Rap and Hip Hop music is currently at the centre of a storm about lyrical content and audience effects. Lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic are calling for this form of music to put its own house in order, and ease off on the depictions of violence, crime, racism and misogyny, or face severe censorship. The hip hop nation has responded with accusations of institutional racism, oppression, and police persecution.

 

Further Reading

• Don't Shoot the Messenger - interview with Melle Mel, original rapper, about how it's all gone wack.Guardian 8/10/99
• Hip Hop Hysteria - Salim Muwakkil; the NYPD special hiphop unit and Eminem
• Hip Hop Summit on Social Responsibility - Yvonne Bynoe @ Urban Think Tank
• Hip Hop Pioneer Forces Senators to Hear His Side - Russell Simmons tells it like it is
• The Social Impact of Music Violence - Senator Lieberman's 1997 Statement
• Hip-Hoppers Turning to Raptavism - Grammy Magazine
• The Politics of Hip Hop - Dr Manning Marable, Columbia U
• West Coast Hip Hop Summit 2002 - detailed report from popandpolitics.com
• Youth & Violent Music - survey results from MediaScope

UK News Stories

• Minister labelled Racist after attack on rap 'idiots' - The Guardian 06/01/03
• Why Hip Hop must take its share of the blame - Guardian 06/01/03