User:Aprilkab/Hip Hop and Mass Incarceration: Difference between revisions

 

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Scholars have considered hip hop to be a means of speaking out against mass incarceration. But some have also concluded that it can promote violence and crime, misogyny, toxic masculinity, and drug abuse.<ref name=”:3″ /> In 2005, Spelman College students spoke out about hip hop and its portrayal of women. Black women in hip hop are often referred to as “bi****s” and “h**s.”<ref name=”:6″ />

Scholars have considered hip hop to be a means of speaking out against mass incarceration. But some have also concluded that it can promote violence and crime, misogyny, toxic masculinity, and drug abuse.<ref name=”:3″ /> In 2005, Spelman College students spoke out about hip hop and its portrayal of women. Black women in hip hop are often referred to as “bi****s” and “h**s.”<ref name=”:6″ />

These students discussed how women are often objectified and cite rapper Nelly’s “Tip Drill” 2003 music video as an example.<ref name=”:6″>{{Cite journal |last=Ernest |first=Holsendolph |date=2005 |title=”Taking back the music”: Spelman students combat hip-hop’s negative portrayals of Black women |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=sunybuff_main&id=GALE%7CA131199096&v=2.1&it=r&aty=ip |journal=Black Issues in Higher Education |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=8+ |via=Gale Academic OneFile}}</ref> The students felt this video portrayed women as commodities on a shelf to be bought.<ref name=”:6″ /> They spoke out about the potential harm in the promotion of these images and how they can lead to stereotypes, can ignite racism in White viewers, and can lead young Black women to believe it.<ref name=”:6″ />

These students discussed how women are often objectified and cite rapper Nelly’s “Tip Drill” 2003 music video as an example.<ref name=”:6″>{{Cite journal |last=Ernest |first=Holsendolph |date=2005 |title=”Taking back the music”: Spelman students combat hip-hop’s negative portrayals of Black women |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=sunybuff_main&id=GALE%7CA131199096&v=2.1&it=r&aty=ip |journal=Black Issues in Higher Education |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=8+ |via=Gale Academic OneFile}}</ref> The students felt this video portrayed women as commodities on a shelf to be bought.<ref name=”:6″ /> They spoke out about the potential harm in the promotion of these images and how they can lead to stereotypes, ignite racism in White viewers, and can lead young Black women to believe it.<ref name=”:6″ />

=== Hip Hop and Mass Incarceration in the UK ===

=== Hip Hop and Mass Incarceration in the UK ===

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Hip Hop in relation to Mass incarceration is a cultural movement that began in 1970s after the American civil rights movement and during an increase in the mass incarceration of African Americans.^[1] The origins of hip hop as a form of resistance are in the Bronx, NYC during a time of deindustrialization, racial segregation, systemic racism, unemployment, and mass incarceration. Many African Americans found hope in this new form of art and expression.^[1]

African American hip hop music was built on other forms of Black expression in music including gospel, the blues, reggae, and jazz music genres. These forms of music can be considered a source of comfort and a means of unity under the same struggle. Hip Hop has many aspects to it; MC-ing, DJ-ing, graffiti^[1] and includes language, styles of clothing, and forms of dance. As much as there has been a positive light shining on hip hop and its ability to be a form of activism, social scientists also study the ways it can increase misogyny, hyper-masculinity, drug use, and violence.^[2]

Many socio-economic circumstances of African American daily life have contributed to emergence of hip hop as a means to cope with mass incarceration. These include family structure, systemic poverty, inequalities in education, the US judicial system, and police brutality. Hip hop is cited by English Journal scholars as a form of Street Fiction.^[3] This can include themes of urban life and contain graphic language. Street fiction discusses topics such as violence, sex, and poverty.^[3]

This trend of hip hop culture and music can also be found in England’s maximum-security prisons. Rap specifically can be associated with the creation of identities and the challenging of systemic racism in the justice system.

Before hip hop as a means of black expression, various other musical genres also tell scholars a lot about the era in which they emerged.^[1] These include gospel music, the blues, reggae, and jazz.^[1] These were all born in the face of oppression of African Americans such as the transatlantic passage, slavery, Jim Crow segregationist laws, and mass incarceration.^[1]

Hip Hop has its origins in the 1970s in the Bronx, NYC.^[1] It emerged during a time of an increase in deindustrialization, poverty, and unemployment.^[1] This was due to a new government expressway project which pushed residents out and tore down buildings to build more modern and inexpensive homes.^[1] This caused struggles for residents remaining and from this came the birth of hip hop.^[1] Hip hop was originally used in the climate of racial segregation since the Bronx was a city predominantly populated by Black and Latinx residents and suffered from poverty, housing issues, and lack of healthcare.^[1]

Since then, hip hop has been popularized in major cities of the US that faced deindustrialization. Atlanta Georgia has created Afrocentric hip hop, crunk, and trap in Civil Rights movement landmarks.^[4] Baltimore Maryland brought the world Tupac and Houston Texas has created G-Funk and Big Beat.^[4] Techno was pioneered in Detroit Michigan in the 1980s and 1990s.^[5] Many historians agree that hip hop provided a safe haven for African Americans in these deindustrialized cities to express their pain and oppression.^[6]

See also: Hip Hop and Social Injustice

Street fiction is a branch of literature which is also known as ghetto lit, gangsta lit, or hip hop lit.^[3] Many include themes like sex, poverty, and violence and because of this, many readers view them to be authentic and raw portrayals of the black experience.^[3] Street fiction authors often document their experiences as African Americans in prison and how they have faced poverty and racism.^[3]

Michelle Alexander writes about Mass Incarceration in her book “The New Jim Crow.” This book discusses the roots of systemic racism in the criminal justice system.^[3] Alexander discusses how the prison system today exploits African Americans in a new form of slavery and forced labor.^[3] Many educators limit the use of street fiction in classrooms because they view it as detrimental due to their graphic themes.^[3]

Hip Hop in the form of music includes old-school hip-hop music and rap music. Especially following the killings of African Americans at the hands of police, African Americans have used rap to speak out against police brutality.^[6] Rap music has been a tool for amplifying Black voices that speak out against their oppression.^[6] This form of musical commentary has been in use since the 1700s when enslaved Africans in the US spoke out for their freedom.^[6] It has manifested in the form of multiple genres such as the blues, rhymes and blues, reggae, gospel, jazz, and hip hop.^[6]

Many songs in the hip hop genre mention themes of the law enforcement, the penal system, poverty, and resilience.^[2] The penal system is mentioned in songs like “They Don’t Care About Us” (Michael Jackson, 1996), “New Slaves” (Kanye West, 2013), “Blacker the Berry” (Kendrick Lamar, 2015), “Changes” (Tupac, 1998), and much more.^[2] Black males are the highest population of incarcerated individuals in America and have turned to hip hop as a way to express their frustration due to racial disparities.^[2] In Tupac’s “Changes” song, his lyrics include “The penitentiary’s packed, and it’s filled with Blacks, but some things will never change.”^[2]

When President Ronald Reagan began his war on drugs, effectively criminalizing drug abuse, many artists reacted to the mass incarceration that followed.^[2] In Killer Mikes “Reagan” song, he speaks out on how he feels Reagan’s plans were made so that he may put African American men in prison, to force them into a new form of labor and slavery.^[2] In Kanye’s “New Slaves” song, he speaks out about how the penal system is creating new slaves to profit from.^[2]

In addition to being a means of social activism, hip hop music can also be seen as uplifting and a platform to spread love and pride.^[2] Hip hop for some African Americans can be unifying in a common struggle. In Kendrick Lamar’s “Blacker the Berry” song, he claims his roots in Africa and demonstrates pride in his skin.^[2]

Scholars have considered hip hop to be a means of speaking out against mass incarceration. But some have also concluded that it can promote violence and crime, misogyny, toxic masculinity, and drug abuse.^[2] In 2005, Spelman College students spoke out about hip hop and its portrayal of women. Black women in hip hop are often referred to as “bi****s” and “h**s.”^[7]

These students discussed how women are often objectified and cite rapper Nelly’s “Tip Drill” 2003 music video as an example.^[7] The students felt this video portrayed women as commodities on a shelf to be bought.^[7] They spoke out about the potential harm in the promotion of these images and how they can lead to stereotypes, ignite racism in White viewers, and can lead young Black women to believe it.^[7]

In the UK, Black Britons are 15% of the prison population but only 3% of the entire British population.^[8] After interviewing prisoners and staff in the UK, global studies scholars have found that Black pop culture has an effect on identity in these prisons.^[8] The prisons in the UK that have been studied in greater dept are Coldfield, Wharton, and Marshwood.^[8] The incarcerated individuals of these prisons were given the opportunity to attend rap workshops and were observed and interviewed. The workshops allowed for creative writing and music lessons.^[8]

Out of those who were interviewed, 45% were Black or mixed.^[8] The black interviewees mentioned how they were not pushed to progress or get out of prison and dealt with racism and unfair treatment.^[8] Prisoners expressed their struggles in these rap workshops at Coldfield and in Wharton and Marshwood, they took classes which empowered and transported them.^[8] Many considered music to be a therapy in place of rehabilitation for them. Interviewers found that incarcerated individuals saw lyric writing as a way to decrease frustration and anger.^[8] They also mentioned how rap is a way to speak out against discrimination.^[8] Prisoners in their study were allowed to make performances which contributed to the making of their identity.^[8] Some scholars consider these identities to be forms of toxic masculinity.^[8]