Ever heard of the Willie Lynch Letter? The infamous letter that began circulation starting around the mid 1970s that was claimed to been written by a white slave master in the end of the 17th Century. The letter would describe different ways for slave masters to keep their slaves in check and divided. Willie Lynch in this letter told slave masters if they instituted these forms of separation amongst slaves that it will hold up for hundreds of years. This letter has been debated over the last 30+ years from academia to arguments at the barbershop. Many historians agree that there is no evidence that Willie Lynch or this letter ever existed and is a form of fiction. The question I always ask is: Does the fiction/hyperbole of the letter not have themes that have truth in black culture?
Last week many popular hip hop sites were sent an anonymous letter supposedly from a music industry insider that described a secret meeting he attended with many music label executives. The man in the letter claims that during this meeting many of these music executives were made aware that the companies they work for had invested heavily into the privatization of the prison system. The music executives were told to promote more gangster rap and negative in rap music. They felt that if the idea of going to prison was promoted in music more that they could profit more of the bodies of men (particularly men of color) going to prison. There are people who have addressed the validity of this letter and if it is just another of many black urban legends and conspiracy theories. The question begs to be asked though is not if the events in the letter happened but is it true that gangster rap has affected our culture that much to bring upon the conditions that are present in ghettos all across the country.
I am not going to front I am torn on this issue because I can see it from a multitude of angles. Hip Hop/Rap music isn’t the sole reason that the prison industrial complex is omniscient in our society but at the same time has it not? I spoke on my podcast last week (Hear Here) about how as African American’s we are cultural more intertwined to music. Historically speaking music was used in Africa for movements of people, in slavery it helped us speaking in the fields and move during the Underground Railroad, and even in the present songs helped us through the Civil Rights movement. I don’t think we can ever dismiss the notion that music CAN affect people. Certain music can put you in certain moods and in certain places. The glorification of crime and proliferation of the prison system cannot be denied as being a part of gangster rap. Ask any of the kids who are in jail what they listen to I bet its gangster rap. So, can we question the idea of gangster rap music’s influence having some validity?
Like I said I am torn on the issue of gangsta rap and the prison system because we cannot neglect that personal accountability and societal situations are serious factors that contribute to the new prison industrial complex. Gangster rap didn’t put crack into the communities, gangster rap didn’t give insufficient education, gangster rap didn’t hand out unequal prison sentences (crack vs. cocaine possession), and gangster rap didn’t snatch jobs industrial jobs from urban areas. Gangster rap can’t be solely responsible for the influx of black men in the prison system as the letter says the “powers that be” wished to us it as. The conditions around America have just as much to do with it as well. Rap music and Hip Hop has been an easy scapegoat and a sugar-coating all the irresponsibility of parents, elders, and leaders. Would these things even exist if the many people who fought for integration passed along those ideals and notions to the kids below them?
I feel if you want to blame a situation on hip hop I will put in the idea that the balance that was in hip hop isn’t there anymore. In the years past you would hear music on the radio and see music videos from a diverse amount of Hip Hop artists. You could go from hearing DJ Quik’s ”Born and Raised in Compton” to hearing Public Enemy’s “Shut ‘Em Down” then turn around and hear A Tribe called Quest and Leaders of the New School’s classic “Scenario” to bumping The Geto Boys’ “My Mind is Playing Tricks on Me”. There was a very high push of black consciousness coming from hip hop in the late 80s and early 90s. Remember the Kente cloth, black fist medallions, and Malcolm X hats? Gangsta Rap also had a leg to stand on proclaiming that they were showing the realities of where they come from or as some would call it “reality rap”. Remember how many LA rappers such as Ice T, Ice Cube, and Tupac were predicting the LA Riots to happen? That was all good for a time but the problem is now that most of rappers now aren’t telling the story of the hood but just telling fanatical tales to sell records. I am not saying there weren’t any studio gangsters in the past 
but it’s a totally different vibe now. Gangsta rap had more of a street conscience then and its violent nature was offset by social conscious rap.
Has Hip Hop particularly gangster rap been the reason for the prison industrial complex in Black Culture? The answer to that question isn’t something that can’t be really quantified. We can’t put the idea of the prison and crime problem on gangster rap music but at the same time we can’t sit here and look at it as having the best influence all if the time either especially when their isn’t other forms of hip hop provided as a balance to it. I know one thing though that I officially know that current “gangster rap” isn’t targeted to me anymore because last night I heard Notorious B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa” on the Adult Contemporary station.
What do you feel about Gangster Rap and its contribution to Prison Culture?
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Very interesting way you looked at it. But, what is the solution since there are so many factors that contributed to the prison complex?
Good post and good comment. Americans have had blinders on for the last 25 years so noticing and articulating possible manipulations would be a great start towards dismantling oppressive social structures.
Coupla things I notice about the music business:
1. A young 25 year old friend was a rising music manager. Social as heck, loved the music, they loved him. He quit. The drugs. Absolutely everyone involved was seriously drugged up all the time. He couldn’t handle it. Ask yourself, how malleable are musicians when they are stoned? Answer: they are easy puppets for someone else.
2. The Women’s Movement has taken a big hit from the music industry in the last decade. Normally, when a stunning talented woman hits the big time, she doesn’t have to prostitute herself as much. The opposite is happening now. Unbelievably successful women are still stripping off for public cameras constantly; ie Rihanna and Lady Gaga. Something is off there. Stripping in public is humiliating for women. Stunningly beautiful women generally don’t strip. Against evolution. The music industry is making stunning beautiful successful women humiliate themselves.
My mind wants to believe gangsta rap held no bearing on hundreds of thousands of under-privileged, economically-challenged black youth serving time behind bars, due to committing crimes or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cause if that truly were the case, then rappers themselves would’ve served jail sentences….
Oh wait. They are, well they did.
…But my heart concludes that everything negative and detrimental in society contributes.
They pumped the art for profit now blame it for the woes of America
I gotta gree with you on this! I think more that its societal though! Music aint making no one do anything, Bad parenting and bitch ass parents are the problem
Maybe indirectly … originally so called “gangster rap” was really a movie on wax … people were playing characters and a lot of it was tongue and cheek … NWA, Ice T, ATL, etc… they were humorus … as many people that they “killed” they still talked about regular stuff … Gangsters don’t do skits and Yo MTV Raps interviews LOL
I mean In “Dope Man” they basically told you how bad drugs were and what it did to you and that they didn’t do it
… that didn’t make people go and do drugs or sell it; society did
A lot of what they were talking about is what they saw and it was easier and more abundant source material for entertainment and different from what everyone else was doing
The problem came when the next generation that didn’t grow up with different forms of entertainment started to try and immulate what they heard and make it real … they weren’t educated … they thought it was real or so cool that they wanted to be like it
Rap has no more or less influence than Scarface, New Jack City, or anything else
… it made it seem “cooler” but it was weak minded individuals that followed suit
We didn’t try to be British like Slick Rick, or Throw House Parties like Kid n Play, or Switch to Islam like Rakim … we just accepted the entertainment … then it went wrong and very bad
but what do I know? lol
Great post
#appreciation
e.
Yes, gansta rap has definitely contributed to the number of Blacks in prison or any other race for that matter. Post gansta rap, Hip Hop music became a national success. Just because we like and enjoy something doesn’t make it ok to act as if we don’t see the negative affects it has on someone or something(the Hip Hop culture). Ppl tend to point out and agree with the positives of something, especially if it’s something they are a part of and/or enjoy. The negatives, however, are kept in the closet. Even those who dislike the hip hop music today were once a part of the past music and we played a part in what it is today. The present is only what the past has made it. Not the other way around. The present simply has the ability to change its actions “presently” for a better future. Hip Hop (Black music) is a part of our life and always have and will be, that which is stated in the music is a part of what and who we are. Even if some feel like it isn’t cultural and/or has nothing to do with them (even Blacks who don’t listen to Hip Hop are affected by it), you can’t deny that it is a part of how Blacks are perceived by others(and ourselves at times). I do agree that Gansta rap of yesterday is very different, but it did open the door for negative portrayal of today. Gansta rap encourages, promotes, and glorifies criminal behavior (TODAY). It sells an image of wealth that only a few will ever recieve from a 9 to 5. Blacks have always been affected by whatever message was in the music, because it pertained to our lives. ONLY Blacks can and will ever understand the dynamics of Hip Hop culturally. Hip Hop culture is BLACK(African American) culture that openly welcomed and connected ALL races and nationalities of ppl into our lives as Black(AA) ppl. It’s sad that anytime ppl attempt to try to even improve or speak out against the ills of the Hip Hop culture, it is percieved by Blacks that it’s personally an attack on Black ppl and/or their Blackness.To other ppl Rap is simply entertainment. To Blacks, Rap/rappers are family, fathers (yes, there has been an entire generation raised by rappers, not saying that’s the rapper’s personal fault, but it is what it is), friends, neighbors, bosses, etc. etc …It’s kind of like how Jamaica no longer plays explicit (a lot of American Hip Hop music) on the radio, because they made a conscious decision to accept how the music has had and currently has a negative impact on their CHILDREN (and THEM as well). It’s silly of ppl to contiuously see, think, hear negative images and sound, etc. (of ppl who look, walk, talk, dress, act, etc. just like them) yet claim it does not affect themselves NEGATIVELY. Gansta rap is NOT solely responsible by any means. I am simply stating my opinion about the music’s contribution to criminal/obscene activity. I don’t actually know if there was ever a system in place to bring about men going to prison, but I do know that there was definitely a system in place the promoted Gansta rap and it was for the welfare of Black ppl.
*
I meant was NOT for the welfare of Black ppl, Sorry
Of course gangsta rap contributed to the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) but it should be made very clear that it was simply an additional lubricant added to an already slippery slope. It is important to remember that the biggest contributor to the PIC was the introduction of guns and drugs to inner city streets by covert (not so much any more) gov’t agencies. It’s well documented about the connection of CIA and DEA agents connections with some of the biggest drug kingpins in the history of the US. The dismantling of our black LIONS contributed to the efficiency of the PIC. When cats like Huey, Stokley, Malcolm, and Medgar were removed from the equation, who was there to take their places? It was either the lambs (Sharpton, Jackson, Rush, etc.) or the hustlers (who in the absence of true lions in our community, roar the loudest). Now the pimp was not only driving the freshest car but also had the most clout in the hood and so closely resembled Sharpton and Jackson, that it was easy for young men to look up to pimp, hustler, and ganster. Then along comes rap music and gangster rap and it embodied what the people saw everyday, almost confirming its universality. By exposing that everywhere is just like Compton, it made the realities of the hood a little heavier burden to bare. Over the next few decades, the overall burden of the hood would drown the momentum of the Civil Rights movement. And just like music was the metronome of every African American movement, Hip Hop (which is overwhelming dominated by gangsta fairy tales of “one-upsmenship”) is now setting the tempo.
This is like a cart before the horse type of scenario. Being a gangster/criminal has always been cool/appealing. It’s traditionally a romanticized notion in art and literature. Why not in hip hop?
Being a gangster makes one a free spirit, or a rebel… Going to prison does not. I don’t believe that any music has ever made getting locked up cool. To say more criminals = more prisoners is true, but the culture didn’t perpetuate criminality. You ever hear of anyone saying “I’m standing on the corner selling rocks cause Eazy E did.” ? Me neither.
Criminality will forever be romanticized in art, and we’ll always argue whether or not it perpetuates such behavior… More criminals isn’t good for anyone, even those running privatized prisons.
The solution is and always has been education and parenting. Now, more than ever, there is the greatest chance for equality to the access to the right information. People have to choose to use that access. It’s no longer a privilege for the wealthiest. The more knowledge we have, the greater our ability to make correct choices as individuals.
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Hmmmmm…Brothers and Sisters,
In AmeriKlan, anything is possible concerning the destruction of our people.
At my blog, http://diaryofanegress.wordpress.com, I wrote a post called “The Plan.”
I got a lot of white outrage from that one post…most I deleted but the response from our people was overwhelming.
If you know our history and the history of those that wish to profit from us, you’ll know that nothing, and I mean nothing, is off limits.
What does your gut tell you?
You know that vibe that you feel when you know something’s not right? Use that vibe to answer any and all questions about what this country has in store for us.
Peace,
Truthbetold
Interested in Rappers in Prison. I thought it is possible to happen but I like them also. http://www.ranker.com/list/rappers-in-prison-complete-list-of-rappers-in-jail/whatevayoulike
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