Cracking Down on Hip Hop

The hip hop genre has not precisely been recognized for obtaining a squeaky clear, morally upright, unassailably wholesome image. We hear of rappers obtaining arrested for weapons charges or assault every single now and then. A great amount of hip hop lyrics tell of (and even glorify) guns, medications, violence, misogynist habits, and a hodge podge of anti-authority sentiments. And of training course, the killings of substantial profile rap artists these kinds of as The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur have turn out to be landmark incidents that established the notoriety of hip hop.

Alongside with the progression of hip hop personalities getting embroiled in gangster-esque incidents came rumors that a process force has been shaped by the New York Police Department targeted particularly on the rap business. Main newspapers noted that a crew of NYPD detectives have been assigned to keep track of hip hop events, feuds, and even rap lyrics. Artists have complained that they were becoming subjected to police surveillance.

The NYPD has frequently denied the existence of this sort of unit but talks of the hip hop cops are even now much from dying down. The revelations of retired NYPD detective Derrick Parker that he was the one who started out comprehensive investigations on the hip hop industry additional fueled the controversy. Parker said that it was his duty to compile all info relating to hip hop and interview artists who ended up involved in criminal circumstances. He clarified even though that it was not as huge as the purported full-blown activity pressure that was described in the media but was simply yet another scope of the Intelligence Division’s Gang Unit.

In 2004, it was described that the a a few-day hip hop coaching session was held and attended by police officers from New York, Miami, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. In the said seminar, six-inch binders containing details on rappers with criminal records have been distributed to the attendees. A Miami police sergeant stated the seminar involved instruction on what seem for in rap lyrics, monitoring radio and Tv stations, and surveying hip hop concerts.

To additional compound the existence of a hip hop squad, one more voluminous document on rapper profiles was made public. This time, it was a 500-web page dossier that contains rap artists’ mug shots, property addresses, license plate and social security numbers, criminal histories, arrest facts, frequented spots, and identified associates. The dossier, which bore the logo of the New York/New Jersey Substantial Intensity Drug Trafficking Place Software, was printed on the internet and was also highlighted on the documentary Rap Sheet: Hip Hop and the Cops.

Not a handful of rappers and civil rights activists bemoaned these functions as racial profiling and unnecessary intrusion to privacy. Police refused to remark on the dossier but reasoned that familiarizing themselves with the hip hop sector was just a component of carrying out their work. They mentioned that the unsolved murders of well-known hip hop artists was explanation adequate to monitor this certain genre of the tunes market. As Derrick Parker put it, they just don’t want yet another rapper killed.

Some rap personalities place the blame on the rappers by themselves for the meant surveillance. DMC, considered as 1 of the pioneers of hip hop, pointed out the rappers’ self-aggrandized gangster picture was one of the good reasons police are tailing them. Wu-Tang Clan member Strategy Man also commented that rap songs which glorify violence and guns are not any assist possibly.

On October 2007, rapper T.I. was arrested for illegal gun possession while the month just before that, The Video game was taken into custody for allegedly pretending to be an undercover cop. Previous July, Remy Ma turned herself in to police right after becoming concerned in a shooting incident. Although these episodes are not representative of the total hip hop industry, police believe that these are far more than enough to hold them seeing.

Hip Hop History

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