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NEWS > U.S.A. > U.S. PRISONS RAPIDLY RUNNING OUT OF ROOM TO HOUSE RAPPERS
U.S. PRISONS RAPIDLY RUNNING OUT OF ROOM TO HOUSE RAPPERS
December 25 2010
Washington, D.C. – The beginnings of Hip Hop in the rough and rugged life of the Bronx in the 1970’s was truly an organic movement, almost literally born out of the blood and struggle of the streets. Gear was borrowed or stolen, tunes were someone
else’s, but the spirit was all theirs. The heart, passion, and anger that fuelled the rage on the streets was poured into the music, giving a voice to the voiceless and engaging an entire generation.
Over the first decade or so of the style that anger continued and the voices became more sophisticated, resulting in huge popularity and, ultimately, major corporate interest and influence. That touch of money eventually started to change the medium and the expression that it was built on and added many more voices, effective and otherwise, to the conversation. While that certainly worked to add new diversity to the medium, it also added a great number of dreamers who wanted to pursue their dreams of pulling themselves out of their situation and pursuing the fame and wealth the form had suddenly been granted. Of course most of those dreams were never going to be achieved and, hearkening back to the roots of the medium and those who pursue it, many of the failed attempts have ended up in trouble, trouble that is now pushing the already overburdened prison system to its limits.
“We are finding more and more that the population of many of our prisons is being filled with rappers and people once aspired to be rappers. While this segment of the population still constitutes a relatively small portion of the overall population, it is growing rapidly and pushing the limits of the system,” said a spokesperson for Federal Bureau of Prisons. “While we aren’t sure whether or not hip hop culture is creating these offenders or more potential offenders simply like to rap, it has become clear that this dynamic is fundamentally altering the nature of the prison system across the country.”
Recent cases include a murder admission by G-Dep, an assault by Charles Hamilton, and a probation violation by DMX amongst many others.
“From the very beginning hip-hop culture has been embedded with violence. Much like
the Blues was born from heartbreak, and country was born from drink and self-loathing, Hip Hop had violence at its heart. Early songs explored and indulged the violence of the streets, a trend that has continued and led many an inner city kid to think that his voice was the next to be heard,” said Scrape TV Music analyst Dylan Chambers. “That wasn’t going to be the case for the vast majority of those kids, however in this environment they often don’t have things like insurance sales or mortgage brokerage to fall back on. They sought to escape violence and crime and when they failed to do so, they fell right back into it.”
High profile artist Ja Rule was recently sentenced to two years in prison related to a gun charge.
“While the music itself isn’t necessarily related to the violence, the people that are drawn to it, both as fans and as dreamers, are often born of that violent culture that is often hard to escape, especially the past. We all make mistakes in our youth and sometimes they come back to haunt us,” continued Chambers. “So whether it is cause or effect the reality is that a lot of rappers, successful and otherwise, are in prison. Giving them the opportunity to have success may not be the solution to the problem as we have seen with established artists. There may be no solution and the country may just end up with a large population of musically inclined convicts. On the plus side, who knows what kind of musical styles that will create, shiv style perhaps.”
Infamous jail bird rapper Slick Rick is currently free.
Mike Michaels, American Correspondent
NEWS > U.S.A. > U.S. PRISONS RAPIDLY RUNNING OUT OF ROOM TO HOUSE RAPPERS
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