CRIM 1700 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Jay Z
17 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Early hip hop: emerges out of party scene (disco, but quickly becomes a vehicle for socio-political resistance - taps not peoples" frustrations. Antagonistic relationship with the police from the early years. Because of their visibility at a moment of extreme problems in inner-city communities, they become associated with those problems. Antipathy towards the police is a central early theme. Provokes signi cant backlash and law enforcement attention. Why does rap receive this attention: rappers are young black men telling stories that the police, among others, don"t want to hear - jay z. More recent changes: decline of socially-conscious messages in mainstream hip-hop, rise instead of rap focused on glorifying drugs, gangs, guns and sex. Why the shift? what caused it: competition for audience- white community interested in their perception, sex & violence sell. Newest development: starting in mid-2000s, prosecutors start using rap lyrics in criminal trials, now actually advocated in industry literature and handbooks sent to prosecutors.
