Rap Music: Reflection of America's Criminal Justice

Cultural Influences on Rap Music

America’s criminal justice system has such drastic effects onto its population that these changes are expressed through artistic abilities, making it a primary theme of much of rap music. Policies, laws, and social changes that may seem to be insignificant at the time will show throughout history in expressional art forms such as music, art, theater, ect. Historical documents are valid evidence of the world before, clues of human’s past and our ancestors; art reveals a much finer clarity into people’s perceptions, reflections and the interpretations of the world around them. America’s criminal justice system is a clear example of policies that while currently, may not be noticeable to the entire population

During 2001-2013 in New York, Caucasians were thirty-six percent of the population, the percentage of misdemeanor arrests were at thirteen percent. Whereas African Americans, were twenty-five percent of the population yet had forty-eight percent of the misdemeanor arrests. (Ghandoosh, Ph.D 2015.) It’s quite interesting how a single policy that is created by those who enforce the law can drastically change the lives of those who live there, including Tupac. If, Tupac’s lyrics didn’t resonant with an audience, his popularity wouldn’t still be as strong as it is today. Simple changes in the way our laws are enforced, can ultimately change our cultural environment to the point of artistic expression which is quite powerful. Another example of this, is “ a recent investigation of the rates at which the Boston Police Department observed, stopped, interrogated, frisked, or searched individuals without making an arrest found that black comprised 63% of these police-civilian encounters between 2007 and 2010, although they make up 24% of the city’s population.” (Ghandoosh, Ph.D

Two of his most well known songs, “ Dear Mama,” and “Keep Ya Head Up” are about single mother families. “Dear Mama,” is actually a song to his mother, who raised both him and his sister single-handedly, and how much respect Tupac has for this. “ Keep Ya Head Up,” is surprisingly feminist for rap music. It’s confronting the way men treat women disrespectfully, stating that we must respect women because they are the one’s who are raising the children while the men are in jail “ You know what makes me unhappy? When brothers make babies and leave a young mother to be a pappy. And since we all came from woman, got our name from a woman and our game from a woman. I wonder why we take from our women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think it’s time to kill for our women, time to heal our women, be real to our women...And since a man can’t make one, he has no right to tell a women when and where to create one, I know you’re fed up ladies but, keep your head up.” (Shakur 1993.) Putting these songs into perspective about how far-reaching this culture is, “ 1 in 9 black children have a parent in prison.” (Chang 2016.) Thus, why “Keep Your Head Up,” has created such a widespread popularity and reputation as an iconic rap song. Many rap songs are degrading and provoke harmful acts against women or, focus primarily about sex but,