Cops and Counter-Narratives: Exploring Hip-Hop and Human Rights by Noa Oldak-Moradian

MSc Human Rights

2013-‐2014

(Source: hiphoplives.net. Image by Unknown)

London School of Economics and Political Science Noa Oldak

Attorney: Was it your intention to get young black people to be violent to police? Tupac: No Attorney: Were you trying to provoke anybody to do anything particular?... Tupac: Yes Attorney: Tell us what. Tupac: Think.1

(Mrmakaveli 2009)

Table of Contents INTRODUCTION

METHODOLOGY LIMITATIONS KEEPIN’ IT REAL: A NOTE ON POSITIONALITY

4 4 5

CHAPTER 1: A HISTORY OF HIP-HOP

CHAPTER 2: HIP-HOP POLITICS

THE RAPTIVIST THE LIMITS OF RAPTIVISM BUT THIS REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED…

12 14 15

CHAPTER 3: POLICE BRUTALITY

CHAPTER 4: TELLIN’ IT LIKE IT IS- ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVES & RESISTANCE

POWER AND PERSPECTIVE STORYTELLING AND THE SUBJUGATED: WHY DOES IT MATTER?

25 27

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUDING REMARKS

BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX A

32 38

INTRODUCTION No movement is about beats and rhymes. Beats and rhymes are tools—tools that if held the right way can help articulate the world, a new world, in which we want to live. ~ M.K Asante Jr. (2008: 71) Hip-hop has stereotypically been associated with misogyny, capitalism, sex, crime, and violence. Despite this ‘booty and bullets’ (Fukushima 2014) characterization of the culture, hiphop has developed as an expression of the need for social change. Born in the face of poverty, racism, unemployment, and urban decay in the 1970s Bronx, hip-hop became a platform to express grievances related to governance, social conditions, and poverty. It developed into a tool of protest—a microphone for the marginalized. Hip-hop was born in the spirit of resistance, as a “weapon” created to “uplift and aid” in the fight for freedom (Asante 2008: 254). It communicates the issues of the street and champions the needs of minorities by making political statements (Mitchell 2001). Hip-hop operates as a counter-culture; it is “popular resistance predicated on a long history of exclusion from participation in mainstream life and institutions” (Quinn 2005: 23). If we accept that hip-hop is a form of “oppositional culture” that seeks to resist, empower, and critique—then how does it do so (Quinn 2005)? In this paper, I seek to investigate how hip-hop operates as a site of resistance in the United States from its popularization in the 1980s. My study will contribute to the larger body of hip-hop literature by suggesting that in providing alternative narratives—by exposing the injustices and human rights abuses experienced by minority populations, in particular, police brutality—hip-hop operates in opposition to dominant mainstream perceptions of society. While the majority of artists do not explicitly employ the language of human rights, the themes and issues that emerge from hip-hop highlight violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hip-hop discusses the right to life, liberty, and security of the person (Article 3), the right against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 5), and the right against arbitrary arrest, detention, and exile (Article 9). This study will explore the way hip-hop operates as a storytelling device to discuss these human rights violations—as a site to scrutinize the injustices of the streets. Further, acknowledging that hip-hop deals with a myriad of rights issues, ranging from terrorism to education, from drug abuse to poverty, and from the prison industrial complex to daily incidents of racism, for the purposes of this paper, I have decided to focus on the issue of police

brutality—a phenomenon that can be traced in American hip-hop from its inception until today. Police brutality emerges from, and is closely tied to, America’s history of institutionalized racism and mistreatment of minorities. By tracing this theme, I will highlight rap’s intimate link with the socio-political context from which it emerges. Rap music and hip-hop culture shaped the United States in the late 20th century, as it gave voice to young black and Latino Americans who were previously “on the periphery of the nation’s consciousness” (Bynoe 2004: 20). Hiphop, then, tells of the struggles and hopes of the hoods and barrios of the United States—it makes the previously invisible, visible. Methodology In embarking on this study, I combined literary-based research with a primary, textual analysis of music. Acknowledging that hip-hop is a multifaceted phenomenon—music, dance, art, clothing, and attitude—I chose to focus on the lyricism, and therefore the textuality of hiphop. I listened to hundreds of songs, watched hundreds of music videos, and visited various websites. I discovered music employing one of hip-hop’s signature styles: sampling. I collected music suggestions from friends, hip-hop lovers, and works of hip-hop scholars. The artists cited in this dissertation were chosen because: a) they have been singled out by hip-hop scholars as influential b) they were popularized through a process of commercialization and consumerism and c) they were accessible via blogs, websites, or other publications. These songs were then analyzed through the theoretical frameworks of counter-discourse and power. In order to identify the socio-political issues pertaining to hip-hop, I listened to each song and then tagged it as related to a particular human rights issue: prisons, education, health, violence, poverty, or police brutality. I chose to focus on police brutality and not other human rights issues because I found that as I was listening to the songs, this was a theme that was constantly arising regardless of temporal or geographical limitations (i.e. East versus West). Limitations This dissertation, however, touches upon only a fraction of the complexities and layers hip-hop has to offer. The study primarily analyzes the works created by African-American, male youth, as well as the violations against them. Hip-hop could not have been born without the contributions of certain groups, including Puerto Rican break-dancers and female rappers—but

hip-hop remains dominated by young, black, inner-city males. Consequently, this demographic provided the largest amount of primary material to analyze. Further, while this dissertation will largely feature African-American, male artists, and while the issues facing the African-American population in the United States are historically specific—hip-hop is not a strictly or essentially African-American experience (Watkins 2005). This study is also limited because it does not have the space or time to flesh out all of hip-hop’s contradictions. Hip-hop addresses a myriad of social problems, among them: education, family structure, poverty, teenage pregnancy, incest, Aids, crack cocaine, and alcoholism. But, one cannot ignore the misogyny, homophobia, consumerism, and outright violence present in hip-hop (Allen Jr. 1996). The artists that ‘speak truth to power2’ are the very same artists that perpetuate ideas that are degrading and outright offensive. But, as in every community, hip-hoppers vehemently disagree on what hip-hop should do and on what it should say. Hip-hop gets to play it both ways—and as commentators, we must be careful not to ignore its many layers and complexities. In acknowledgment of this, I have attempted to complicate notions of ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ or ‘socially-conscious3’ versus ‘sell-out’ hip-hop by illustrating that hip-hop, in all of its seemingly violent and hateful forms, can also shed light on issues of corruption and oppression. Keepin’ It Real: A Note on Positionality I love hip-hop. I love the beats. I love the way the crowd goes wild when an old-school song comes on. I love the unapologetic, in-your-face dance moves. I love the colors of a beautiful piece of graffiti on an old brick building. I love how hip-hop can make you want to cry, to protest, to scream, and to shake your booty. I grew up in 1990s Los Angeles, where I attended a public high school with an on-site LAPD4 cop car. At school, hip-hop reigned. Tupac was king of West Coast rap, and we were all comparing playlists on our iPods on the school bus. But as a not black (but not exactly white and semi-Latina, semi-Iranian, semi-Eastern European) woman—I was and constantly am, faced

2 A phrase coined by the Quakers during the mid 1950s in a pamphlet entitled “Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence.” It means “speaking out to those in authority” (Urban Dictionary 2014). 3 Conscious rap is “rap that is socially aware and consciously connected to historic patterns of political protest and aligned with progressive forces of social critique” (Dyson 2007: 64). 4 Los Angeles Police Department

with issues of authenticity when it comes to engaging with hip-hop. As a genre, hip-hop became nationally and then globally popularized through a process of commercialization and white consumerism. One of the most contested and widely discussed issues in hip-hop is that of race. Why do wealthy white suburban kids drive down white picket fence-lined streets bumpin’ to Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”? Hip-hop is also obsessed with authenticity. What neighborhood do you come from? Have you served time? Have you every held a gun before? And of course— ‘you’re not black.’ So, if I’m keepin’ it real, no, I did not grow up in the hood. But hip-hop was definitely one of the soundtracks to my upbringing. The beats pulled me in first, and then the lyrics forced me to listen. I write this dissertation in the hopes of illuminating the way music generally, and hip-hop more specifically, can have a profound impact on the way we perceive power, governments, and communities—the way we look back at our histories. I hope to show you that hip-hop is important because it tells us a story, and stories can be revolutionary.

CHAPTER 1: A HISTORY OF HIP-HOP The majority of hip-hop historians hold that there are irrefutably African elements in rap’s foundations. The linguistic origins of the term arise from the Wolof language, spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania. The Wolof verb hipi means, “to open one’s eyes and see.” Hipi, then is a term of enlightenment, or understanding. Hop on the other hand, is an old English word that means to “spring into action.” Hence, hip-hop means to become enlightened and then take action (Asante 2008: 254). Modern hip-hop borrows from the oral traditions of African slaves including “pattin’ juba,” the practice of sharing tales and verbally insulting one another utilizing a rhythmic sequence. The percussive, rhythmic sounds in “pattin’ juba” then evolved into “toasts,” in which individuals exchanged larger-than-life stories (Bynoe 2004: 147-148). Hip-hop is also heavily influenced by the notion of “signifying,” a form of wordplay involving the verbal strategy of indirection, or “playing the dozens,” a comedic exchange of insults (Perkins 1996, Kelley 1996). Rappers, like their musical predecessors, borrow these call-and-

response forms. Additionally, the accumulated traditions of storytelling are an essential element of rap music’s overall structure (Perkins 1996). While hip-hop has deep roots in African traditions, its beginnings can also be traced internationally (Basu & Sidney 2006). William Eric Perkins (1996) asserts that the introduction of percussion beats in the dance music of the 1970s and in early hip-hop is a product of Latin music’s powerful influence on New York and New Jersey’s popular culture5. Black and Latino youth freely borrowed from the Cuban Son, Puerto Rican Salsa, and Dominican and Haitian Merengue (Chang 2005). As Paul Gilroy (1993) states: Hip-hop was not an ethnically pure or particular African-American product but rather the mutant result of fusion and intermixture with Caribbean cultures from Jamaica and Puerto Rico. Its outernational and intercultural origins are effectively concealed by powerful ethnocentric accounts of its history that see it merely as a direct descendant of jazz, soul, and blues (6-7). Hip-hop emerged alongside the deindustrialization of the South Bronx in 1970s New York, as developments in urban planning destroyed impoverished black and Latino neighborhoods (Jeffries 2011). Though it is impossible to trace its origins, the most famous grandfathers of hip-hop include Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, and Kool Herc (Asante 2008). Afrika Bambaataa claims he borrowed the term hip-hop from musician and DJ Lovebug Starski (Perkins 1996). But it was DJ Kool Herc who, in 1967, brought with him the ‘toast and boast’ tradition of roots reggae from West Kingston, Jamaica to the Bronx (Asante 2008, Perkins 1996). Grandmaster Flash then took Kool Herc’s place as master of hip-hop when he became an expert in the electronic technology of creating beats. This is significant because the foundation of rap music is the beat—the structure around which the lyrics are developed. So, it was the DJ who dominated during hip-hop’s early days, and it was the DJ who established the foundations for the lyricist (the MC6) (Perkins 1996). Flash’s technical skill paved the way for record sampling and helped launch the rap revolution; sampling is hip-hop’s enduring link with its African-American history and tradition (Perkins 1996).

5 For more information regarding hip-hop’s Latin roots and influences read Juan Flores’ (2000) “From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity”. 6 Master of Ceremonies

NWA (Source: Uptown Magazine. Image by Unknown)

Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc (Source: Big Host. Image by Unknown)

The Last Poets (Source: The Key. Image by Unknown)

Public Enemy (Source: Rick.com. Image by Unknown)

9 In 1973, Afrika Bambaataa founded the Universal Zulu Nation7, an organization of

racially and politically conscious rappers, break-dancers, graffiti artists, and other people involved in hip-hop culture (Asante 2008). As hip-hop emerged, it became “a form of aesthetic and sociopolitical rebellion against the flames of systemic oppression” (Asante 2008: 9). This rebellion was, on the one hand, a musical one, as rap presented a radical alternative to disco. Its creation was inherently rebellious in that it provided an alternative to that which was being consumed by the mainstream, and which largely excluded blacks and Latinos in the inner cities. Hip-hop eventually developed into four primary components: b-boying (breakdancing), DJing (turntablism), graffiti art, and MCing (rapping) (Basu 2006). But DJ Kool Herc, states that there is much more to hip-hop: “the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you look, [and] the way you communicate” (Chang 2005: xii). This paper will focus largely on rap, one facet of the hiphop phenomenon. The first popular rap song was “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) by the Sugarhill Gang. The song is frequently attributed with popularizing hip-hop in the United States and paved the way for hip-hop to become the defining cultural expression of the eighties generation (Perkins 1996). What is now dubbed “message” “political” or “socially-conscious” hip-hop, can be traced to the black poetry movement of the 1960s. This movement, largely known for the work of the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, also included the works of Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti, Nikki Giovanni, the Watts Prophets, and Jaybe Cortez, all who laid the groundwork for the political rappers of the 1980s and 1990s (Rabaka 2013). Catalyzed by the events of 1965, the assassination of Malcom X, the Watts Rebellions, and the Los Angles Rebellions, these black poets served up political and social commentary that would later be found in the works of hiphoppers and rappers. The term “message rap” took its name from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s 1982 rap classic “The Message.” The song was inspired by the black poetry movement of the 1960s and discussed issues of poverty, crime, and drug addiction (Bynoe 2004, Rabaka 2013). Message rap was then arguably popularized with Public Enemy’s album Yo! Bum Rush the Show in 1987 and KRS-One and Boogie Down Production’s By All Means Necessary in 1988. These artists used (and still use) their music to rally on behalf of ghetto youth, “combining a mix of black nationalism, anarchism, Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, Fanonism, Guevaraism, Castroism, 7 The

group took its name from the film Zulu, in which Zulu warriors attacked British colonizers (Asante 2008).

Capatistaism, Buddhism, socialism, feminism, and womanism, among many other political and ideological perspectives” (Rabaka 2013: 332). In the 1980s and early 1990s, rising unemployment gave way to the growth of a gang culture, while the introduction of cheap crack cocaine strengthened the economic foundations of gang activity, leading to homicides on an unprecedented scale (Allen Jr. 1996). Rap artists such as Public Enemy, KRS-One, X-Clan, and Paris, reacted to the negative effects of the economic and political policies of the Reagan-Bush administrations by producing socially conscious songs. Such songs suggested the emergence of a hip-hop-inspired political movement (Perkins 1996). During this period it was rap artists, rather than Black churches or traditional civil rights organizations who connected with disenfranchised urban youth (Bynoe 2004). “Gangsta rap8” in particular, emerged as the expression of the street wars of South Central Los Angeles, Compton, Long Beach, and East Oakland (Quinn 2005). Many hip-hoppers claim that gangsta rap exists in stark contrast to the message-oriented, political, or socially conscious genres of rap, as it celebrates hustling, street crime, abuse on women, and violence. But gangsta rap, like other forms of hip-hop, reveals a search for identity and purpose (Perkins 1996). In certain ways, gangsta rap embodies the anger and rage of a generation constantly oppressed despite the promises of the Civil Rights Movement (Quinn 2005). This anger exploded in 1992 with the Los Angeles riots, when four white police officers were acquitted in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Journalists who wanted to gage the thoughts of black youth did not go to young political leaders, but to rap artists. West coast rap artists Ice Cube and IceT told the media that records they released years before the riots predicted that continued police brutality in California would result in civil unrest. Mainstream media portrayed these people as ‘wannabe’ activists. Others held that, “the defiant stance and outspoken language of this new breed of politically conscious rap artist resurrected for many Blacks and Whites the voices of the political activists of the past” (Bynoe 2004: x). Some, perceived this new group of performers/activists as politically naïve or disingenuous (Bynoe 2004). Still, lacking the leaders of the civil rights movement, African-American and Latino youth were seeking a way to express their frustrations with their living conditions: unemployment, police brutality, drug wars, the development of gang culture, a lack of housing, a lack of access 8

A contested term that typically refers to a subgenre of rap characterized by aggressive lyrics, and the glorification of violence (Urban Dictionary 2014).

to education, and all else that comes with structural racism and poverty. Hip-hop reflected, and continues to reflect, the socio-political conditions within which it was founded.

CHAPTER 2: HIP-HOP POLITICS Politically conscious hip-hoppers acknowledge that while the Civil Rights Movement’s accomplishments are undeniably valuable, in the face of continued racism, oppression, and abuse, the search for justice must continue. Hip-hop politics reflects that, “politically conscious and progressive hip-hoppers have refused to romanticize and mythologize the social gains of the Civil Rights Movement” (Rabaka 2013: 322). Hip-hop allows its participants to imagine themselves as part of a larger community, producing a sense of collective identity and agency (Jeffries 2011). This community has been defined as a ‘movement’ to “circumvent the common tendency to privilege hip-hop’s aesthetics—the bling—over hip-hop’s politics and social visions” (Rabaka 2013: 285). Those who speak of the “Hip-Hop Movement” reject the conventional either/or approach to politics and popular culture, and instead, adopt a unique both/and approach that refuses to privilege politics over popular culture or vice versa (Rabaka 2013). This movement operates both socio-politically and musically, simultaneously embodying hip-hop’s politics and its aesthetics. It follows that, “rap music and hip hop culture are merely the tools of choice used by the Hip-Hop Movement. And if rap music and hip-hop culture can be and…have been used to degrade and destroy, then it should also be acknowledged that they can and have been used to elevate and educate” (Rabaka 2013: 288). But whether defined as movement or not, hip-hop takes on the responsibility to boldly speak the lived truths of contemporary black and Latino inner-city youth. Music generally, and hip-hop specifically are significant in that they compel audiences to recognize that social change is possible (Fischlin 2003). Only by creating a critical discourse can we possible shift efforts to focus on human rights concerns.

The Raptivist What needs to be understood, first and foremost, is that all art and artists—ALL—are political, even if their politics are disguised as indifference. ~ M.K Asante Jr. (2008: 206) I first discovered the concept of “Raptivism” through the work of performer and singer Aisha Fukushima. Aisha has used the term to describe her particular project: “A global hip hop project… highlighting the ways in which culture can actively contribute to universal efforts for freedom and justice by challenging apathy with awareness, ignorance with intelligence, and oppression with expression” (Fukushima 2014). But the term “raptivist” was first used to describe Sista Souljah, the rapper and activist who in her song “The Hate That Hate Produced” (1991) expressed that, “The time for scared, lip-trembling, word-changing/ Self-denying, compromising, knee-shakin’ black people is over/ If you have something to say, speak up with authority and conviction/ If not, sit down and shut up!” The idea of a raptivist, then, is a socially conscious or political rapper who is also an activist because his or her “rhymes reflect specific ‘radical’ plans or progressive political programs aimed at transforming…contemporary society” (Rabaka 2013: 333-334). Similar to the raptivist is the concept of the artivist, one who uses artistic talents to fight and struggle against injustice and oppression—by any medium necessary: “The artivist merges commitment to freedom and justice with the pen, the lens, the brush, the voice, the body, and the imagination” (Asante 2008: 203). Art has the potential not only to inform, but also to transform our reality by raising awareness and exposing injustices and oppression. M.K Asante (2008), feels strongly about this: “In a world where human beings are denied their humanity, the artivists must—by depicting the humanity of the oppressed—bring value back to human life. If we are oppressed and our art doesn’t counter this oppression and challenge this oppression, then it is, by default, supporting the oppression” (206). Raptivists and artivists utilize creative outlets to speak out against wrongs. Rap in particular, “has consistently proven to be a provocative tool to push the envelope and press issues that might have otherwise escaped the attentions of contemporary ‘polite’ culture, politics, and society” (Rabaka 2013: 330). Rap raises awareness by reminding the world that oppression and racism persist in spite of the dominant discourse, which maintains the belief that we live in a post-racial and equal society.

Former New York Governor, George Pataki signs Rockefeller law reforms in 2004 alongside Russell Simmons (Source: prison.livesinfocus.org. Image by Unknown)

The Blackwatch Movement (Source: wernervonwallenrod. Image by Unknown)

Sistah Souljah (Source: E-verse radio. Image by Unknown)

The Limits of Raptivism Not all are convinced by the notion of a ‘hip-hop politics.’ Yvonne Bynoe (2004) holds that the hip-hop generation, and in turn, the hip-hop movement, lacks a political agenda that could realistically transform the American political landscape. Hip-hop raises its voice and makes a lot of complaints, but there are no national organizations or institutions representing the hip-hop generation’s concerns: Today the Hip Hop generation has no national group promoting a ten-point plan for Black empowerment, nor does it have an organization that is actively engaged in any legal battles to overturn public policies that adversely affect Black Americans. However there is a sneaker that you can purchase if you wanna show that you are down with reparations” (Bynoe 2004: 18). If raptivists are to claim activism, they need to work harder to make their rhymes a reality. We cannot replace the important jobs of activists and politicians with rap artists: “Continuing this face called Hip hop politics does a disservice to the important work done by our elders and ancestors, and obscures the real work that this generation needs to take on and move forward” (Bynoe 2004: xiii). Hip-hop can help alter the mind-set of the masses, it can help raise awareness of the need for social justice, and it can help articulate the disillusionment of minority groups— but it cannot singlehandedly transform social and political conditions (Dyson 2007). Accordingly, raising awareness about police brutality through a song or performance is hip-hop, but actually creating changes in police department procedures or the laws used to prosecute corrupt cops, is politics. Moreover, because much of hip-hop is produced, marketed, and distributed, the way we experience it is shaped by corporate and consumer demands: “…message rap remains decapitated from any mass political movement for social change, and overwhelmingly dependent on the market for dissemination—a significant political weakness” (Allen Jr. 1996: 160). Hiphop began as a creative way to make money in a context in which not many job opportunities were available to the poor and marginalized. It developed as “play-labor,” an entrepreneurial form of survival in a capitalistic society that did not provide youth of color with many economic opportunities (Kelley 1994, Rivas & Ratana 2014). Even in the 21st century, the ability to rise out of poverty by ‘making it’ is highly valued—as evident in Lupe Fiasco’s song, “Hip-Hop Saved my Life” (2007). However, the desire to make it big has led many rap artists to compromise or distort their message in hopes of being more marketable to mainstream audiences:

15 Beset by a fragmentation and dilution of its content spurred by powerful market forces…rap remains a strategic hostage of the audio/video recording industry whose charts it so assiduously rides in tactical terms. And hostage…to the selective and subtle censorship imposed by the corporate owners of the means of record production and distribution, its measures revealed at those precise moments when the political danger posed by African American militancy is deemed of greater consequence than ‘crazy dollars’ to be squeezed from the message itself” (Allen Jr. 1996: 183).

Market forces and money largely dictate what messages are produced. Consequently, hip-hop’s ability to function as a political or social tool is limited not only by the absence of a widespread movement, but also by the “medium of propagation” (Allen Jr.1996: 183). In order to become successful and gain popularity, hip-hop’s top performers had to immerse themselves into the world of mainstream music: “[It’s] one of the cruelest ironies in the rise and transformation of hip hop: the fact that its livelihood—indeed its very survival as a pop culture juggernaut—rested almost entirely on its ability to sell black death. The embrace of guns, gangsterism, and ghetto authenticity brought an aura of celebrity and glamour to the grim yet fabulously hyped portraits of ghetto life” (Watkins 2005: 3). So, while hip-hop speaks against established authority, its message is largely compromised by the capitalistic desire to profit; hip-hop politics have always played a secondary role to the power and popularity of hip-hop’s commercial identity (Boyd 1997). But this Revolution Will Not Be Televised… In attempting to understand hip-hop politics, we must accept that there is no singular way to fight for justice. Reiland Rabaka (2013) says it best: “Let’s face it. Social and political movements are not nice and neat affairs, they are invariably messy” (328). Hip-hop gets easily dismissed as a lowbrow culture. However, we should pay attention to hip-hop because it “register[s] hip hoppers’ anger angst and rejection of the more moderate elements of [their] grandparents and parents’ youth culture, politics, and social visions, as well as the more mainstream conventions and values that dehumanize black and other non-white marginalized people” (Rabaka 2013: 324). In other words, the political and social achievements that hip-hop politics or the Hip-Hop Movement seek to accomplish must be “bigger than hip hop” (Dead Prez 1999). There are multiple examples of hip-hop initiatives seeking to make a difference both socially and politically in their communities. One of the first to emerge was the Blackwatch

Movement led by X-Clan, which united black power activists including Queen Mother Rage, Eric B & Rakim, Isis, Poor Righteous Teachers, Public Enemy, and A Tribe Called Quest. Russell Simmons and his Hip Hop Summit Action Network were successful in deeming part of New York’s Rockefeller drug laws unconstitutional. The Black August Hip-Hop Project raises awareness about political prisoners and institutionalized partnerships between hip-hop acts and government institutions in Brazil, Cuba and South Africa (Jeffries 2011). Sean “P. Diddy” Combs initiated a project known as Citizen Change, which launched the “Vote or Die” campaign (Watkins 2005). The list is extensive.9 In place of organizations such as the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee or the Black Panther Party, “the principal generative form of a reawakened black consciousness of the eighties and nineties…arrived via rap” (Allen Jr. 1996: 159). While there are hip-hop communities engaged in socio-political campaigns, overt political engagement is not hip-hop’s reason for existence. Hip-hop politics does not have to ascribe to the traditional modes of activism. We must rethink traditional politics, reconsider what is political, and re-determine the conventions that define legitimate movements and approaches to resistance (Kelley 1996). In Black Noise, Tricia Rose (1994) uses James C. Scott’s (1990) idea of the ‘hidden transcript’ to describe hip-hop. Hidden transcripts are discourses created in opposition to dominant or public transcripts, which frame power relations in a way that legitimizes a society’s operations—politically, socially, and economically. Both hidden and popular transcripts are absorbed into the public domain and subject to both integration and rejection. In the hip-hop music industry, the paradox between a dominant transcript and a hidden (or resistant) one, is embodied in the tension between commodity interests and the desire for control over social messages present in the music (Rose 1994). Rose (1994) demonstrates that rap is a hidden transcript because it focuses audiences’ attention on the injustices and abuses committed by those in power while simultaneously criticizing various aspects of social domination. So, hip-hop is not essentially revolutionary, but it does have the potential to engage in revolutionary discourse. Rappers are successful at conveying messages that encourage such discourse because they capture the attention of audiences in a way that is aesthetically interesting and appeals to the auditory interests of youth (Stapleton 1998). Hip-hop is a “resistant sound” 9

Other hip-hop initiatives include Words, Beats and Life, the Temple of Hip-Hop, the Hip-Hop Education and Literacy Program, the Hip Hop Re-Education Project, and the Hip Hop Congress.

that revives public dialogue about society’s injustices, ultimately creating an “oppositional site” (Fischlin 2003: 236). Hip-hop politics, therefore, is the discussion of social and political issues—such as unemployment, street violence, and sexism—emerging as a challenge to dominant discourse. It is an attempt to make sense of the chaos and disillusionment brought about by unjust systems (Mitchell 2000): “Overall, the strength and appeal of visionary message rap for African American youth is that, in the absence of organized political life, it not only describes and explains the existing dismal state of affairs with varying degrees of success but also imposes a stable if not rigid sense of order upon a menacing universe…” (Allen Jr. 1996: 164). Hip-hop, then, celebrates the rebel who dares to flaunt societal norms that operate to determine the standards of who African-Americans are as a whole. So whether the rapper is a gangster, or a socially conscious hip-hop figure, they both represent an individual willing to speak out, to “radicaliz[e] the commitment to preserving a record” (Fischlin 2003: 236). This fight for preservation and narrative is especially evident in interactions between minority communities and the police.

CHAPTER 3: POLICE BRUTALITY “To serve, protect and break a nigga’s neck” ~ “Bring it to Ya,” Paris feat. Conscious Daughters “Cops give a damn about a negro Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he’s a hero” ~ “Changes,” Tupac On August 9th, 2014 eighteen year-old Michael Brown and his friend were walking in the middle of the street in Ferguson, Missouri when approached by a cop car. Minutes later, unarmed Brown would face police officers with his hands in the air, begging them not to shoot—only to be shot to death in broad daylight (Howard 2014). I write this dissertation as riots and protests erupt in Ferguson, and police dressed in full military gear come down on communities angry about the lack of justice and accountability in the police force. In memory of Michael Brown, rapper J.Cole released a song entitled “Be Free” (2014) in which he sings, “All we wanna do is break the chains off.” As I browse news articles, the images in the media present striking similarities to the images of the 1960s Civil Rights era in the United States.

18 Though Ferguson is in the spotlight, minority populations throughout the United States

are victims of police brutality. Police abuse is also one of the most widely discussed injustices in the hip-hop community. African-American and Latino populations in particular, live in disproportionately impoverished communities, where police, under the assumption that entire communities are criminal, brutalize minorities without just cause (Holmes & Smith 2008: 4). Police forces engage in unwarranted street stops, verbal abuse, excessive force, and corruption (involving bribery, extortion, the theft of money, drugs, or other items from suspects, and the resale of seized items) (Jeffries 2011). The stories about police brutality in hip-hop are significant because they reveal that a great deal of misconduct is never observed or reported. Historically, hip-hop has reacted to this widespread corruption and lack of accountability by firing back with music. Gangsta rap specifically, was born during the militarization of Compton, Watts, and other black communities in the early 1980s, when Los Angeles became a primary site of the war on drugs (Kelley 1996). In February 1988, the LAPD initiated Operation Hammer, a militaristic campaign on the mainly black neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, in which tens of thousands of African-American male youth were rounded up based solely on their race and appearance without any cause to believe they had committed a criminal offense (Skolnick & Fyfe 1993). The Operation essentially granted the police permission to abuse their power. That same year, N.W.A (Niggas10 With Attitude) released their song “Fuck tha Police.” The song wittingly criticizes the justice system while using that system to make the case that the police department is racist and corrupt. In the song, Dr. Dre is the presiding judge, while MC Ren, Ice Cube, and Eazy-motherfuckin-E operate as prosecuting attorneys. Ice cube’s prosecution begins like this: Fuck the police comin’ straight from the underground A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown And not the other color so police think they have the authority to kill a minority … Fuckin’ with me cause I'm a teenager with a little bit of gold and a pager Searchin' my car, lookin' for the product Thinkin' every nigga is sellin' narcotics

10 Hip-hop and rap have been censured and mediated over and over again by the media, the government, and its consumers, Consequently, I have chosen not to censure the rappers in this study. As a warning to the reader, this dissertation contains profanity. Such words do not necessarily reflect the opinions or attitudes of the author.

19 One of the largest abuses in American police forces, particularly the LAPD and NYPD, is

that of racialized policing or racial profiling. Cops stop individuals based on their race or appearance (typically those in hoodies and baggy clothing) without any indication of illegal conduct (Skolnick 1993). In racialized policing, cops frequently perceive entire neighborhoods as troublesome and thus treat all residents as criminals—regardless of whether or not individuals have committed crimes. This is known as “ecological contamination” (Weitzer & Tuch 2006: 32). Further, the Christopher Commission (1991), established to investigate the inner workings of the LAPD, discovered transcripts of police communications with dispatchers, in which cops referred to minority individuals as “natives,” “rabbits” and “monkeys” (Weitzer & Tuch 2006: 32). Ice Cube provides a clear narrative of racial profiling as the cops identify his clothing and style of dress. The song not only dictates the pattern of abuse, but is also a warning to the cops that the people they are attempting to victimize are ready to fight back: Ice Cube will swarm on ANY motherfucker in a blue uniform Just cause I'm from, the CPT11 Punk police are afraid of me! HUH, a young nigga on the warpath And when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath of cops, dyin' in L.A. Similar sentiments were echoed in the song released by Boogie Down Productions, “Who Protects Us From You?” (1989). In the song, KRS-One embodies the understanding by minority groups in LA that the cops were officially attempting to ‘serve and protect’—but at their expense: “You were put here to protect us/ But who protects us from you?/ Lookin’ through my history book/ I’ve watched you as you grew/ Killin’ blacks and callin’ it the law.” As an extension of the state, police officers are endowed with great powers to control and monitor. However, if the very force that is meant to protect individuals is also one of the greatest threats to their wellbeing, there is no legitimate way to establish police accountability. This lack of accountability was particularly high in the 1990s. The Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) anti-gang program contributed to the pattern of police brutality by engaging in unprovoked shootings, beatings, planting or covering up of evidence, framing of suspects, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, and perjury (Kelley 1996). In the song, “Time for Us to Defend Ourselves” (1990), MC Shan samples the voice of a police 11

Compton, California

officer stating “It’s time for us to do whatever is necessary to defend ourselves.” In return, a voices questions, “But you’re advocating violence?”… A gun and a badge gives a feeling of toughness After subdued they continue with roughness According the laws of the land they think we’re defenseless Thinkin’ that their jobs are beatin’ you senseless … We all live with police brutality They say it’s false—no, it’s reality Not just a storyboard cause I live it All I gotta say is somethin’ must be done with it The tension that MC Shan highlights, between claims of police brutality, and the denial of any wrongdoing by the police, was especially prevalent in the March 1991 video revealing LAPD officers beating Rodney King, an African-American citizen. The police refused to help Paul King, Rodney King’s brother and George Holiday, the man who recorded the beating, file an official complaint to report the gratuitous violence (Skolnick & Fyfe 1993). Additionally, a nearly all-white jury in Simi Valley acquitted the four officers involved in the beating. The acquittal fueled massive riots as African-Americans took to the streets to express their outrage at the unjust criminal system (Holmes & Smith 2008). Even with video proof (which the LAPD refused to receive and which was only publicized by the media) King and his family received no justice. While LAPD Chief Daryl Gates dismissed the incident as an aberration, members of the minority community knew that this incident was simply one of many. From 1987 to 1990, 4,400 misconduct complaints were filed against the LAPD. Of those, 41 percent were submitted by African-Americans who composed merely 13 percent of the population (Skolnick & Fyfe 1993). What set the King beating apart was not the conduct of the police, but the fact that it was caught on camera. In “Behind Closed Doors,” released as part of the Ain’t a Damn Thing Changed album in 1991, W.C and the MAAD Circle likewise exposed police brutality as an expression of institutionalized racism and class oppression: Dear Mr. chief of police, excuse my handwriting But try to understand that I wrote this with a broken hand I'm just one out of many from the inner city Whose been a victim of unseen police brutality Beating with a Billy Club12 until I became numb Pistol whip - bruises on my face from a handgun 12

A wooden club

21 They said: that I was speeding, going over the limit But when they pulled me over man, they never gave me a ticket They just said: I better stick both of my hands out my window Real slow or be one dead negro … For a cop to be beating me anytime that he's ready So I dropped to my knees and I covered my head tight But that's when they bust me in the neck with a flashlight But still I stayed calm and took the pain Pictured when my ancestors gone through the same thing

The song illuminates the daily interactions with abusive cops and the “unseen brutality” that inner-city youth of color must endure. Among the tactics adopted by Chief Darryl Gates in his anti-gang sweeps was to provoke gangsters by “leaving suspects on enemy turfs, writing over Crip graffiti with Blood colors and spreading rumors” (Kelley 1996: 133). In Los Angeles, officers who were part of the Gang Related Active Trafficker Suppression program were told to question anyone who looked suspicious—basing those suspicions on dress and hand signals (Kelley 1996). In addition to exposing police misconduct, the song draws a tie to the past, highlighting that this narrative of racism is a historical one present in the United States for generations. W.C and the MAAD Circle, among other rap artists, scrutinize the police for their indiscriminate violence and criticize the harassment of minorities in public spaces. The anger evident in their songs reveals the feelings towards the unjust criminalization of black youth and the concentration of power in the hands of a largely white and abusive police force. However, such songs also operate to reinforce stereotypes of the ghetto as a ‘war zone’ and black youth as ‘criminal’ (Kelley 1996: 118). The attempt to denounce the system is frequently overshadowed as many songs strengthen the media and the public’s perceptions of the inner city as destitute and hopeless. The popularization of hip-hop had inner city youth “Trapped”: They got me trapped/ Can barely walk the streets/ Without a cop harassing me, searching me. Then asking for my identity (Tupac 1991). In 1997, a Haitian immigrant named Abner Louima was arrested and tortured with a broomstick inside a restroom in a police station in Brooklyn (Coleman 2014, Chan 2007). The case only came to light because an emergency room nurse informed Louima’s family and the authorities (Holmes & Smith 2008). In February 1999, officers of the New York Police Department (NYPD) fire 41 bullets at Amadou Diallo, leaving him dead. The incident led to an uproar in the city, with daily protests outside police headquarters (Chan 2007). That same year,

the rampart division of the LAPD was accused of a series of abuses including falsifying police reports, stealing drugs from suspects, framing individuals, lying in court testimony, and shooting unarmed suspects without cause. More than 200 law suits and claims were filed against Los Angeles by people who stated that they were victimized by officers, and over 100 tainted criminal convictions were overturned (Weitzer & Tuch 2006). Cypress Hill’s “Pigs” (1991) revealed the rampant corruption: “This pig harassed the whole neighborhood/ Well this pig worked at the station/ This pig he killed my Homeboy/ So the fuckin’ pig went on a vacation.” The 21st century did not see much of an improvement in the reduction of police brutality. One of the most popular songs regarding police brutality is Dead Prez’s “Police State” (2000) which highlights the racism prevalent in police protection: The police become necessary in human society /only at that junction in human society /where it is split between those who have and those who ain't got.” Those who “ain’t got” includes 64-year-old retired schoolteacher, Robert Davis, who was repeatedly punched in the head before four police officers dragged him to the ground, and one continued to beat him (Foster 2005, Holmes & Smith 2008). It includes the stories of Sean Bell, Aiyana Jones, Kenneth Chamberlain, Trayvon Martin, Jonathan Ferrell, Eric Garner, and now, Michael Brown (Coleman 2014, Glenza 2014, Palmeri 2013). All were shot to death by police. Not one committed a crime. All were unarmed. And still, these incidents represent just a few of the stories that were successfully publicized. “G-Code” by the Geto Boys embodies the disillusionment minority youth feel in the face of the police: I don’t wanna run no more, but I know that if I stop I’ll be another nigga headed to heaven, hangin’ with ‘Pac These motherfuckers look at me like I’m a slanger Makin’ threats to my family, dawg, I’m in danger … 25-to-life’s the mandatory minimal My whole community gets treated like they criminals … We don’t talk to police, we don’t make a peace bond We don’t trust in the judicial system, we shoot guns We rely on the streets we do battle in the hood I was born in the G Code13, embedded in my blood

Ghetto Code (Urban Dictionary 2014)

23 In the eyes of minority communities, the police are the extension of an oppressive society.

While black and Latino citizens are targets of police abuse, white society remains largely oblivious to the misconduct because it is not monitored in the same manner. In fact, mainstream perceptions dictate that the police officer is a heroic icon of popular culture, and not a symbol of oppression and danger among the less advantaged (Holmes & Smith 2008). Hip-hop narratives reveal that cops work to maintain a system that has historically forced minorities into poverty and physical isolation in the form of impoverished urban neighborhoods (Wilson 1987). These “hyper-segregated ghettos” have become institutional tools for isolating the products of racial oppression: crime, drugs, violence, poverty, and a lack of education (Holmes & Smith 1998: 4). Further, police culture permits the use of extra-legal violence and other abuses to accomplish the goals of the police force. In this context, hip-hop provides a platform to expose maltreatment and challenge the false notion that cops’ means justify their ends. Hip-hop is a form of art that “vocalize[s] the silenced” (Coleman 2014: 2). In the face of oppression, “music and expressive styles have literally become weapons in a battle over the right to occupy public space” (Kelley 1996: 134). Rapping about life in the hood becomes a form of resistance impossible to ignore. By bringing light to certain sociopolitical issues that are constantly censured, rappers become the reporters of the street—and hip-hop becomes a vocalization of human rights abuses.

24 Police officers in Ferguson, MO after Michael Brown was shot (Source: nbcnews. Image by Unknown)

Los Angeles Riots 1992 (Source: state.squarespace. Image by Unknown)

A National Guardsman stands by during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots (Source: polygrafi. Image by Unknown)

CHAPTER 4: TELLIN’ IT LIKE IT IS- ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVES & RESISTANCE While some argue for the understanding of hip-hop as a movement, I maintain that hiphop’s political and social power emerges from its ability to amplify alternative narratives. While these narratives are mediated and compromised by capitalism and consumerism, I believe that at its core, hip-hop is a collection of accounts about the experience of being a minority in the United States. These stories offer resistance—whether implicitly or explicitly—to dominant cultural narratives (Bamberg & Andrews 2004). They have the ability to function as forms of representation and power for the marginalized (Squire 2005). These hip-hop narratives, like other counter-narratives, allow us to radically rethink existing epistemological and philosophical ways of perceiving reality (Guntarik 2009). By definition, counter-narratives challenge master narratives. Master narratives are those that emerge out of historical tradition and offer a blueprint for what is normative in society (Talbot et al 1996). Such narratives typically constrain personal narratives because they hold the storyteller to a certain set of cultural standards or preconceived notions of what is right and what is wrong. One example is the widespread belief that slavery in the United States was abolished and is therefore no longer relevant as a topic of discussion in the 21st century. As members of society, we internalize these master narratives. Institutions and different forms of power and knowledge force us to constantly negotiate our subjectivity through discourse (Foucault 1978). However, our own experiences do not always align with the master narratives. When we step outside the dominant storyline, we can reflect and criticize, and begin understanding the contextual and subjective factors that led us to think this way in the first place (Bamberg & Andrews 2004). Power and Perspective Counter-narratives operate within structures of power. Michel Foucault (1978) teaches us that power produces knowledge and those in power can dictate if and how certain ideas, subjects, forms of knowledge, and perspectives are considered valid and are exposed. Competing narratives produce a binary relationship between the dominant discourse and the counter discourse. The dominant discourse is that which emerges as the victor in historical struggles for meaning. In the United States, the perspectives of white, heterosexual, straight males

characterize the dominant discourse. In the specific context of minority-majority relations in the US, dominant discourses hold that the police are a ‘good institution’ and that America is a free meritocracy open to the progress of any individual—regardless of race, class, ethnicity, sex, gender and so forth—the notion that everyone has access to the American dream. American counter-discourse refers to the subordinated within the dominant binary: homosexual, black, woman and so forth. For Foucault (1978), liberation movements have distinct value, but they cannot challenge the dominant discourse as a whole, since they are defined by its logic. In the case of hip-hop for instance, some scholars would argue that the culture does not do enough to advocate for minority populations because it exists to serve the needs of its white consumers and producers. Furthermore, Foucault (1978) acknowledges that many discourses of resistance and meanings are left unremembered—for example, the fact that Thanksgiving is recollected as a time of peaceful harmony, but in reality marks a Native American genocide. Nevertheless, while these resistant discourses are frequently ignored, they remain in existence. If we decide to focus our attentions on them, these stories provide an alternative discursive history—one that can fight the power. “Sound of da Police” (1993) by KRS-One provides one of these counter-narratives. The music video featured images of police brutality from the Civil Rights era of cops hitting AfricanAmericans with batons, spraying African-Americans with hoses, and cops burning AfricanAmerican houses and property. In his song, KRS-One makes an explicit connection between white slave-owners and the powers attributed to the police force: The overseer rode around the plantation The officer is off patrolling all the nation The overseer could stop you what you're doing The officer will pull you over just when he's pursuing The overseer had the right to get ill And if you fought back, the overseer had the right to kill The officer has the right to arrest And if you fight back they put a hole in your chest! (Woop!) They both ride horses After 400 years, I've got no choices! The song first establishes itself as a counter-narrative by challenging the perception of a police officer as a protector of the people. It then creates a haunting visual comparison between white plantation owners and police officers. The two authority figures have the ability to control actions—both can beat and kill without repercussions, and both are endowed with the power to

behave as they please. “Bring it to Ya” (1994) by Paris ft. Conscious Daughters echoes a similar sentiment: “America is a racist country. It was built on racism…So when the police in yo’ community. Who you think they protecting? Who they serving? Not us.” Paris emphasizes that the police, while presented as protectors of the citizenry, are one of the largest threats to AfricanAmerican and other minority populations. The song maintains its rebellious quality by ending on a reference to Nat Turner, an African-American slave who led a rebellion in 1831 that resulted in 55 white deaths. The ode to rebellious African-American characters reveals the desire for change in the current system, and suggests that resistance is necessary in the face of continued oppression. Rap music employs a narrative of life in the ghetto, while illuminating how institutions such as the police encourage crime instead of preventing misconduct (Boyd 1997). Counternarratives and hip-hop in particular, reveal the tension between stories by offering certain facts, sequences, tones, and language that the prevailing story leaves out. As Delgado (1989) states, Subordinated groups have always told stories. Black slaves told, in song, letters, and verse, about their own pain and oppression. They described the terrible wrongs they had experienced at the hands of whites, and mocked (behind whites’ backs) the veneer of gentility whites purchased at the cost of the slaves’ suffering. Mexican-Americans in the Southwest composed corridos (ballads) and stories, passed on from generation to generation, of abuse at the hands of gringo justice…” (2436) Still, while counter-narratives exist in relation to master narratives, the two are not necessarily dichotomous entities (Bamberg & Andrews 2004). Instead, narratives and counternarratives are co-produced. Master narratives are not inevitably hegemonic and personal narratives are not inevitably countering; all forms of narrative are both complicit and countering (Bamberg & Andrews 2004). Further, as social beings, it is impossible to totally step outside the dominating framework of the master narrative. Hip-hop, while seeking to highlight the pains of low-income minority communities, is also highly susceptible to the way mainstream media and the government dictate what the hood is and how it operates. Storytelling and the Subjugated: Why Does it Matter? Storytelling is a particularly powerful tool for those deemed members of “outgroups— those who are marginalized, whose voice, perspective, and consciousness [have] been suppressed devalued, and abnormalized” (Delgado 1995: 64). Richard Delgado (1989) defines outgroups as

groups whose very subjugation defines the boundaries of the mainstream, whose voices, have been oppressed, dismissed, and deemed abnormal. Like our identities, the positionality of these groups—intergroup and outergroup, main and marginalized, dominant and minority—are constantly changing. Accordingly, narratives are tools that allow us to make claims about our identities, our positionalities, and ourselves; they allow oneself to locate him or herself life in the ‘narrative whole’ (MacIntyre 1981). Marginalized groups in particular, use storytelling to establish bonds, represent cohesion, and to share understandings and meanings. One of the strongest tools of oppression and subordination is the prevailing mindset, which members of the dominant group use to justify the world as it is—with whites on top and people of color at the bottom. Counter-stories in all of their forms are weapons to destroy these perceptions; they eclipse complacency, challenge the status quo, and define a new counter-reality (Delgado 1989). One such counter-story was written by Lauryn Hill, who in response to the events in Ferguson, debuted “Black Rage,” a chilling song that explores the root causes of the anger of AfricanAmericans: Black rage is founded on two-thirds a person Rapings and beatings and suffering that worsens Black human packages tied up in strings Black rage can come from all these kinds of things Black rage is found on blatant denial Squeezing economics, subsistence survival Deafening silence and social control Black rage is founded on wounds in the soul This song rejects the stereotypical image of frantic angry black people by placing that anger in a historical context, illuminating the past injustices that black people have had to endure in the United States. Her song provides a powerful rejection of the dominant perception that AfricanAmericans are unreasonably enraged, and instead, identifies the various points and places from which ‘black rage’ emerges. Hill and other hip-hoppers continue disrupting dominant discourse in the United States by employing their music as a form of social commentary. Hip-hop is the post civil rights generations’ effort of telling their side of the story. By illuminating counter-narratives, hip-hop provides a challenge to claims by the white majority that ghettos and barrios are crime-infested, gang-led centers. While hip-hop may not call for explicit political action, it illuminates abuses so that political action may follow. It communicates anger, mistrust, and fear of the state and its

institutions. It is a language for the oppressed and marginalized of communities to speak. Hiphop gives voice. It advocates. It raises awareness. It is a site of resistance because it is an alternative narrative that challenges the status quo. By challenging claims made by the government, the media, the police, and by privileged and wealthy white communities, hip-hop emerges as a set of stories that become essential to survival and liberation. In his introduction to “Know What I Mean” by Michael Eric Dyson (2007), Jay Z states: “Yes our rhymes can contain violence and hatred. Yes our songs can detail the drug business and our choruses can bounce with lustful intent. However, those things did not spring from inferior imaginations of deficient morals; these things came from our lives. They came from America” (x). Hip-hop offers a space where the marginalized can assert their own realities, where they can educate the public on matters of justice and rights, and where they can advocate for more inclusive narratives and perspectives (Fischlin 2003). Hip-hoppers “use language, dance, and music to mock those in power, express rage, and produce fantasies of subversion…these dances, languages, and musics produce communal bases of knowledge about social conditions, communal interpretations of them and quite often serve as the cultural glue that fosters communal resistance” (Rose 1994: 99-107). As a collection of counter-narratives, hip-hop has become a site of cultural and political resistance.

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUDING REMARKS “What we need is awareness, we can’t get careless… Power to the people no delay To make everybody see In order to fight the powers that be.” ~ “Fight the Power”- Public Enemy This dissertation sought to explain how hip-hop has been used as a tool of resistance in the United States since its inception. I employed musical lyrics as narrative texts to highlight the ways that hip-hoppers articulate their experiences. This study is significant in that it contributes to a new aspect of hip-hop politics by concentrating on the significance of stories. I began by situating hip-hop in a socio-historical context in Chapter 1, and then proceeded to evaluate debates regarding the merit of hip-hop activism and politics in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 identified

police brutality as a theme in hip-hop politics, and traced it throughout the lyrics of different artists in order to display the pattern of a certain narrative of injustice. Lastly, Chapter 4 explained the importance of hip-hop as counter-narrative. This essay, then, delved into hip-hop politics, different forms of hip-hop, the implications of alternative narratives, and the way hiphop is much more than just a genre. This essay is limited in that it does not explore the meanings of “resistance.14” It is a dangerous practice to read resistance onto something that may not be intending to resist. It is also dangerous to attempt to marry hip-hop with the human rights project. Nevertheless, I take the constant references to revolution and the outright defiance by hip-hoppers to suggest that they do not take well with the mainstream. I also regret that this study does not provide the space to engage the reader with more music. More lyrics. More voices. The songs discussed in this paper provided only a fraction of the political hip-hop out there.15 And, as evident in this paper, even ‘booty and bullets’ hip-hop has something to say. As hip-hop continues to evolve—in the public eye and in the underground—more research must be done to see if hip-hop’s politics can survive. While there is research on hip-hop outside of the United States (Alim 2008, Basu & Sidney 2006, Mitchel 2002, Terkourafi 2010, Osumare 2001), further studies are needed on the identification of patterns amongst these hip-hop movements. Is there something that global hiphop movements have in common? Or does it just come down to the beat? Scholars have spoken about hip-hop as a movement, a nation, a generation, and a culture. I hold that hip-hop’s political and social power emerges from its storytelling ability. If power emerges from competing discourses, then hip-hop is here to compete. Hip-hop is the embodiment of the notion that the personal is political and that the political is personal. It is a human rights tool because it highlights counter-narratives and a different set of discourses. In doing so, it complicates our understandings of the political and social landscapes of minority experiences in the United States. This disruption of the mainstream allows us to raise issues of rights violations and in turn, raises awareness about those violations. Sure, it is impossible to characterize hip-hop as purely revolutionary—it internalizes the images society thrusts upon it— a bunch of gangsters running around boasting about their violent and sexual escapades. But hiphop also refuses to accept that its position as marginalized is its own fault. The storytelling of

14 For more on resistance read Lila Abu-Loghod (1990), The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power Through Bedouin Women and Susan Seymour’s (2006) Resistance. 15 Appendix A will provide a list of suggested songs to delve deeper into hip-hop politics.

police repression allows hip-hopers to become acquainted with the facts of their own historic oppression: “So, stories—stories about oppression, about victimization, about one’s own brutalization—far from deepening the despair of the oppressed, lead to healing [and] liberation” (Delgado 1989: 2437). Storytelling reveals to us that our realities are not fixed. It complicates the way we see our lives—refusing to accept that our perspectives are inevitable or natural. Hip-hop songs are narratives, “broadcasting voices” that are excluded from or neglected within dominant political structures and processes (Squire 2005: 93). We cannot fight for the human rights of the marginalized if their voices are never heard.

Bibliography Books and Articles: Alim, Samy H. 2008 Global Linguistic Flows: Hip Hop Cultures, Youth Identities, and the Politics of Language, New York & London: Routledge. Allen Jr., Ernest 1996 ‘Making the Strong Survive: The Contours of Message Rap’ in Droppin’ Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture, Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Asante Jr., M.K. 2008 It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip-Hop Generation, New York: St. Martin’s Press. Bamberg, Michael & Molly Andrews eds. 2004 Considering Counter-Narratives: Narrating, resisting, making sense, Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Basu, Dipannita & Lemelle, Sidney .J. eds. 2006 The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip-Hop and the Globalisation of Black Popular Culture, London & Ann Arbor: Pluto Press. Boyd, Todd 1997 Am I Black Enough for You?: Popular Culture from the Hood and Beyond, Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Bynoe, Yvonne 2004 Stand and Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership, and Hip Hop Culture, Brooklyn: Soft Skull Press. Chang, Jeff 2005 Can’t Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, New York: St. Martin’s Press. Delgado, Richard 1989 ‘Storytelling for Oppositionists and Others: A Plea for Narrative,’ Michigan Law Review, 87 (8), pp. 2411-2441. Delgado, Richard 1995 ‘Legal storytelling: Storytelling for oppositionists and others: A Plea for Narrative’ in Critical race theory: The cutting edge, Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Dyson, Michael Eric 2007 Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop, New York: Basic Civitas Books. Fischlin, Daniel & Heble, Ajay eds. 2003 Rebel Musics: Human Rights, Resistant Sounds, and the Politics of Music Making, Montreal, New York, London: Black Rose Books. Flores, Juan 2000 From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity, New York: Columbia University Press. Forman, Murray & Neal, Marc Anthony eds. 2004. That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, New York & London: Routledge.

Foucault, Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1, New York & Toronto: Random House Inc. Jeffries, Michael P. 2011 Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-Hop, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Gilroy, Paul 1993 Small Acts, London and New York: Serpent’s Tail. Guntarik, Olivia 2009 ‘Resistance narratives: A comparative account of indigenous sites of dissent’ Narrative Inquiry, 19 (2), pp. 206-327. Holmes, Malcolm D. and Brad W. Smith eds. 2008 Race and Police Brutality: Roots of an Urban Dilemma, Albany: State University of New York Press. Kelley, Robin D.G, 1994 Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class, New York: The Free Press Kelley, Robin D.G. 1996 ‘Reality Kickin’ Ballistics: Gangsta Rap and Postindustrial Los Angeles’ in Droppin’ Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture, Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Keyes, Cheryl L. 2002 Rap Music and Street Consciousness, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. MacIntyre, Alasdair 1981 After virtue, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame. Mitchell, Tony ed. 2002 Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the USA, Middletown: Wesleyan University Press. Osumare, Halifu 2001 Beat Streets in the Global Hood: Connective Marginalities of the Hip Hop Globe. Journal of American & Comparative Cultures, 24(1-2), pp.171–181. Perkins, William Eric 1996 Droppin’ Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture, Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Quinn, Eithne 2005 Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap, New York: Columbia University Press. Rabaka, Reiland 2013 The Hip Hop Movement: From R&B and the Civil Rights Movement to Rap and the Hip Hop Generation, Plymouth: Lexington Books. Rose, Tricia 1994 Black Noise, Middletown: Wesleyan University Press. Skolnick, Jerome H. & James J. Fyfe 1993 Above the Law: Police and the Excessive Use of Force, New York: The Free Press.

Stapleton, Katina R. 1998 ‘From the margins to mainstream: the political power of hip-hop,’ Media, Culture & Society, 20(2), 219–234. Scott, James C. 1990 Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, New Haven: Yale University Press. Squire, Corinne 2005 ‘Reading Narratives,’ The Group-Analytic Soceity, 38 (1), pp. 91-97. Talbot, Jean et al. 1996 ‘Affirmation and Resistance of Dominant Discourses: The Rhetorical Construction of Pregnancy,’ Journal of Narrative and Life History, 6, pp. 225-251. Terkourafi, Marina 2010 ‘Introduction: A Fresh Look at Some Old Questions’ in Languages of Global Hip Hop (Advances in Sociolinguistics), Los Angeles & New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. Watkins, Craig S. 2005 Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement, Boston: Beacon Press. Weitzer, Ronald & Tuch, Steven A. 2006 Race And Policing America Conflict And Reform, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Internet Sources: Chan, Sewell 2007 The Abner Louima Case, 10 Years Later. The New York Times, [online] Available at: <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/the-abner-louima-case-10years-later/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0> [Accessed August 4, 2014]. Coleman, Christina 2014 Can Hip-Hop Curb Police Brutality: Kenneth Chamberlain’s Death & Son’s Quest To Use Hip Hop For Justice Global Grind, [online] Available at: <http://globalgrind.com/2014/05/02/police-brutality-kenneth-chamberlains-unjust-deathsons-quest-to-use-hip-hop-for-justice/> [Accessed July 28, 2014]. Fukushima, Aisha 2014 Raptivism [online] Available at: <http://raptivism.tumblr.com/> [Accessed August 4, 2014]. Glenza, Jessica 2014 Activists want NYPD officer charged as Eric Garner death is ruled a homicide. The Guardian. [online] Available at: <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/02/campaigners-nypd-officer-charges-ericgarner-homicide> [Accessed August 5, 2014]. Mrmakaveli 2014 2pac interview by judge [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vigPk9n5-50> [Accessed 21 August 2014].

Palmeri, Tara & Daniel Prendergast 2013 Former cops still reeling 7 years after Sean Bell horror. New York Post, [online] Available at: <http://nypost.com/2013/11/30/former-cops-stillreeling-7-years-after-sean-bell-horror/> [Accessed August 5, 2014]. Rivas, Luis & Calvin Ratana 2014 Hip-hop is resistance against the inequalities in society. Daily Sundial, [online] Available at: <http://sundial.csun.edu/2014/04/hip-hop-is-resistanceagainst-the-inequalities-in-society/> [Accessed July 30, 2014]. UN General Assembly 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3712c.html [Accessed July 2, 2014]. Urban Dictionary 2014 [online] Available at: <http://www.urbandictionary.com/> [Accessed July 30, 2014].

Songs: Coolio 1995 Gangsta’s Paradise, New York: Tommy Boy. Cypress Hill 1991 Pigs, New York City: Ruffhouse/Columbia/ SME Records. Dead Prez 2000 It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop, New York City: Loud/Columbia/Relativity. Dead Prez 2000 Police State, New York City: Loud/Columbia/Relativity. Fiasco, Lupe 2007 Hip-Hop Saved My Life, Chicago: 1st and 15th Entertainment/ Atlantic. Geto Boys 2005 G-Code, Houston: Rap-A-Lot/Asylum/Elektra Records. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five 1982 The Message, Englewood: Sugar Hill. Hill, Lauryn 2014 Black Rage, 2014 Unknown: Unknown. J. Cole 2014 Be Free, Unknown: Unknown. KRS-One 1989 Who Protects Us From You?, New York City: Jive/RCA Records. KRS-One 1993 Sound of da Police, New York City: Jive Records. MC Shan 1990 Time for Us to Defend Ourselves, New York: Cold Chillin’ Records. Niggas with Attitude 1988 Fuck the Police, Compton: Ruthless/Priority/EMI. Paris feat. Conscious Daughters 1994 Bring it to ya, Oakland: Scarface Records.

Public Enemy 1988 Fight the Power, Detroit: Motown. Shakur, Tupac 1998 Changes, Santa Monica: Interscope/Amaru/Death Row. Shakur, Tupac 1991 Trapped, Santa Monica: Interscope. Sistah Souljah 1992 The Hate that Hate Produced, New York: Song BMG Music Entertainment. The Sugarhill Gang 1979 Rapper’s Delight, Englewood: Sugar Hill Records. W.C & The MAAD Circle 1991 Behind Closed Doors, Los Angeles: Priority. Images: George Pataki and Russell Simmons n.d photograph, Available at: <http://prison.livesinfocus.org/2009/02/09/rockefeller-laws-an-end-in-sight/ > [Accessed 11 July, 2014]. Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc n.d photograph, Available at: <http://bigghostlimited.com/master-class-respect-to-the-dj/ > [Accessed 26 July, 2014]. Ferguson n.d photograph, Available at: <http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/i/newscms/2014_33/612886/140812-ferguson-police4a_8e17302df8b8fc3a893931ba7505d731.jpg > [Accessed 12 July, 2014]. Hip Hop Revolution n.d photograph, Available at: <http://hiphoplives.net/hip-hop-revolution/> [Accessed 11 August, 2014]. Los Angeles Riots 1992 n.d photograph, Available at: <https://static.squarespace.com/static/51b3dc8ee4b051b96ceb10de/51ce6099e4b0d911b4 489b79/51ce619ae4b0d911b4499ce4/1344365431643/1000w/la_g_lariots_mb_576.jpeg> [Accessed 11 July, 2014]. National Guardsman n.d photograph, Available at: <http://polygrafi.com/2013/04/30/rodney-king-symbol-of-police-brutality-and-the-1992los-angeles-riots/> [Accessed 11 July, 2014]. NWA n.d photograph, Available at: <http://uptownmagazine.com/files/2014/06/uptown-nwa.jpg> [Accessed 11 August, 2014]. Public Enemy n.d photograph, Available at: <http://www.rick.com/rick-dees-where-are-they-now-public-enemy/> [Accessed 12 August, 2014].

Sistah Souljah n.d photograph, Available at: < http://www.everseradio.com/wp- content/uploads/2011/03/souljah-the-final-solutionslaverys-back-in1.jpg> [Accessed 26 July, 2014]. The Blackwatch Movement n.d photograph, Available at: <http://wernervonwallenrod.com/Blackwatch.html > [Accessed 7 August, 2014]. The Last Poets n.d photograph, Available at: <http://thekey.xpn.org/aatk/files/2013/08/The+Last+Poets.jpg> [Accessed 10 August, 2014].

Appendix A Below is a list of songs I listened to and analyzed as I looked at the notion of hip-hop politics and resistance: NAME Ice Man Cometh

ARTIST 2 Black 2 Strong

Revolution What Ya Life Like The Enemy Blue School Claimin’ I’m A Criminal Us How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise A Song For Assata The 6th Sense feat. DJ Premier Straight Check N Em They Still Gafflin Pigs How I Could Just Kill A Man

Arrested Development Beanie Sigel Big L feat. Fat Joe Blue Scholars Brand Nubian Brother Ali Brother D

Cop Shot Im A African It's Bigger Than Hip Hop Police State Propaganda They Schools Baby Face The Headcracker Boyz N The Hood Speak Upon It There's A War Going On For Your Mind G-Code The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Full Band Version) The Message Jesse Road to the precinct NYC Cops AmeriKKKas Most Wanted The Product Who Got The Camera Endangered Species

Common Common Comptons Most Wanted Comptons Most Wanted Cypress Hill Cypress Hill & Rage Against the Machine Dead Prez Dead Prez Dead Prez Dead Prez Dead Prez Dead Prez Dead Prez Double XX Posse Eazy-E Ed O.G. and Da Bulldogs Flobots Geto Boys Gil Scott-Heron Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five Grandmaster Melle Mel Hardknocks Himanshu (Heems) Ice Cube Ice Cube Ice Cube Ice Cube

ALBUM Doin´ Hard Time on Planet Earth (1991) Malcolm X (1992) The Truth (2000) The Big Picture (2000) Blue Scholars (2004) Everything is Everything (1994) Us (2009) Note: Released as a single (1985) Like Water for Chocolate (2000) Like Water for Chocolate (2000) Straight Chekn 'Em (1991) Straight Chekn 'Em (1991) Cypress Hill (1991) Cypress Hill (1991) Cop Shot (2000) Let's Get Free (2000) Let's Get Free (2000) Let's Get Free (2000) Let's Get Free (2000) Let's Get Free (2000) Turn Off the Radio: The Mixtape, Volume 1 (2002) Put Ya Boots On (1992) Eazy-Duz-It (1988) Life of a Kid in the Ghetto (1991) Fight With Tools The Foundation (2005) Small Talk at 125th and Lenox (1970) Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five (1982) Note: Recorded as a single (1984) School of Hardknocks (1992) Nehru Jackets (2012) AmeriKKKas Most Wanted (1990) Kill At Will (1990) The Predator (1992) Tales From The Darkside (1990)

39 Who’s The Mack Escape From The Killing Fields The Tower Cause Of Death Harlem Streets Leaving the Past The 4th Branch Creation & Destruction Speak Your Mind Bin Laden (Remix) feat Chuck D, KRS-ONE The 3rd World Homeland and Hip Hop Rebel Soul Fuck the Police Be Free OG3 Oscar Grant Tribute Renegade Invasion All Falls Down I Got Pulled Over Penitentiary Sound Of Da Police Who Protects Us From You Black Rage Georgia Bush Handcuffs American Terrorist Till We Get There Just A Friendly Game Of Baseball Just A Friendly Game Of Baseball Time For Us To Defend Ourselves Pricetag Cop Hell Fear Not Of Man I Heard It Today What About Us Breathe Fuck the Police Straight Outta Compton Real Niggaz Dont Die Halftime Patience

Ice Cube Ice T Ice-T Immortal Technique Immortal Technique Immortal Technique Immortal Technique Immortal Technique Immortal Technique Immortal Technique

AmeriKKKas Most Wanted (1990) O.G Original Gangster (1991) O.G Original Gangster (1991) Revolutionary V.2 (2003) Revolutionary V.2 (2003) Revolutionary V.2 (2003) Revolutionary V.2 (2003) Revolutionary Vol.1 (2001) Revolutionary Vol.1 (2001) Note: Recorded as a single (2005)

Immortal Technique Immortal Technique (Mumia Abhu-Jamal) Isis J Dilla J.Cole Jasiri X Jay-Z Ft. Eminem Jeru da Damaja Kanye West Kid Frost Kid Frost KRS One KRS-One

The 3rd World (2008) Revolutionary V.2 (2003)

Lauryn Hill Lil Wayne Lupe Fiasco Lupe Fiasco M1 of Dead Prez feat.Knaan & Stori James Main Source

Rebel Soul (1990) Note: Recorded as a single (2001) Note: Recorded as a single (2014) Note: Recorded as a single (2009) The Blueprint (2001) Wrath of the Math (1996) The College Dropout East Side Story (1992) East Side Story (1992) Return of the Boom Bap (1993) Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop (1989) Note: Recorded as a single (2014) Dedication 2 (2006) (2007) (2007) Confidential (2006) Breaking Atoms (1991)

Main Source

Breaking Atoms (1991)

MC Shan

Play It Again, Shan (1990)

Metro P Ft. Mistah Fab Mobb Deep Mos Def Mr. Lif Mr. Lif Mr. Lif feat. Bahamadia N.W.A N.W.A N.W.A. Nas Nas & Damian Marley

Note: Released as a single (2013) Note: Recorded as a single (1992) Black On Both Sides I Heard It Today (2009) I Heard It Today (2009) I Heard It Today Straight Outta Compton (1988) Straight Outta Compton (1988) Straight Outta Compton (1988) Illmatic (1994) Distant Relatives (2010)

40 Constables Jail Letters Styles The Devil Made Me Do It Escape From Babylon Bring it To Ya Hope Rally The Sleeper Has Awakened Shut Em Down Fight The Power Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos Bring the Noise

O.C Oschino P G-Joint Feat. J-Hood Paris Paris Paris feat. The Conscious Daughters Pete Philly & Perquisite ft. Talib Kweli Press Project Professor X The Overseer featuring Queen Mother Rage Public Enemy Public Enemy Public Enemy

World Life (1994) Best of Oschino (2004) N/A The Devil Made Me Do It (1990) The Devil Made Me Do It (1990) Guerilla Funk (1994) Mindstate (2005) Get Right (2007) Years of the 9, on the Blackhand Side (1991)

Dont Believe The Hype

Public Enemy

Party for Your Right to Fight

Public Enemy

Rebel Without A Pause

Public Enemy

Slippin into darkness Vanglorious Law Slippin into darkness Vanglorious Law Nature Of The Threat Nature Of The Threat Ballad Of The Black Gold [Official Video] HQ Ballad Of The Black Gold Dirty Cop Named Harry The Final Solution; Slaverys Back In Effect The Hate That Hate Produced Self Destruction

Queen Mother Rage Queen Mother Rage Queen Mother Rage Queen Mother Rage Ras Kass Ras Kass Reflection Eternal

APocalypse 91' Do the Right Thing (1988) It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) Vanglorious Law (1991) Vanglorious Law (1991) Vanglorious Law (1991) Vanglorious Law (1991) Soul on Ice (1996) Soul on Ice (1996) Revolutions per Minute (2010)

Reflection Eternal School of Hard Knocks Sister Souljah

Revolutions per Minute (2010) School of Hard Knocks (1992) 360 Degrees of Power (1992)

Sister Souljah Stop the Violence Movement Sun Rise Above Talib Kweli Talib Kweli ft. Mos Def The Coup The Roots The Roots The Sugarhill Gang Toddy Tee Tupac

360 Degrees of Power (1992) Note: Recorded as a single (1989)

Free Your Mind State Of Grace Joy Busterismology Don't Feel Right Don't Feel Right Rapper's Delight Batterram Military Minds

Public Enemy

Prisoners of War (2009) Gravitas (2014) Quality (2002) Steal This Album (1998) Game Theory (2006) Game Theory (2006) Sugarhill Gang (1979) The Ultimate Collection, V.1 (1999) Better Dayz (2002)

41 Trapped Changes Violent Behind Closed Doors Out On A Furlough Aint A Damn Thang Changed A Day Of Outrage, Operation Snatchback Funkin Lesson Heed The Word Of The Brother Verbs Of Power Xodus Fire & Earth 3rd Eyes On Me Down by Law Culture United

Tupac Tupac Tupac WC And The Maad Circle WC And The Maad Circle WC And The Maad Circle (WC, Coolio, Sir Jinx & DJ Crazy Toones) X-Clan

2Pacalypse Now (1991) Note: Recorded as a single (1998) 2Pacalypse Now (1991) Ain't a Damn Thing Changed (1991) Ain't a Damn Thing Changed (1991) Ain't a Damn Thing Changed (1991)

X-Clan X-Clan X-Clan X-Clan X-Clan X-Clan X-Clan X-Clan Featuring Damian Jr Gong Marley

To the East, Blackwards (1990) To the East, Blackwards (1990) To the East, Blackwards (1990) Xodus (1992) Xodus (1992) Return from Mecca (2007) Mainstream Outlawz (2008) Return from Mecca (2007)

To the East, Blackwards (1990)