The Dilemma of Gangsta Rap

"A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard"-Martin Luther king Jr.

There is no precise measurement for tragedy. Horrible things happen-lives lost, property destroyed, dreams denied and left shattered into a million little pieces. The mind tries to measure the impact that these things have on a human being but unfortunately there is no logical or comprehensive way to understand why these tragedies occur. 

There were two big events that took place in Los Angeles that not only changed the history of the big city of angels but also changed rap music forever. The Watts riots and the Los Angeles riots of 1992. The Watts Riots began on the evening of August 11, 1965. A black resident flagged down a white police officer and told him that a man was driving recklessly on the road. The white officer pulled over the vehicle. The driver was Marquette Frye. He was driving with his brother, Ronald. According to the police, Marquette failed a sobriety test and the white officer told him he would be arrested for drunk driving and that his car would be towed. From that point on many residents coming out of their houses and gathered to see what was going on. The outrage that the citizens felt towards the brothers and their mother being arrested ended up being expressed by physical violence toward the officer and his backup team, which lead to the start of the riots. They started to destroy buildings and looting stores at night, and eventually the riots spread to Watts. 

 Man arrested on suspicion of looting during the Watts Riots. Los Angeles, California. August 14, 1965. Herald-Examiner collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

On the third day of the riots, 103rd St. in Watts was burned to the ground. This day also marked the spread of the riots to other parts of South Central, especially up Central Ave. Looting continued and snipers began to take out police and the National Guard. The police responded with brutal force, killing many. The rioting spread all over California, from three days of rioting in San Diego, and continuing to Pasadena, Pacoima, Monrovia, Long Beach, and Wilmington. 34 people died. 118 people suffered gunshot wounds. Most people were killed by the LAPD and the National Guard. There was over $40 million in damages. After the riots, thousands of white residents in the areas around Watts, such as Compton, South Central, and Inglewood, left Los Angeles in fear. Many Black residents left Watts to these other areas.

Studies showed that people rioted because of unemployment, bad schools and education, and prior instances of police brutality. However I feel that the deep reason for rioting was racism and the lack of power people had over their life.

The Los Angeles Riots began in the 1990’s. This era in Los Angles proved to be a difficult time socially and politically, especially for South Central, LA. The riots began with the beating of Rodney King, but quickly escalated to Liquor stores, chain stores, fast-food places, and white communities ended up being the main targets of looting, mass burning and fires, and violence. In the end, 53 people were killed, most all were rioters or innocent victims. There was over $1 billion in damages left. The riots could be seen as acts of the built up anger and frustration of the residents that spread to San Francisco, Oakland, Las Vegas, Seattle, and Chicago.

 Rodney King, 1992

After the riots Rap music changed its “tune”. Loud, observant, and demanding of attention, gangsta rap, in particular, became the soundtrack to this era of racial instability, and is believed by many to not only have led the nation in cultural exploration, but was the exact prediction of insurrection.

A prominent voice in the movement, Ice Cube became a rapper and actor who pioneered this subgenre of west coast hip-hop with his anti-authoritative gang of poetic nihilists, N.W.A. At the time of the riots, he was on to his own initiative, releasing solo records and focusing on a burgeoning career in the movie business. or the entertainer, the riots were the inevitable result of America’s callous disregard for the black community, a by-any-means-necessary approach to prevent the silent removal of an African-American thread in the country’s cultural weave. On his 1991 album, Death Certificate, his second release as a solo artist, the rapper discussed many tensions that would later lead to this outburst, specifically in his song, “Black Korea.”

He explained, “You could feel the tension, could feel the heat in the community. Feel people getting fed up. You know? The police really had carte blanche in our neighborhoods till we did the song “F**k tha Police,” then people really started to actually look at what they were doing. And then the Rodney King incident came out to really show [it]. So, we had been talking about this all along, that it was happening. We had talked about it on my record “Death Certificate,” which was in ‘91. We talked about the tension between Blacks and Koreans; Latasha Harlins…She got shot in the back of the head over some orange juice by a Korean storeowner. These kinds of things were starting to fuel animosity and blame and just nastiness.” (http://thegrio.com/2012/04/29/ice-cube-reflects-on-how-the-la-riots-changed-rap/) 

From Ice Cube's Album Death Certificate, the song is called Steady Mobbin'

"Something from Nothing! The Art of Rap"

In last week's class we watched the film "Something from Nothing! The Art of Rap". Its like the professor, Nirit, read my mind! It was a super cold and rainy day, and all I wanted to do was snuggle up in bed and watch a good film! Granted, i was sitting in a chair in a lecture hall and there was no comfy blanket and a bowl of popcorn to keep me warm, i still enjoyed the film!

Something from Nothing! The Art of Rap  relives the genre’s inception and takes the viewer though its evolution over the last couple decades. With a very simple premise, rapper Ice T – this film's narrator and presenter– has created a very enjoyable and fascinating movie. His purpose is to discuss rap and hip hop  by interviewing the likes of KRS-One, Melle Mel, Dr Dre, Eminem, Grandmaster Caz and damn near all of rap’s godfathers. As he makes his way through time, visionaries both old and new make appearances within the film.
Ice T isn't  interested in the bling or the gangsta-ism, or even much in its actual history: simply the business of rap itself. Essentially, what results is a series of impromptu performances – by the pool, on street corners, in the studio. Some might feel that there is too much mutual male admiration. But the performances can be mesmerizing: aggressive, defiant, lingeringly incorrect, brutally offensive and brilliant: some stunning displays of linguistic talent and a little bit of substance abuse. What is extraordinary is that the rapper is the last breed of professional writer who composes longhand, pen on paper – or maybe, when inspiration strikes, on the back of the hand. There are no laptops. We see them write out verses in neat handwriting on yellow pads.
For the younger generation, The Art Of Rap’s an engaging, accurate Hip-Hop History crash course. And to the wizened readers, here’s something nostalgic that’ll take you back to your come-up days.

Watch the Signifyin Monkey fuck around with language!

 

Deep down in the jungle so they say
There's a signifying motherfucker down the way.
There hadn't been no disturbin' in the jungle for quite a bit,
For up jumped the monkey in the tree one day and laughed,
"I guess I'll start some shit."

The word “signifying” in the dictionary has many sets of definitions. However when you hear a black person refer to this word, chances you will need more than a dictionary to understand what exactly the speaker is referring to. Signifying is a verbal play-serious play that serves as instruction, entertainment, mental exercise, preparation for interacting with friend and foe in the social arena. In black vernacular, the word signifying refers to a sign that words cant be trusted, that even the most literal utterance allows space for interpretations, that language can be both carnival and dangerous.

The Signifying Monkey by Henry Louis Gates as vulgar, is being kind. This poem is a mixture of curse words, vanity, and sexual connotations. Henry Louis Gates sets out to "identify how the 'black tradition' had theorized about itself" (ix). Gates' theory is derived from reading the actual text of African American literature. His careful analyses of the varied texts combined with his knowledge of the black dialect tradition are the basis for The Signifying Monkey.

In part I of The Signifying Monkey, Gates begins with a historical exploration of Esu-Elegbara, a mythical African figure. It outlines the origins and myths behind the character, the monkey,  and it's development in the African culture. The chapter is complex. Gates states that he cannot historically link Esu and the Signifying monkey, but he feels that there is a connection between the tradition of the Monkey and the religious and philosophical African beliefs.

The Signifying Monkey is a cunning character whose manipulation, through language, allows him to trick an elephant and a monkey into doing whatever he wants them to do. Gates explains that the story has been passed through the black community since the days of slavery, the poem celebrates a traditional use of figurative language verses literal interpretations.

“As the African American toast cited above clearly shows, a trickster figure such as the Signifying Monkey enjoys stirring up trouble for its own sake. All trickster figures, however, are rather wise too. Perhaps they know that laughing at trouble (and even creating trouble just to laugh) has a special kind of transformative power. Tricksters can level the playing field in a flash and make it possible for burdened and uptight people to suddenly feel lighthearted and playful. Tricksters show up in the folklore and creation myths of a number of cultures worldwide, including African, Haitian, Native American (or American Indian) and African American” . (http://ualr.edu/jxbriton/folk.html)

"Eclectic, exciting, convincing, provocative, challenging.... Gates gives black literature room to breathe, invents interpretive frameworks that enable us to experience black writing rather than label it in terms of theme or ideology. From this perspective his book is a generous, long-awaited gift.... Like great novels that force us to view the world differently, Mr. Gates' compelling study suggests new ways of seeing."--John Wideman, The New York Times Book Review