Introduction
Hip-Hop for years has served as a voice for the black community, giving people a taste of black American culture as well as a platform to speak to the masses. Other than being the music genre that is currently sweeping the nation, Hip-hop has been used by artists to speak about political issues. This had been evident in recent news with the attention gained by the black lives matter movement. In the past few years, there have been multiple accounts of innocent black men being killed by police. The death of the young black man Trayvon Martin was what sparked the organization of the black lives matter campaign. This movement has gained the support of many mainstream artists who are now making a greater effort to address the injustices in their work. Regardless, Hip-hop has been used to address prejudice in the judicial system towards black Americans for years. It began in the early 1980s when the Crack Era and the West Coast rap scene began. Groups like NWA began to make songs like “F**k the Police” which was a representation of how upset and fed up black Americans were with police brutality and being targeted by police. Around the time this rap group formed, crack began to take over the West Coast. The president at the time, Richard Nixon, initiated “The War on Drugs” to eliminate the danger of crack from the public. He used media to provoke the idea that impoverished black neighborhoods were responsible for the crack epidemic. Legislation was then created to give people charged with crack possession unjust sentences. Since “The War on Drugs” targeted impoverished black communities, it result in increased incarceration rates of Black Americans. This discrimination towards black Americans in the judicial system is still a problem today. Aware of this problem, Hip-hop artists have began to address the problems they see in the criminal system. They are using their platform as mainstream artists, as well as their music to bring awareness, and hopefully change.
The issue that this blog is focusing on is the injustices faced by black Americans, specifically through Mass incarceration and the action that hip-hop artists are taking in attempt to make change. It will include videos and pictures regarding Mass Incarceration and the role that Hip-Hop has had in criminal reform. The main goal is to show how hip-hop is used by artist to achieve reform and justice, as it has been doing to for years.
