. The riots had essentially opened the floodgates to a new wave of hip-hop that was unapologetically virulent and hostile towards racist police officers. As Ernest Hardy and August Brown wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “The riots gave marginalized music from the hood a global stage and sudden mainstream legitimacy. The music born of the very conditions that precipitated the riots now transcended South L.A.” 128 With its newfound popularity, gangsta rap had found a new audience — white, suburban youths.

Dr. Dre’s “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” (1992) and C-Bo’s “Deadly Game” (1998) resonated with the youth of the day, both black and white, rich and poor. Much like rock n’ roll in the 1960s, hip-hop was a genre full to the brim with rebellion, bravado, and emotion. It appealed to young people by taking on an edgy, anti-establishment stance. Meanwhile, record companies like Def Jam Recordings, Bad Boy Records, and Death Row Records worked to produce sounds that satisfied consumers. The Los Angeles uprising helped popularize music with similar themes on the East Coast too, and gangsta rap echoed across the country. UGK’s “Protect and Serve” (1994) mocked the mission of law enforcement, while KRS-One’s “famous refrain in “Sound of da Police” (1993) — “Whoop, whoop! That’s the sound of da police! / Whoop, whoop! That’s the sound of da beast!” — remains instantly recognizable among many hip-hop listeners today.129 Mos Def’s “Mr. N**ga” (1999) reiterated the idea that society actively seeks to prevent black success. The Los Angeles riots also became the catalyst for gangsta rap’s message to

Wu 29 spread beyond the genre itself. In “Killing In The Name” (1992), Los Angeles-based rock band Rage Against the Machine likens police to the Ku Klux Klan: “Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses”. All of the aforementioned records found success not only among hip-hop heads, but also among casual listeners and on the pop charts. Thus, the riots helped establish gangsta rap as a staple of 1990s mainstream music and pop culture. Police brutality became a part of the public consciousness.

2Pac’s 1993 hit “Holler if Ya Hear Me” fit the archetype of a post-riot gangsta rap piece that told the stories of the South Central ghetto. The first track on 2Pac’s sophomore album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., “Holler if Ya Hear Me” sampled Public Enemy’s politically-charged “A Rebel Without a Pause” (1988) and reached the Billboard Hot 100.

The track portrays the police as an antagonist: “From block to block we snatchin’ hearts and jackin’ marks, / And the punk police can’t fade me, and maybe / We can have peace one day, G.” Law enforcement is depicted as an obstacle to finding prosperity in the hood; a faction that hurts the community as a whole. 2Pac also makes the claim that the police “fades” him — diminishing his independence and identity. Later in the song, he also comments on the growing mainstream popularity of his music among young people: “I bring truth to the youth, / tear the roof off the whole school.” 2Pac accuses the establishment — the education system, specifically — of being inadequate. From his perspective, schools do not teach children about taboo issues like poverty and racism, so only he is left to be the truth-giver. In essence, he is the voice of the voiceless, and it is the duty of the listener to take his message to heart. In his closing verse, 2Pac spits: “So we live like caged beasts, / Waitin’ for a day to let the rage free.” His imagery of ghetto residents as “caged beasts” alludes to society’s treatment of African Americans as animals

Wu 30 to be trapped and restrained. His language also makes clear that the anger of the community is raw and real.

Like many artists of the era, 2Pac’s message found a wide audience because of the Los Angeles riots. In many ways, elements of gangsta rap remain today, although hip-hop’s commercialism in the late 1990s saw more materialistic themes become popular. The bravado of the coveted gangster hero remains, although the gun has been replaced by cash, and the racist police by the corporation that seeks to suppress the independent artist.

Who’s Got the Baddest Dashiki?

Black Nationalism “The American Dream wasn’t meant for me, ‘cause Lady Liberty is a hyprocrite, she lied to me.

Promised me freedom, education, equality, Never gave me nothing but slavery. ” - 2Pac

An important undercurrent of hip-hop culture in the late 1980s and early 1990s was Black Nationalism, which remained an important movement until its decline going into the 21st Century. While groups like the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam helped increase African American solidarity going into the Los Angeles riots, the riots themselves shifted racial dialogue away from the esoteric intellectualism of Black Nationalist thought and towards more pragmatic socioeconomic goals.

As hip-hop came into being on the street corners of The Bronx, Black Nationalism was developing rapidly. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s had won African Americans legal equality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in all public places, while the 1965 Voting Rights Act tripled African American voter registration by forbidding poll taxes and literacy tests.130 The Civil Rights Act of 1968 banned racial discrimination in housing.131

Wu 31 However, African Americans across the nation still faced discrimination in the workplace, in public, and in their communities. African Americans’ legislative and political goals had been achieved, but most blacks remained low income and without social mobility. Like Motown was in the 1960s, hip-hop was a reflection and expression of the black experience in the 1980s. As Sean Posey writes for The Hampton Institute, “The promise of the civil rights movement — especially the promise of economic justice — never filtered down to the ghettos of America’s cities…Hip-hop channeled the frustrations of urban youth who found themselves left out of the economic growth of that decade.”132 Many of the hip-hop records of the 1980s and early 1990s — on both the East Coast and the West Coast — demonstrated the lack of direction and identity that many African Americans felt during the era. Some blacks sought to develop their own culture and identity separate from whites. An element of this renewal was bettering black communities and ghettos, a perspective which 2Pac expounded on in a speech to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in 1992: “It’s not gonna stop until we stop it. And it’s not just the white man that’s doing this to Brenda.

It’s not just the white man that’s keeping us trapped. It’s black. And we have to find the new African in everybody…what I want you to take seriously is what we have to do for the youth.”133 In this excerpt, 2Pac made the assertion that racism was not the only factor keeping African Americans suppressed, it was also a lack of black community empowerment. In this same speech, he speaks out against gang violence and abusive parenting as forces that destroy African Americans’ own neighborhoods. 2Pac also references Brenda, a fictional teenager in his 1991 single “Brenda’s Got A Baby” who gets pregnant after becoming a prostitute and is murdered.

The song portrays Brenda as a young woman who is neglected by her parents, by the government, and by society. Many rappers of the time embraced a similar message, calling for

Wu 32 black pride and self-consciousness in their broken communities. The King beating brought about a conversation within the black community about self-agency and improving poor communities to prevent crime.

The Black Arts Movement, an artistic expression of the Black Nationalist movement in the 1960s and 1970s, directly influenced the hip-hop movement’s progressive voice. Writers like Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka, Lorraine Hansberry, and Gwendolyn Brooks celebrated black power and identity. At the same time, they were unafraid of tackling the nitty-gritty problems that plagued urban black communities. One work of note is Amiri Baraka’s 1979 poem “Black Art”, which illustrated the mistrust towards police that would later prove so pervasive in hip hop culture: “’We want poems that kill’ / Assassin poems, Poems that shoot / Guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys / And take their weapons leaving them dead.”134 Many Black Arts poets and writers tried to make their work accessible to the common people by founding theaters and holding live readings, inspiring hip-hop artists to also convey their political messages in direct and open ways.135 More importantly, writers of the 1960s awakened the African American public to a sense of racial consciousness that boosted hip-hop’s success at the turn of the decade. From the New Lafayette Theatre to the Black Arts Repertory School, they brought their craft to the masses, paving the way for hip-hop artists to garner mainstream appeal during the 1980s and 1990s.136 As Michael Eric Dyson put it, “Conscious rap — or rap that is socially aware and consciously connected to historic patterns of political protest and aligned with progressive forces of social critique — owes a debt, whether its artists realize it or not, to the Black Arts Movement…groups like Public Enemy depended on a kind of racial and political literacy for folk to grasp what they were saying.”137

Wu 33 Many African Americans sought community empowerment and political involvement through Black Power groups, such as the Black Panther Party or the Nation of Islam. Many hiphop artists sought to reflect that reality in their music. Even during hip-hop’s inception in The Bronx, the gathering of young people at parties to enjoy hip-hop constituted a kind of simple Black Nationalism and togetherness in the community. As Errol A. Henderson claims in his essay for the Journal of Black Studies, “With the coming of Bambataa the mind of hip-hop was turned to Black Nationalism, positive creativity, vision, and healing.”138 Afrocentric lyricism would continue in hip-hop through tracks like Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s “The Message” (1982), widely regarded as the first conscious rap record; Big Daddy Kane’s “Rap Summary – Lean On Me” (1989), a track on cyclical poverty in New York; and Common’s “I Used to Love H.E.R.” (1994), a tribute to hip-hop’s relationship with the embattled Chicago Southside.

In his 1989 record “Panther Power,” for instance, Paris celebrates the Black Panther Party, a socialist Black Nationalist organization. “Panther Power” begins with a famous speech from Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale: “The whole black nation has to be put together as a black army. And we’re going to walk on this nation, we’re going to walk on this racist power structure, and we’re going to say to the whole damn racist government, ‘Stick em’ up motherf***er, this is a hold up! We’ve come for what’s ours’.”139 Seale’s speech is a testament to the extreme outrage many involved with the black power movement felt towards the government, police forces, and other symbols of the establishment. Like many other Black Nationalist groups, the Black Panthers saw the police as an instrument of oppression, even genocide. The incorporation of Seale’s speech into Paris’ track demonstrates the close link many rap artists forged with black power groups and how many musicians felt compelled to spread the

Wu 34 Black Nationalist message in their art. In his opening lines, Paris references the Black Panthers’ Ten Point Program, the tenets of the organization: “Yo black it’s time to set stage and guidelines, / Ten point program, freeze the genocide.” Once again, he specifically invokes Black Panther language in his music. The Ten Point Program includes ideas like abandoning capitalism, exempting blacks from military conscription, increasing employment, and establishing affordable housing — all ideas centered around bettering African American communities through a mentality of self-improvement.140 Paris argues that black should do more besides separating themselves from white culture. As per Black Nationalist teachings, African Americans should seek to liberate and empower themselves. The first verse ends with the following lines: Soul On Ice, what I won’t be played like Pigs and house nigs are set in my sight.

Cock the gat, for P the pro-black, On to harm and alarmed at the format, News going out to a racist cop.141 Paris references Soul On Ice, a collection of essays by Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver.

Written during Cleaver’s time in prison, the essays discuss Black Nationalism thought, gender relations, sexuality, and the prison system. In mentioning Cleaver, Paris not only exults the work of a seminal Black Nationalist leader, but he also challenges the listener to think about Afrocentric issues like racism and government welfare. He places himself within a broader intellectual context — the ghetto experiences he describes are analogous to the issues Cleaver outlines in Soul On Ice and other similar canonical works. Such issues were central to groups like the Black Panthers and were a driving force in the outrage many felt in the aftermath of the

Wu 35 Rodney King verdict. Paris also refers to “pigs and house nigs”. Historically, the derogatory epithet “house nigs” referred to slaves who worked in the master’s home doing housework rather than picking cotton in the fields. These slaves were usually somewhat educated, well dressed, and closer to the master’s family than field slaves. Thus, other slaves looked down upon “house nigs;” they were assimilators who had compromised their African identity to pate the white man’s desires. Paris uses the term to attack blacks whom, in his view, had turned their backs on the Black Nationalist cause by adopting white culture. These included African Americans who worked in law enforcement, went into Wall Street, or otherwise became a part of the American “establishment.” This concept of alienating black “traitors” was prevalent in hip-hop culture and was perceived as crucial in creating a sense of Afrocentric solidarity among various Black Nationalist thinkers. In “F*** the Police”, for instance, Ice Cube criticizes the “black police showing up for the white cop.” He denounces the African American police officer as an individual who puts not only his own identity at stake, but also jeopardizes the stability of the community as a whole. In the last line of his first verse, Paris highlights the “racist police” as an example of system racism and a threat to black power. “Panther Power” is essentially a call to arms for all African Americans to come together, improve their racial enclaves, and fearlessly take on the white establishment. While the Black Panthers faded as a political force entering the 1990s, hip-hop artists continued to reference the group, and the zeal that the organization fostered was a significant, yet subtle, force in shaping the riots. Groups like the Black Panthers set a precedent for contemporary associations like the NAACP and ACLU. 2Pac, whose family had strong links with the Black Panthers, prominently included the party in songs like “Changes” (1998) and “Panther Power” (2003). His poem “Can U C The Pride in the Panther” was published posthumously in 2000 and served as an anthem to the Black Panthers’ legacy.

Wu 36 Another group embraced by many rappers was the Nation of Islam, which integrated Islamic beliefs with Black Nationalism. Founded in 1930, the group came into prominence when Elijah Muhammad claimed leadership in 1934.142 Besides traditional Muslim practices like not eating pork or smoking tobacco, Muhammad also preached black economic independence and the establishment of an African nation-state in the South.143 Many of the Nation’s followers adopted Muslim names or replaced their last names with an X to symbolize their loss of African identity as a consequence of slavery. Under Malcolm X’s leadership, the group saw rapid growth during the 1950s. After several schisms that weakened and divided the Nation, Louis Farrakhan once again popularized Muslim Black Nationalism in the 1990s. While the role of Islam in the Black Nationalist movement is multifaceted, many hip-hop artists featured Islam prominently in their work, especially in the years following the riots. One such rapper was Watts-based artist Ras Kass, who was a vocal advocate of the Five Percenters, an offshoot group of the original Nation led by Muhammad. In his song “Nature of the Threat” (1996), Ras Kass provides an alternative view of history, highlighting imperialistic oppression of blacks: In the eighth century, Muslims conquered Spain, Portugal, and France and controlled it for seven hundred years.

They never mention this in history class, ‘Cause ofays are threatened when you get the real lesson, Moors from Baghdad, Turkey threatened European Christians.144 While few African Americans subscribed to such teachings, the Black Nationalist movement encouraged black unity and compelled many to aggressively tackle difficult racial issues. Ras Kass himself was a member of the Five-Percent Nation, an offshoot of the Nation of Islam. In “Nature of the Threat”, he also denounces assimilation, just as Paris did with his “house

Wu 37 nig” line: “Jews don’t pledge allegiance to the f***in’ swastika, / but n**gas pledge allegiance to the flag that accosted ya.”145 Ras Kass essentially attempts to separate black culture from white America, emphasizing Afrocentrism. In his view, the United States betrayed African Americans and reconciliation is impossible. Many black Muslim groups preached a similar ideology, and while Black Nationalism as an intellectual movement was never widely adopted by African Americans, it served to strengthen cohesion in urban racial enclaves.

By the time of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, many Black Nationalist groups had shrunk dramatically since their heyday in the 1970s. However, the culture they had advanced led to the uprising and collective frustration many blacks felt. As with many predominantly African American art forms, rap music reflected that reality, and hip-hop lyrics in the 1990s often referenced Black Nationalist theology or ideology. In turn, these artists influenced young listeners on the West Coast and beyond. As Imani Perry claims in Prophets of the Hood, “…the history of black power movement talk, and its impact on the development of hip hop, located it as a musical form at best revolutionary and at least rebellious for young listeners across the globe.”146 Black Nationalism left an indelible mark in the form of the 1992 uprising and the hiphop music of the era. The riots heightened Black Nationalist voices and the Rodney King beating gave a sense of tangible legitimacy to the teachings of black leaders who had spoken out years ago.

Black Korea Targeting Asian Americans “So pay respect to the black fist, Or we’ll burn your store right down to a crisp.

And then we’ll see ya!

‘Cause you can’t turn the ghetto into Black Korea.”

- Ice Cube

Wu 38 One lesser-mentioned aspect of the 1992 riots is the anti-Asian American sentiment that percolated throughout the South Central black community at the time. The Korean community suffered 45% of the damages during the riots, worth around $350 million dollars.147 Around 2,300 Korean-owned stores were destroyed.148 Forty-six Korean Americans were injured and one was killed.149 Many attribute the targeting of Korean Americans during the riots an incident that occurred just a few days after King’s beating. On March 16, 1991, black teenager Latasha Harlins was headed to Empire Liquor, a convenience store in South Central, to buy breakfast.150 At the counter, Harlins put a carton of orange juice in her backpack and pulled out two dollars to pay for it. Soon Ja Du, a grocer at the Korean-owned store, thought Harlins was stealing the orange juice.151 Du grabbed Harlins and the two brawled. The confrontation ended when Du fatally shot Harlins in the head. Du was charged with voluntary manslaughter, but only sentenced to five years probation, community service, and a $500 fine.152 The verdict caused outrage among Harlins’ family and a number of black community groups in Los Angeles. 2Pac would allude to Harlins in his song “Hellrazor” (1997): "Little girl like Latasha, had to die, / She never got to see the bullet, just heard the shot, / Her little body couldn't take it, it shook and dropped.”153 Other incidents along similar racial lines occurred throughout the rest of 1991. On June 14, Arthur Lee Mitchell — a young black man — was shot at the Korean-owned Jr. Liquor Market during an attempted robbery.154 On October 19, an African American man robbed a Shell gas station, shooting a nine-year old Korean girl during the holdup.155 In November of the same year, Korean-owned Ace Liquor Store was firebombed in retaliation for Harlins’ death, marking the fifth arson incident at a Korean store that year.156 In 1991 alone, eleven Korean merchants

Wu 39 were killed in robberies.157 These tragic occurrences were all a part of a long history of friction between South Central’s Korean and black residents.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, the Korean population in Los Angeles skyrocketed from 9,000 to 250,000.158 They began establishing a number of businesses in South Central, filling the hole left by Jewish merchants who fled Los Angeles following the Watts riots of 1965.159 By 1991, Asian Americans would make up 9% of the Los Angeles population.160 Over the same time period, the African American population dipped from 17% to 13%, and many blacks found themselves competing with Koreans for economic opportunities.161 In the high-crime neighborhoods of South Central, mistrust quickly developed between the two racial groups. The language barrier exacerbated tensions, and many Korean merchants were reluctant to hire African Americans. Despite efforts to ease relations through church groups and the BlackKorean Alliance, both races became the other’s scapegoat for the socioeconomic issues they faced. Throughout 1991, Korean stores would be boycotted and attacked all around South Central. On October 29, 1991, Ice Cube released one of the most controversial albums in hip-hop history — Death Certificate. Debuting at #2 on the Billboard charts, the album included the fiery track “Black Korea”, a forty-seven second lyrical assault on Korean merchants: Every time I wanna go get a f***in' brew, I gotta go down to the store with the two Oriental one-penny countin' motherf***ers They make a n**ga mad enough to cause a little ruckus.

Thinkin' every brother in the world's out to take, So they watch every damn move that I make.162 “Black Korea” expressed the frustration of the African American community at Korean store

Wu 40 owners in brutal but simple terms. Bluntly racist, the track uses stereotypes of Asian Americans as being greedy and stingy. The record samples the audio from a scene in Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do The Right Thing in which the protagonist is embroiled in an expletive-littered argument with a Korean store owner. In the scene, the suspicious Korean shopkeeper treats an African American youth dismissively and angrily. Ice Cube captures the common experiences of many blacks when browsing Korean stores — being followed by the store owner and accused of theft. He also references the boycotting and firebombing of Korean establishments. As Latasha Harlins’ mother, Denise Harlins, put it, “It was a real hard song, but it was only expressing what people were feeling.”163 Combined with incidents like the killing of Latasha Harlins, South Central’s racial tensions were ready to explode by April of 1992.

By the second day of the Los Angeles riots, the commotion had spread well beyond the intersection of Florence and Normandie. Looters stormed into Koreatown, breaking into convenience stores and other businesses. Most of them specifically targeted Korean-owned establishments. An FBI investigation revealed that African American gangs victimized Korean stores, while the radical KPFK radio station encouraged their listeners to force Koreans out of the neighborhood.164 The LAPD was already spread thin and did not respond to emergency calls from Korean families. Consequently, many store owners began to arm themselves. Korean employees with automatic weapons lined rooftops. One reel of iconic footage shows several Koreans firing warning shots in a small strip mall, trying to defend a local jewelry boutique.

Other workers removed Korean lettering from their signs to prevent being targeted. Richard Park, owner of the Western Gun Shop, distributed guns and ammunition to others in the Korean community and formed his own vigilante defense force. However, the message he conveyed after the riots was one of hopelessness and despair. “Why did they do it? Everything in my store

Wu 41 is gone, even the ball pens,” he said. “They’ve broken the empty showcases. Why? They burned all my papers. Why? Even the empty checkbooks, they threw into the street. Why?”165 By the end of the riots, 6,000 Korean-owned retail stores had suffered from severe property damage, while 150 liquor stores were destroyed.166 However, from the rubble a sense of hope also emerged. On May 2nd — four days after the start of the riots — 30,000 people gathered in Koreatown for a peace march.167 While most of the marchers were Korean American, many blacks and Latinos watched the event, which helped to ease racial tensions.168 The next day, Reverend Jesse Jackson traveled around Koreatown and spoke out in support of increased understanding between racial minorities.169 Even Ice Cube issued an apology for “Black Korea” and met with the Korean American Grocers’ Association (KAGRO) to discuss race relations in South Central.170 “Working together we can help solve these problems and build a bridge between our communities,” he said in a public statement.171 On May 4, the headline on the cover of the Korea Times read: “Ice Cube the Peacemaker”.172 Korean American business owners also reformed their practices. KAGRO distributed a code of conduct to 3,200 store owners that promoted peaceable relations between Korean Americans and African Americans.173 Moreover, community leaders discussed reducing the number of liquor stores in an effort to better the area’s economic future. Ultimately, the riots proved to be cathartic for racial tensions in South Central, and hip-hop helped shape that story.

Colors & Crack Street Gangs and the Drug Trade “Yo, Mr. Dopeman, you think you’re slick, You sold crack to my sister and now she’s sick. If she happens to die because of your drug, I’m putting in your culo a .38 slug.”

- Krazy D

Wu 42

The riots also led to a transformation in the dynamic between street gangs in Los Angeles, a change that was well documented and pushed forward by hip-hop music. Beginning in the 1970s, street gangs became an increasingly prominent part of African American ghetto communities. While only 45 black street gangs existed in South Central in 1978, that figure leapt to 151 gangs by 1982.174 The growth of gangs in their membership and influence was mainly fueled by the increasing popularity of crack cocaine, a smokeable, rock-like substance produced by boiling powder cocaine. Various gangs and their “sets” fought over turf on which they could sell the lucrative new drug, leading to violence in the housing projects of South Central.

Throughout the decades, consumption of crack increased and selling prices halved, going from $5 to $10 per vial.175 As rapper and former drug dealer RZA recalled, “While we was in that business…crackheads would line up on the crack spot, taking their checks, their food stamps — I remember having a thousand dollars in food stamps.”176 Sensationalist media coverage around crack usage and its association with African American communities also contained racial undertones that provoked tensions between blacks and whites. “The news media was writing about this plague before this plague, as it were, really took hold,” claims Dr. Todd Boyd on the documentary Planet Rock. “The idea of a threat coming from black America relative to crack cocaine was to create a sort of mass hysteria.”177 Besides being a source of financial support through their drug-trafficking activities, gangs provided an appealing source of community and social interaction for young men. Teenagers who grew up in single-parent homes or in the difficult economic circumstances that were so common during the 1970s found friendship and support in gang activities.

Another reason commonly cited for the spike in gang activity came in the form of government policy. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 loosened immigration

Wu 43 restrictions by removing quotas.178 An influx of new immigrants came in, many of them Latino.179 By the time the 1980s rolled around, their children were adolescents, and gang membership rates tend to be highest among second-generation youth.180 In 1970, gang activity existed in 201 cities.181 By the end of the decade, the Department of Justice determined that gang operations existed in 468 urban areas.182 In 1980, crime in Los Angeles hit a record high, largely due to growing gang violence. The LAPD responded to a record 1,028 murders — a 52% increase from just two years before — with drug raids and a comprehensive restructuring of their gang divisions.183 By the turn of the decade, gang membership stood at about 75,000.184 Coupled with the aggressive tactics of Gates and his LAPD force, more and more young black males in Los Angeles were incarcerated. Life in prison became a prevalent theme in hip-hop tracks. Some songs glorified imprisonment, while other pieces attacked the sociopolitical system that put blacks in jail. As Dyson suggests, “Hiphop has both challenged [the idea of linking black machismo with incarceration] and reinforced it at the same time. It has both gasped at the horror of the ‘pen’ and glamorized it all the same.”185 One such record was Ice-T’s “6’ N the Mornin.” on his 1987 debut album Rhyme Pays.

The song starts off with the LAPD searching the house for drugs: “6 in the mornin’, police at my door, / Fresh Adidas squeak across the bathroom floor. / Out my back window, I make an escape.”186 Like so many records of the era, “6’ N the Mornin” portrays the police as the antagonist, while glorifying the black man. The protagonist owns a pair of “Fresh Adidas”, a status symbol at the time. Several lines later, he glorifies his wealth and prestige as a drug dealer: “And the streets to a player is the place to be, / Got a knot in my pocket, weighting at least a grand. / Gold on my neck, my pistols close at hand. / I’m a self-made monster of the city

Wu 44 streets.”187 The speaker associates drug trafficking with financial wellbeing and independence.

Instead of decrying the ghetto’s lack of resources, he claims that the “streets to a player is the place to be.” For many black youths, the crack market was a source of economic and spiritual liberation in the face of hardship. Ice-T’s track, like many others, glorifies that individual freedom. The protagonist then spends some time gambling and flirting with women. However, by the second verse, the police pursue him and he ends up in prison: Looked in the mirror, what did we see?

F**kin’ blue lights: LAPD. Pigs searched our car, their day was made, Found an Uzi, .44, and a hand grenade.

Threw us in the county high power block.188 Like in so many gangsta rhymes, the police seek to undermine black youth; after they find the speaker’s weapons, the officers’ “day was made.” However, after serving time in prison, the protagonist is once again peddling drugs: “Back on the streets after five and a deuce, / Seven years later but still had the juice...the batter rams rolling, rocks are the thing, / Life has no meaning and money is king.” The speaker is nonchalant about his return to crime, casually remarking that there is no purpose to existence other than material gain. Ice-T argues that when confronted with dire economic straits, material gain becomes the only goal and source of selfrespect for the black psyche. He also demonstrates the cyclical nature of crime and incarceration.

With little social mobility in South Central, selling drugs is the only path for young black males to own “fresh Adidas” or “gold on [their necks].” Imprisonment is simply an unavoidable part of the lifestyle.

Wu 45 Indeed, some scholars suggest the government had a vested interest in keeping African Americans in prison, thus fostering racial tensions. “The policies of the Reagan and first Bush administrations endorsed rapid expansion of prisons as a means to control a fast-growing crime rate while affirming the spirit of ‘law and order’ that had become a conservative slogan since the late 1960s,” writes Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar in Hip-Hop Revolution. “While conservatives advocated for prison expansion, they also pushed for privatization of the prison industry, generating millions for private businesses…the prison industry had become one of the fastest growing sectors in a recession economy, with profound racial implications.”189 Seeing the suffering of African American youth in the name of private profit angered many in the black community. While influencing the topics explored in hip-hop, frequent incarceration of black men also promoted resentment in the ghettos of South Central that was felt during the 1992 riots.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, many artists criticized the influence of crack and gangs on the black community. Even Ice-T, the artist behind “6’ N the Mornin,” admitted: “[Crack cocaine] looked to me like little pieces of hard rock candy. I never used it, and I never sold it, but watched it consume the generation around me.”190 One track that condemned the influence of crack in Los Angeles communities was N.W.A’s “Dopeman”(1988). Ice Cube belittles those addicted to crack cocaine: If you smoke ‘caine, you’re a stupid motherf***er, Known around the hood as the schoolyard clucker.

Doing that crack with all the money you got, On your hands and knees searching for a piece of rock.191 Ice Cube bluntly claims that those who smoke crack are lowly individuals and make poor financial decisions. The body language he describes — “on your hands and knees searching for a

Wu 46 piece of rock” — evokes shame and disgrace. A more telling message, however, appears in Krazy D’s lines: “Yo, Mister Dopeman, you think you’re slick, You sold crack to my sister and now she’s sick.

If she happens to die because of your drug, I’m putting your culo a .38 slug!”192 Unlike Ice Cube, Krazy D addresses the drug dealers rather than the crack addicts. He notes the dealer’s negative influence on the community as a whole, while also making the plight of drug addiction real and personal by referencing his sister. He does not blame the addicts for the crack epidemic — he seems to acknowledge the draw of a crack-induced high and its highly addictive qualities. Instead, he portrays the addicts as victims exploited by avaricious drug traffickers. He mentions that his sister may die from substance abuse, alluding to the fatal consequences of overdosing on the drug. To his listeners, this track would have conveyed a forceful message against drugs. In classic gangsta rap style, Krazy D ends the track with an abrasive threat: “I’m putting your culo a .38 slug!” The Spanish term “culo”, a derogatory term for one’s posterior, further demeans the imaginary drug peddler.

The 1992 riots had a major impact on both the drug trade and gang activity in South Central. The conflict led to an African American awakening of sorts, heralding a period of black unity and cooperation between gangs to improve their torn communities. As Kurupt put it, ““All that chaos, all that destruction was the ultimate inspiration for unification.”193 Whether it was because the riots brought South Central’s economic issues to the forefront of the public consciousness or because they identified the white man as a common enemy for the black community, the years following the 1992 riots saw a decrease in black-on-black violence.

Wu 47 In the year following 1992, the city of Los Angeles saw the first reduction in gang violence since 1984.194 There was a 10% decrease in gang-related homicides in 1993.195 By 1998, gang-related homicides were at their lowest level in a decade, even though gang membership levels stayed the same throughout.196 Many scholars attribute this major crime reduction to a gang truce that expanded its scope following the riots.197 Days before the riots began, the four most influential street gangs in South Central — the Bounty Hunter Blood, the Grape Street Crips, Hacienda Village Bloods, and PJ Watts Crips — agreed to a cease-fire.198 Over the course of the unrest, however, African Americans from all over Los Angeles found themselves fighting for the same values. One out of four gang members played an active role in the rioting.199 The truce soon expanded to include Rollin’ 20s Bloods, Florencia 13, Athens Park Boys, and an increasing number of other gangs.200 Thousands of members crossed enemy turf to meet at housing projects with the goal of establishing long-term peace.201 “[The riots] weren’t entirely a gang issue as much as people assume,” recounted Florencia 13 gang member Alfred Lomas. “Being a young kid growing up in one of these areas, there’s always a sense of harassment from the police…and I think the L.A. riots represented that kind of catharsis on a mass level.” 202 Ed Turley, an organizer at Community Youth Gang Services, echoed a similar sentiment. “…when the verdict came in, it was like a 10,0 earthquake that woke everyone up, especially gang members, to the injustice that is happening to minorities,” he said. “The verdict helped push the [peace] process together.”203 Hip-hop also described the unity felt by many rival gang members during the riots. In “The Day The N**gaz Took Over”, Dr. Dre raps, ““Bloods, Crips on the same squad / with the ese’s help, and n**ga it’s time to rob and mob.”204 Even in the context of the riot’s free-for-all mentality, Dr. Dre alludes to cooperation between Los Angeles’ two biggest gangs and an

Wu 48 alliance with the Latino community. His lines serve as recognition of shared experiences that unite all gang members and help define the black psyche — police brutality and institutional racism. 1993 would mark another milestone in hip-hop’s relationship with South Central gang activity when a collection of hip-hop artists from both the Bloods and Crips gangs came together to make music. They called their new group “Bloods & Crips”, and they released their first album, Bangin’ on Wax, to some success. Others also mention the influence of the 1990 single “We’re All In The Same Gang” as a driving force for peace in South Central.205 Produced by Dr. Dre, the track was a collaboration between over ten West Coast artists, including MC Hammer, Ice-T, Above the Law, Young M.C., and N.W.A. The seven-minute record spoke out against gang violence and advocated for racial unity, inspiring many youths who would form the gang truce just two years later.206 Gang activity in South Central declined post-1992, and hip-hop documented — if not contributed to — that transformation.

#BlackLivesMatter Conclusion “I know the scream of Trayvon Martin because it sounded like my own.

I look back on all that time and realize we haven’t changed as fast as we need to.”

— Rodney King

Since its inception, hip-hop has chronicled the pains and struggles that are ingrained in the black psyche. Its practitioners are storytellers, communicating the events that have shaped the African American experience in the United States. Whether it was demanding violence during the black power movement or advocating for peace in times of gang warfare, celebrating the riches associated with hustling drugs or warning about the debilitating effects of substance abuse, referencing the days of slavery or alluding to the Civil Rights Movement, attacking white police officers or criticizing Korean shopkeepers, hip-hop was a voice for every dimension of ghetto

Wu 49 life in Los Angeles. As Reiland Rabaka put it, “…working-class and poor African American youth’s music, aesthetics, and politics at any given moment in African American history seems to serve as a crude kind of social, political, and cultural barometer, allowing us to measure the atmospheric pressure in black America.”207 Without a doubt, hip-hop was a barometer during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The genre served as an outlet for emotional turmoil, yet it also helped alleviate tensions between Korean Americans and African Americans. While hip-hop artists dealt with pressing issues like police brutality, black-on-black violence, and the crack epidemic, they drew from their past by exploring Black Nationalism and centuries of racial oppression as well. At its core, hip-hop is an introspective investigation of a black community that is constantly searching for its identity.

The issues that paved the path to the riots remain today — one only has to switch on the evening news to see another controversy about racial discrimination or police brutality in law enforcement. The national conversation is far from over. In South Central Los Angeles specifically, poverty and crime remain prevalent issues in black communities. As current City Councilmember Bernard Park mused, “Are we producing a better group of students? No. Is there access to more jobs than in [1992]? Probably not. Are there higher paying jobs? Probably not.”208 But progress is being made. Following the riots, Daryl Gates stepped down and in the years since, the LAPD has switched to community policing strategies in an effort engage with neighborhoods in less confrontational ways. There is still work to be done, but to deny there have been advances would be a disservice to the countless voices that have contributed to rectifying history’s injustices.

Hip-hop can be both a measure and catalyst for those very changes. Just like N.W.A became the furious voice against police brutality and 2Pac inspired self-agency in black

Wu 50 communities that had all but given up hope, today’s artists have the opportunity to shift the racial narrative in novel ways. That may mean referencing specific events like the killing of Michael Brown, or rhymes that pinpoint policy and government. Perhaps a broader call to action that incorporates shared experiences that characterize the black identity will be most effective. Only time will tell. In the meantime, apathy is not an option. As 2Pac said on “Changes” (1998), “Let’s change the way we treat each other. You see, the old way wasn’t working, so it’s on us to do what we gotta do — to survive.”209

Wu 51 Notes 1 Adam Chandler, "Eric Garner and Michael Brown: Deaths Without Indictments," The Atlantic, last modified

December 3, 2014, accessed February 11, 2015.

2 Black Entertainment Television, "Hip Hop Awards Performance: Common, Vince Staples, and Jay Electronica Take

Us to the Kingdom," video file, 04:47, BET, accessed April 14, 2015.

3 Rap Genius, ed., "'Don't Shoot' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

4 Rap Genius, ed., "'Ahhh Shit' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

5 Rap Genius, "'Don't Shoot' Lyrics," Genius.

6 David Hunn and Kim Bell, "Why Was Michael Brown's Body Left There for Hours?," St. Louis Today (St. Louis, MI),

September 14, 2014, accessed April 13, 2015.

7 Rap Genius, "'Don't Shoot' Lyrics," Genius.

8 Rap Genius, ed., "'Glory' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

9 Ibid.

10 Metacritic, ed., "To Pimp a Butterfly," Metacritic, accessed April 14, 2015.

11 Rap Genius, ed., "'i' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

12 Rap Genius, ed., "'Talk It' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

13 Seth Mydans, "Seven Minutes In Los Angeles - A special report.; Videotaped Beating by Officers Puts Full Glare

on Brutality Issue," New York Times (New York City, NY), March 18, 1991, U.S., 1. Accessed February 11, 2015.

14 Ibid.

15 Mark Ford, dir., Uprising: Hip-Hop and the L.A. Riots, Creature Films, 2012.

16 Mydans, "Seven Minutes In Los Angeles," U.S. 17

Tracy Wood and Faye Fiore, "Beating Victim Says He Obeyed Police," Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), March 7, 1991, accessed February 11, 2015.

18 Mydans, "Seven Minutes In Los Angeles," U.S. 19 Ibid.

20 Wood and Fiore, "Beating Victim Says He Obeyed," A20.

Wu 52

21 Ibid.

22 Mydans, "Seven Minutes In Los Angeles," U.S. 23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 Juan Gonzalez, "George Holliday, the man with the camera who shot Rodney King while police beat him, got

burned, too," NY Daily News, last modified June 19, 2012, accessed February 11, 2015.

26 Ibid.

27 "Rodney King Beating (Full Version)," video file, 9:39, YouTube, posted June 17, 2012, accessed February 11..

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid.

30 Mydans, "Seven Minutes In Los Angeles," U.S. 31 Gonzalez, "George Holliday, the man with," NY Daily News.

32 Hector Tobar and Richard Lee, "Witnesses Depict Relentless Beating," Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA),

March 7, 1991, accessed February 11, 2015.

33 Wood and Fiore, "Beating Victim Says He Obeyed,".

34 Ford, Uprising: Hip-Hop and the L.A..

35 "Rodney King Tape on National News," video file, 1:32, YouTube, posted by Johnny Faragher, November 10,

2010, accessed February 11, 2015.

36 "Gates Offers an Apology," Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), March 9, 1991, accessed February 11, 2015.

37 Ford, Uprising: Hip-Hop and the L.A..

38 Rap Genius, ed., "'We Had to Tear This Muthafucka Up' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015, 39 Spencer, "Race, Gender, Class and the 1992," 97.

40 Ibid.

41 Allen J. Scott, "The Crisis of South-Central Los Angeles," in The Crisis of South-Central Los Angeles, by Poverty &

Race Research Action Council, et al. (Washington D.C.: Poverty & Race Research Action Council, 1993), previously published in Poverty & Race, accessed February 17, 2015.

Wu 53

42 DiPasquale and Glaeser, "The Los Angeles Riot," 30.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid.

45 Tricia Rose, Black Noise (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1994), 30.

46 Noah Glyn and Scott Drenkard, "Prop 13 in California, 35 Years Later," Tax Foundation.

47 Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop, 314.

48 Dyson, Know What I Mean?, 74.

49 Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop, 314.

50 Ibid.

51 Spencer, "Race, Gender, Class and the 1992," 109.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid.,102.

54 Ibid.,103 55 Edward J. Escobar, "Bloody Christmas and the Irony of Police Professionalism: The Los Angeles Police

Department, Mexican Americans, and Police Reform in the 1950s," Pacific Historical Review 72, no. 2 (May 2003): 175, accessed April 6, 2015.

56 Glynn B. Martin, "LAPD Chief Parker: A Product of His Time," Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), January 28,

2009, accessed April 6, 2015..

57 John T. Donovan, "'I Have No Use for This Fellow Parker': William H. Parker of the LAPD and His Feud with J.

Edgar Hoover and the FBI," Southern California Quarterly 87, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 171, accessed April 6, 2015.

58 L.A.P.D. Blues, produced by Frontline, PBS, 2001, accessed April 3, 2015.

59 Escobar, "Bloody Christmas and the Irony," 173.

60 Ibid.,171 61 Ibid.

62 Ibid.,187.

Wu 54

63 Ibid.,184.

64 Ibid.,183.

65 Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop, 309.

66 Ibid.,310 67 Ibid.

68 Ibid.

69 Al Stump, "America's Most Controversial Cop," Coronet, February 1960, 160, accessed April 3, 2015,

http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/Big-Bill-Parker_Los_Angeles_Police#.VR79ALDF99Q. 70 L.A.P.D. Blues.

71 A. T. Callinicos, "Meaning of Los Angeles Riots," Economic and Political Weekly 27, no. 30 (July 25, 1992): 1605.

72 Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), 267,

accessed April 3, 2015, http://eserver.org/courses/spring97/76100o/readings/davis.html.

73 Ibid.

74 Ibid.

75 Alex Alonso, "Out of the Void," in Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities, ed. Darnell Hunt and

Ana-Christina Ramon (New York, NY: New York University, 2010), 158.

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid.,159.

78 Ibid.

79 Ibid.

80 Ibid.

81 John L. Mitchell, "The Raid That Still Haunts L.A.," Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), March 14, 2001,

accessed April 4, 2015, http://www.mapinc.org/newscsdp/v01/n450/a05.html.

82 Ibid.

83 Ibid.

Wu 55

84 Ibid.

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid.

87 Ibid.

88 Dave Zirin, "Want to Understand the 1992 LA Riots? Start with the 1984 LA Olympics," The Nation, April 30, 2012,

accessed April 4, 2015.

89 Ibid.

90 Operation Hope, KCAL 9, and CBS 2, "The LA Riots 20 Years Later," video file, 22:50, May 3, 2012, accessed

April 9, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIbqDr-7oRs. 91 Donovan, "'I Have No Use for This," 172.

92 Doug O. Linder, "The Trials of Los Angeles Police Officers' in Connection with the Beating of Rodney King,"

Famous American Trials, last modified 2001, accessed February 12, 2015.

93 Ibid.

94 Ford, Uprising: Hip-Hop and the L.A..

95 Race and Rage, narrated by Don Lemon, CNN, 2011, accessed February 12, 2015.

96 C.J. Lin, Rick Orlov, and Dana Bartholomew, "Key Players: Where Are They Now?," Los Angeles Daily News (Los

Angeles, CA), April 28, 2012, accessed March 24, 2015.

97 Ibid.

98 Ibid.

99 Operation Hope, KCAL 9, and CBS 2, "The LA Riots 20 Years," video file.

100 Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, "Address to the Nation on the Civil Disturbances in Los Angeles,

California," The American Presidency Project, accessed April 9, 2015.

101 Denise DiPasquale and Edward L. Glaeser, "The Los Angeles Riot and the Economics of Urban Unrest," City

Research, November 1996, 30, accessed February 17, 2015.

102 Ibid.

103 Ibid.

Wu 56

104 James H. Spencer, "Race, Gender, Class and the 1992 L.A. 'Riots,’.” Race, Gender, and Class 11, no. 1

(2004): 96, accessed February 17, 2015.

105 Denise DiPasquale and Edward L. Glaeser, "The Los Angeles Riot and the Economics of Urban Unrest," City

Research, November 1996, 30, accessed February 17, 2015.

106 Rap Genius, ed., "'The Day the Niggaz Took Over' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015, 107 The Huffington Post, "Snoop Lion: 'Reincarnated’,” video file, 17:32, HuffPost Live, April 22, 2013, accessed

February 12, 2015.

108 Rap Genius, "'We Had to Tear," Genius.

109 Jeff Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop (New York City, NY: St. Martin's Press, 2005), 23.

110 Ibid.

111 Ibid., 31.

112 Ibid.

113 Tricia Rose, Black Noise (n.p.: Wesleyan University Press, 1994), 53.

114 Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop, 79.

115 Rap Genius, ed., "'Party for Your Right to Fight' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

116 Rap Genius, ed., "'Rebel Without a Pause' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

117 Association of American Geographers, "Ethnic Change and Enclaves in Los Angeles," Association of American

Geographers, last modified March 8, 2010, accessed February 12, 2015.

118 Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop, 303-304.

119 Rap Genius, ed., "'Boyz-N-The-Hood' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

120 Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, directed by Byron Hunt, 2006.

121 Rap Genius, ed., "'Fuck Tha Police' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

122 Ibid.

123 Ford, Uprising: Hip-Hop and the L.A..

124 Rolling Stone, "500 Greatest Songs of All Time," Rolling Stone, April 7, 2011, accessed February 12, 2015.

Wu 57

125 Ford, Uprising: Hip-Hop and the L.A..

126 Justin Charity, Angel Diaz, and David Drake, "A History of Rap Songs Protesting Police Brutality," Complex,

August 18, 2014, accessed February 12, 2015.

127 Ford, Uprising: Hip-Hop and the L.A..

128 Ernest Hardy and August Brown, "Los Angeles Riots: Gangsta Rap Foretold Them and Grew After Them," Los

Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), May 2, 2012, accessed August 28, 2014.

129 Rap Genius, ed., "'Sound of Da Police' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

130 Borgna Brunner Brunner and Elissa Haney, "Civil Rights Timeline," in Information Please (New York City, NY:

Pearson Education, 2007), [accessed April 14, 2015.

131 Ibid.

132 Sean Posey, "Will Black Nationalism Reemerge?," The Hampton Institute, last modified September 13, 2013,

accessed February 14, 2015.

133 Bop.fm, "Speech to Malcolm X Grassroots Movement," Bop.fm Radio.

134 Rap Genius, ed., "'Black Art' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

135 Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean? (New York, NY: Basic Civitas Books, 2007), 63.

136 Ibid.

137 Ibid., 64-65.

138 Errol A. Henderson, "Black Nationalism and Rap Music," Journal of Black Studies 26, no. 3 (January 1996): 311,

accessed February 14, 2015.

139 Rap Genius, ed., "'Panther Power' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

140 Huey Newton, "The Ten-Point Program," Marxists.org, accessed February 15, 2015.

141 Rap Genius, "'Panther Power' Lyrics," Genius.

142 John Gordon Melton, "Nation of Islam," in Encyclopaedia Britannica, by Encyclopaedia Britannica (Encyclopaedia

Britannica, 2014), accessed February 16, 2015.

143 Ibid.

144 Rap Genius, ed., "'Nature of the Threat' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

Wu 58

145 Ibid.

146 Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, Hip-Hop Revolution (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2007), 15.

147 Min Gap Pyong, "Victimization in the 1992 Riots," in Caught in the Middle: Korean Communities in New York and

Los Angeles (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996), 90.

148 Ibid.

149 Ibid.

150 Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop, 338.

151 New York Times, "U.S. Looks Into Korean Grocer's Slaying of Black," New York Times (New York City, NY),

November 26, 1992, accessed February 16, 2015.

152 Andrea Ford, "Videotape Shows Teen Being Shot After Fight," Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), October 1,

1991.

153 Rap Genius, ed., "'Hellrazor' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

154 Seth Mydans, "Shooting Puts Focus on Korean-Black Frictions in Los Angeles," New York Times (New York City,

NY), October 6, 1991.

155 Associated Press, "Black Gunman Shoots 9-Year-Old Korean Girl During Robbery," Associated Press (New York

City, NY), October 19, 1991, accessed February 16, 2015.

156 Kay Hwangbo, "Fifth Grocery Store Firebombed in 6 Months in South Central,"The Korea Times (Seoul, Korea),

December 9, 1991, English edition.

157 Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop, 340.

158 Mydans, "Shooting Puts Focus on Korean-Black,".

159 Seth Mydans, "Riot in Los Angeles: Pocket of Tension; A Target of Rioters, Koreatown Is Bitter, Armed and

Determined," New York Times (New York City, NY), May 3, 1992.

160 Mydans, "Shooting Puts Focus on Korean-Black,".

161 Ibid.

162 Rap Genius, ed., "'Black Korea' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

163 Ford, Uprising: Hip-Hop and the L.A..

Wu 59

164 Pyong, "Victimization in the 1992," in Caught in the Middle, 91.

165 Mydans, "Riot in Los Angeles,".

166 Ibid.

167 Los Angeles Times Staff, "The L.A. Riots: 20 Years Later," Los Angeles Times(Los Angeles, CA), April 20,

2012, accessed February 17, 2015.

168 Irene Chang and Greg Krikorian, "30,000 Show Support in Koreatown March,"Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA),

May 3, 1992, accessed February 17, 2015.

169 Paul Feldman, "Jackson Issues Call for Calm," Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), May 2, 1992, accessed

February 17, 2015.

170 Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop, 351.

171 Ibid., 352.

172 Ibid., 353.

173 Ibid., 352.

174 Alonso, "Out of the Void," in Black Los Angeles: American, 154.

175 Ibid.,155.

176 Richard Lowe and Martin Torgoff, dirs., Planet Rock: The Story of Hip-Hop and the Crack Generation, VH1, 2011.

177 Ibid.

178 James C. Howell, "National Gang Problem Trends: 1996 to 2009," in Gangs in America's Communities (London,

UK: SAGE, 2011), 173, accessed April 5, 2015.

179 Ibid.

180 Ibid.

181 Ibid.,172 182 Ibid.

183 Alonso, "Out of the Void," in Black Los Angeles: American, 155.

184 Ibid.,159.

Wu 60

185 Dyson, Know What I Mean?, 15.

186 Rap Genius, ed., "'6 N' the Mornin'' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

187 Ibid.

188 Ibid.

189 Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, Hip-Hop Revolution (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2007), 140.

190 Lowe and Torgoff, Planet Rock: The Story.

191 Rap Genius, ed., "'Dopeman' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

192 Ibid.

193 Ford, Uprising: Hip-Hop and the L.A..

194 Ibid.

195 Alonso, "Out of the Void," in Black Los Angeles: American, 159.

196 Ibid., 160.

197 Ibid.

198 Ibid.

199 Don Terry, "After the Riots: Hope and Fear in Los Angeles As Deadly Gangs Call Truce," New York Times (New

York City, NY), May 12, 1992, A1, accessed April 12, 2015.

200 Matthew DeLuca, "L.A. Riots Anniversary: Two Gang Members Remember,"The Daily Beast, April 29, 2012,

accessed April 12, 2015, 201 Terry, "After the Riots: Hope," A1.

202 DeLuca, "L.A. Riots Anniversary: Two Gang,".

203 Terry, "After the Riots: Hope," A1.

204 Rap Genius, "'The Day the Niggaz," Genius.

205 Frank Stoltze, "Forget the LA Riots - Historic 1992 Watts Gang Truce Was the Big News," Off-Ramp, last

modified May 4, 2012, accessed April 12, 2015.

Wu 61

206 Ibid.

207 Reiland Rabaka, The Hip Hop Movement (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013), 36.

208 Ford, Uprising: Hip-Hop and the L.A..

209 Rap Genius, ed., "'Changes' Lyrics," Genius, accessed April 14, 2015.

Wu 62

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