Anti Hip Hop Propaganda in the United States and its Political Impact

1. Paragraph 1: Mark of Criminality

1.1. “Studies of capital punishment reveal that cases involving white victims are significantly more likely to result in a death sentence than those involving a minority victim, suggesting that prosecutors and juries are less sympathetic toward victims of color” (Chin 2)

1.2. “While the United States has always, to one degree or another, waged war against crime, the period comprising the late 1980s and 1990s was a watershed of racialized moral panic regarding the perceived threats that criminality posed to civil society” (Chin 1)

1.3. “While gangsta rap became one of the most widely consumed and controversial musical genres of the twentieth century by drawing on many of the same themes that prevailed in mainstream law- and- order discourses, its artists revised many of these themes to suit their own ends” (Chin 4)

2. Paragraph 2: Mark of Criminality continued: Political Impact

2.1. “This cultural politics of law and order delivered staggering electoral fortunes to those officials who staked their political capital on their predominantly white voting base’s fears of a savage, racialized criminal threat” (Chin 1)

2.2. “While politicians and culture warriors relied on a bricolage of campaign speeches and commercials, popular culture, and legislation to advance their tough- on- crime agendas, hip- hop artists who traded in gangsta rap set rhymes to beats to weave sensationalistic tales of crime in the inner city” (Chin 3)

3. Paragraph 3: Ch.2 Parody, Space, and Violence

3.1. “However, the governor’s campaign sustained an irreparable blow when a conservative political action committee aired its ‘Weekend Passes’ ad. The television spot told the story of Willie Horton, an African American prisoner released in 1986 on a weekend furlough in Massachusetts while Dukakis was governor” (McCann 34)

3.2. “The ad used a blue background, white text, and still photographs of Bush, Dukakis, and Horton. After distinguishing Bush’s pro- death-penalty stance from Dukakis’s opposition to the sanction, the segment reveals an ominous picture of Horton and describes his original incarceration for murder. The male narrator—speaking in a deep, stern voice—explains how Horton used his furlough to kidnap a young couple, “stabbing the man and repeatedly raping his girlfriend.” The words “Kidnapping,” “Stabbing,” and “Raping” appear on the screen below Horton’s image in cadence with the narrator’s lurid account of the horrific night.” (McCann 34)

4. Paragraph 4: In Hip Hop

4.1. “Trapped” by Tupac

4.2. “DNA” Kendrick Lamar

4.3. “Hands On” Kanye West