{"id":4419,"date":"2022-06-15T15:14:50","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T20:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.streamapse.com\/?p=4419"},"modified":"2024-11-29T17:15:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T22:15:56","slug":"blame-a-rapper-and-hip-hop-music-when-all-else-fails-to-explain-american-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=4419","title":{"rendered":"Blame A Rapper And Hip-Hop Music, When All Else Fails To Explain American Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The day after the May 24, 2022, mass shooting<\/a> at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson<\/a> promptly blamed the violence on rap music and video games.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids are exposed to all kinds of horrible stuff nowadays,\u201d the Texas Republican told Fox News on May 25, 2022<\/a>. \u201cI think about the horrible stuff that they hear when they listen to rap music, the video games that they watch \u2026 with all of this horrible violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Jackson and other critics, rap seems to explain criminal behavior and signal moral decline. In the eyes of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis<\/a>, rap might be something else as well \u2013 evidence.<\/p>\n

Atlanta rappers Young Thug<\/a> and Gunna<\/a> were among 28 defendants charged under Georgia\u2019s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act<\/a> in May 2022 with conspiracy and street gang activity.<\/p>\n

They are now in jail in Atlanta awaiting trial.<\/p>\n

In the indictment, prosecutors cite lyrics from Young Thug\u2019s songs as \u201covert acts in furtherance of the conspiracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several tracks are quoted, including \u201cSlatty,\u201d on which Young Thug raps<\/a>: \u201cI killed his man in front of his mama \/
\nLike f\u2013k lil bruh, his sister, and cousin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Free speech has its limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe First Amendment,\u201d Willis explained, \u201cdoes not protect people from prosecutors using [lyrics] as evidence if it is such.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scapegoating rap<\/h2>\n

Rap has long been used to conspicuously stereotype, caricature and reinforce mythologies about Black people. As a rapper and scholar<\/a>, I wrote about this scapegoating in a chapbook<\/a>, \u201cRap & Storytellingly Invention,\u201d published with the peer-reviewed album<\/a> I released in 2020.<\/p>\n