{"id":307098,"date":"2020-07-23T14:42:28","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T18:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=307098"},"modified":"2024-01-11T12:55:09","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T17:55:09","slug":"hiphops-long-history-of-exposing-police-brutality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2020\/07\/hiphops-long-history-of-exposing-police-brutality\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesting police violence, a playlist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tArts & Culture\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tProtesting police violence, a playlist\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tThink of hip-hop as a historical record of the nation\u2019s racial violence and injustice, director of the Harvard Archive says\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\n\t

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\n\t\tJuan Siliezar\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\"Marcyliena

Marcyliena Morgan is the founding executive director of the Hiphop Archive and Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.<\/p>

File photo by Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n

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From Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to Kendrick Lamar, long before cellphone video and social media demanded Americans witness police killings and the mundanity of racism on streets, in stores and parks, hip-hop turned a bright light on all of it, and more. Marcyliena Morgan<\/a> is the Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences, a professor in the Department of African and African American Studies, and the founding executive director of the Hiphop Archive and Research Institute<\/a> at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research<\/a>. She spoke with the Gazette about hip-hop culture\u2019s history of exploring the systemic tangle of American racism, violence against Black people, and social, economic, and political inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q&A<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Marcyliena Morgan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> When you think about issues of injustice and police brutality, with racism at its core, how do you think about it in terms of hip-hop?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORGAN: <\/strong><\/strong>We can start with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five\u2019s 1982 song \u201cThe Message<\/a>,\u201d which is the first prominent hip-hop song to provide a social commentary on issues affecting the Black community. It begins early with the words \u201cbroken glass everywhere,\u201d and jumps right into a scathing critique of everyday urban life, especially in poor Black communities. Then it moves into more and more detail about racism and white supremacy in particular. Early on, one of the things that I immediately noticed about hip-hop lyrics was a social critique and exposing injustice the moment the rhymes start coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Kendrick<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Scenes from Kendrick Lamar’s video for “Alright,” from 2015’s “To Pimp a Butterfly.”<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the themes of racial inequality, poverty in Black communities, police violence \u2014 especially in hip-hop \u2014 you get these incredible stories about what happens when you walk out of a door in your neighborhood and even how much you love and protect your neighborhood. You work within a contradiction at the very beginning of hip-hop where, for example, \u201cNew York is horrible! I love New York!\u201d And once it\u2019s clear that hip-hop resists simplicity when discussing injustice, [meaning] that there\u2019s never this moment when things will always be good or the idea that there\u2019s going to be a consistent idyllic setting, you are ready for hip-hop. But [even then] there is still the dream of an amazing and just future. So, you get this contrast where hip-hop heads are basically saying: \u201cLook, we are the children of the Black Panther Party. We were taught to thrive in the midst of all of this knowledge and keep moving forward. We are hip-hop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” video from 1989, directed by Spike Lee.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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GAZETTE:  <\/strong><\/strong>In the late \u201980s and \u201990s there was a huge push in hip-hop to shed light on the experience of the Black community. A lot of it revolved around experiences with the police. Can you talk about this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORGAN: <\/strong><\/strong>The police were always an object of critique. The youth of [that period] traveled to school on public transportation on the East Coast and by car and on buses on the West Coast. Interestingly enough, especially on the East Coast, critiquing social conditions and white supremacy was a major focus. In contrast on the West Coast in particular, where young people are driving, there were earlier songs directly critiquing the police. The police are stopping you \u2014 because they can. You begin to hear from a group like N.W.A., which formed in 1987. In 1988, they had their major debut with \u201cStraight Outta Compton.\u201d The album focused on what they considered injustices with the police. The [2015] movie on N.W.A. [also titled \u201cStraight Outta Compton\u201d] really was a great representation of that, too. The group starts directly addressing stories and struggles about what it means to be a young Black male, a young Black female in America in ways that represent the complexity of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"KRS-One<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"KRS-One<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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KRS-One’s “Sound of Da Police” video from 1993.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not surprisingly, after the album was released, more artists began talking about police abuse directly. People wrote and rhymed about how difficult it was to walk to school if you\u2019re in a gang neighborhood. They talked about how difficult it was to get to school when the police were also trying to make sure young Black men learned that the streets belonged to law enforcement by intimidating them and depriving them of their rights. We get not just the story of \u201cI got chased,\u201d but songs that are much more layered like \u201cFight the Power\u201d [from Public Enemy in 1989], \u201cSound of Da Police\u201d [from KRS-One in 1993] a year after the beating of Rodney King. There is also \u201c99 problems\u201d [in 2003] with Jay-Z describing his version of an unjust traffic stop. As one listens to the lyrics in that verse you begin to realize, \u201cWait a minute. He\u2019s talking about racism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GAZETTE: <\/strong><\/strong>It\u2019s impossible to not talk about N.W.A. without discussing their often-cited song \u201cF— tha Police.\u201d Even in the recent slate of protests, it\u2019s been a rallying cry for some. Why is that song so poignant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORGAN: <\/strong><\/strong>The song is really an amazingly creative work. It includes strong, rhythmic rhyming with content that is a story of injustice created through music samples and sounds that represent the neighborhood and its history and the people who live there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you listen to it, the first thing you understand is that N.W.A. is in court and you know it\u2019s going to be a weird trial because Dr. Dre is presiding. He\u2019s the judge. And it\u2019s the case of N.W.A. versus the police department. You\u2019ve got your prosecutors: M.C. Ren, Ice Cube, Eazy-E. This is a hip-hop court, after all, and it isn\u2019t clear what a hip-hop court is at this point. N.W.A. starts making their case as the song provides specific examples of police misconduct and a legal system designed to incarcerate young people of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first verse alone, Ice Cube covers everything from Black people having it \u201cbad\u201d and being targeted by cops because they\u2019re brown and directly coming out and saying because they are \u201cnot the other color\u201d that police think \u201cthey have the authority to kill a minority.\u201d He says he isn\u2019t the one for someone with a badge and a gun to get beaten on and then thrown in jail or worse \u2014 and this is what we see through social media videos now, right? Then Ice Cube goes into what it\u2019s like to be profiled as a young Black man who seems a little well off \u2014 wearing gold, having a pager. He\u2019s getting his car searched \u201clooking for the product\u201d because cops think every Black person is \u201cselling narcotics,\u201d and, ultimately, raps\/sings about how they\u2019d rather see him locked up in jail than being a successful Black man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hip-hop
Some key works cited by Morgan: “The Message,” Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five (1982); “Fight the Power,” Public Enemy (1989); “Sound of Da Police,” KRS-One (1993); “Straight Outta Compton,” N.W.A. (1988); “This is America,” Childish Gambino (2018); “To Pimp a Butterfly,” Kendrick Lamar (2015).\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

N.W.A. and hip-hop, as a genre, were absolutely accurate. In 2003, I was asked to participate in a forum to educate police officers about hip-hop because in several cities it was considered a gang activity. Fans that attended hip-hop concerts became part of a national gang database. So answering the question more directly about why this song is so powerful: It begins with Ice Cube accusing America and saying: \u201cI can see what you think about me. This is your racism. This is your bigotry. This is institutionally the way that I\u2019m treated.\u201d There doesn\u2019t seem to be much about Ice Cube\u2019s description of harassment that doesn\u2019t hold word for word today with what many Black and brown people continue to experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GAZETTE:  <\/strong><\/strong>From this period, we also get another protest anthem: Public Enemy\u2019s \u201cFight the Power.\u201d On this year’s BET Awards on June 28, the show opened with an updated remix alluding to police killings and featuring artists like Nas, YG, and Rapsody, and the video is filled with current news footage of Black Lives Matter protests.  What did that song tap into that makes it still resonate today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORGAN: <\/strong><\/strong>It celebrated the revolutionary tradition in the Black community. \u201cFight the Power\u201d channeled the \u201960s, \u201970s, and \u201980s. It really was just a brilliant sort of bridge between the Black Power movement and what was happening in the country at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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