"Never Shoulda Been Let out the Penitentiary": Gangsta Rap and the Struggle over Racial Identity

Abstract

In January 1994, a CNN/USA Today poll argued that the issue most troubling Americans was crime, an anxiety that has arisen despite the statistical decreases in violent crimes from 1973 to 1992. During this period, violent crime against white Americans dropped from 31.6 to 29.9 per 1,000 people. The statistics, however, show a different picture for blacks as the numbers rose in the same period from 41.7 to 50.4 crimes per 1,000 people. Homicide rates were even more alarming, almost doubling for black males under twenty-four, from 84 to 159 per 100,000 people between 1980 and 1991 (Morganthau 66). One of the culprits often singled out for the rise in black-on-black violence is black culture, and in particular, rap music. It has become standard practice for television news and other news sources to make a connection between rap and crime; for instance, Newsweek placed rappers on its cover twice in the last five years, both times in articles about rap and crime. The year 1994 also marked the beginning of congressional exploratory hearings about the dangers of rap in general and Gangsta Rap in particular. Although the mainstream media con-