From “Gangster” to “Drill”: Rap is Still Controversial

By Anastasia Tomkin

Transcript

Voices (in order of appearance)
Narrator Anastasia Tomkin – Producer
Starlito/Carl Jackson Jr. – Rapper
Elena Martinez – Co-Director of The Bronx Heritage Center
Dakota Wayne – Rapper
Bernard Creamer Jr- Teacher and Activist

NARR: (0.05)
Hip hop now surpasses rock as the top musical category in the US. Nearly one third of Americans say that they are fans of the genre. But back in the early 90s, all kinds of people had fiery debates about the influence of gangster rap: pastors, activists, rappers and fans.

Ambi:(Montage)

PERSON A: (0.26)
Gangster rap is an art form, it’s music, it’s art. There is a line drawn between life and art.

PERSON B: (0.36)
That is the same argument they use for pornography that it is an art form. There are art forms that are pornography and that’s what this gangster and misogynist rap is all about, it’s pornography!

PERSON C: (0.46)
It is not alright for our black male children to grow up and be drug dealers, gang bashers or stick-up kids, but your negative lyrics and videos are telling them that it’s alright.

NARR: (1.00)
Rap music is still controversial, 50+ years since hip hop first arrived on the scene. These days, the term “gangster rap” isn’t so common anymore. These days we talk about “drill rap”, and some people still worry that it glorifies violence in society. Here’s the Mayor of New York, Eric Adams, in a 2022 press conference.

MAYOR: (1:23)
I had no idea what drill rapping was, so I called my son, and he sent me some videos, and it is alarming.

Ambi: Drill rap

 

NARR: (1:42)
Drill rap is a sub-genre popularized by artists in Chicago and New York. It’s known for a faster cadence and typically aggressive lyrics.Two young drill rappers had been shot and killed within days of each other.

REPORTER:(2:02)
Less than 24 hours after fans gathered in Canarsie to remember murdered drill rapper T-Dot Woo, another aspiring rapper was also shot and killed in Brooklyn…

NARR: (2:10)
The Mayor wanted social media companies to crackdown on drill rap videos at that time.

MAYOR: (2:15)
We’re going to ask these companies, we’re going to ask them for good corporate responsibility. This is contributing to the violence that we’re seeing all over this country.

NARR: (2:26)
Later that year, in September 2022, the NYPD barred at least three local drill rappers from performing at the Rolling Loud festival in New York. Police sent a letter to the festival organizers claiming that if those artists were allowed to perform, there would be a higher risk of violence. I spoke with a Brooklyn-based drill rapper who goes by the stage name Starlito. I asked him why so many rappers write threatening lyrics, even when they don’t engage in violence themselves.

STARLITO: (2:57)
I kind of think it’s just all entertainment because it’s not the music that’s actually causing everybody, actually, like, harm each other or kill someone and be people personally. So I don’t know what everybody go through. But I got young friends that’s rapping the same thing as them. But it just be, it just be the wave for the moment.

NARR: (3:23)
Starlito believes the real reason for the violence is all about the gang beef.

STARLITO: (3:27)
It be the, the gang beef that be going on. That’s what it really be. Once the teenagers get a little taste of the life, like going out there and actually getting a weapon and actually like, shooting for the first time, even if they didn’t even shoot nobody or nothing, just shooting in the air. It just give them…it’s like getting your first bucket when you playing basketball, it just feels so good you want to keep doing it. And that’s how it is with these teenagers once they get a gun, not knowing that you can really go to jail behind that or really get killed by somebody.

NARR: (4:05)
Starlito tells me that he doesn’t rap about committing violence. He prefers making party music. His songs also sometimes take a deeper tone, talking about his observations and experiences in life. Studio sessions are a chance for him to express himself and just vibe.

Ambi: Starlito at studio

NARR: (4:44)
Starlito’s first song was inspired by the tragic passing of Kason, his friend’s young son.

STARLITO: (4:51)
One of my friends, one of my close friends that I grew up with, he’s older than me, but he lost his son and I basically like, made a song, contributing it to his son. So I definitely remember that first song. But I was kind of in my feelings so everything just came out so fluid and everybody liked it. Everybody favorite line is, is when I shouted him out, I said, “We love you, rest in peace, King K.” His name is Kason, so we call him King K.

NARR: (5:23)
Rap music started in the Bronx, when young black men like Starlito began putting their words to beats. Many lived in heavily policed neighborhoods that suffered from a lack of resources and opportunities. I visited the Bronx to speak with Elena Martinez, an award-winning documentary producer who’s also now the co-president of the Bronx Heritage Center.

ELENA: (5:46)
The way that I sort of came into the hip-hop world was when I worked on the documentary “From Mambo to Hip Hop”, we looked at sort of like the beginnings of hip hop, which is now, you know, over 50 years ago in the South Bronx. And the people who were pioneers in that how they were young people, young people that were actually looking at the violence around them, the destruction of their neighborhoods and the loss of services. They were looking at that and that was a response, it was a response. Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” you know, talking about how there’s broken bottles everywhere, that was a real thing, that was the degradation of their neighborhood was something all around them and they sang about that and they wrote about that.

Ambi: Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message”

ELENA: (6:33)
I don’t think you can make any causal connection between lyrics and violence in society. There’s a lot of other things that go, people’s socioeconomic status, you know, all sorts of other things go, how they’re treated, their access to education, their access to resources, there might be a whole bunch of other things why there’s violence in society.

NARR: (6:53)
No data has conclusively proven that violent lyrics cause aggressive behavior. But, a 2008 study published by the National Library of Medicine shows that music can have strong psychological effects. Listening to music increases blood flow to the region of our brain that controls our emotions, and can even affect our memory. For Christian rapper Dakota Wayne, words have power.

DAKOTA: (7:17)
I believe that when we speak, it’s either like it says in Proverbs, the tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. So it’s like that fruit could be bad, or it could be really good. You can make something honest that will pierce hearts. And I think that’s why like hip hop resonated with me as a kid because, you know, my parents are divorced and I grew up in this fascinating time, right, like the recession happened, all these crazy things. So I like, hip hop was like my mentor, like my, like, parent figure was like, these artists.

NARR: (7:53)
One of Dakota’s earliest live performances was at a Christian youth retreat in August of 2023. He performed to an enraptured crowd of 300 people, and even won the talent contest with his song “Jesus Freak.”

Ambi: Dakota’s “Jesus Freak”

DAKOTA: (8:17)
I had these two songs not even released like I had never performed in front of that many people. I do these two songs and it was just the most lit, fun, dancing, praising, grooving. It was just glorious.

Ambi: Dakota’s talent show performance
NARR: (8:48)
Dakota was raised in a suburb in Arizona, surrounded by a diverse community of friends. He would listen to the rap music on his sister’s ipod nano. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly was one of his early favorites.

DAKOTA: (9:02)
Listening to To Pimp a Butterfly was like life changing for me. It’s like all these like, albums and I’m like, and I didn’t I couldn’t resonate, you know, with the personal experiences. But it’s like honesty goes a long and a far way, and but with some artists, are they being honest with themselves or the listeners, that’s like, where my heart aches, because I think all of these artists have so much potential, but its like, man, are you just doing this because you know it’s gonna be popular, and you know it’s gonna be potent, and good and fire and easy?

NARR: (9:37)
In a study by Statista, 48% of young people aged 16 through 19 said that rap was their favorite genre. Another study shows that our musical tastes develop in our teens. So I spoke with Bernard Creamer, who’s been an educator for over 20 years.

BERNARD: (9:56)
We see the behaviors manifested in our neighborhoods. You listen to the music, and then you go to your neighborhood and you see the same behaviors that you hear in the music reflected in the neighborhood. Right now I’m in a Montessori school in Prince George County, Maryland. These children, this is not a Title one school. These kids are semi affluent. Most of them have two parents at home, but they’re still trying to do and emulate what they hear in the music. And so when you take that and you put that in an impoverished neighborhood or impoverished community where they don’t necessarily have a two parent household or parents that have the ability or tools to advocate for their children as they should, you get those behaviors.

NARR: (10:37)
Bernard advocates against violent lyrics in rap music. He started a campaign called “Clear the Airways”, and published a book about the weaponization of Hip Hop. He draws from both research and personal experiences.

BERNARD: (10:50)
We grew up with NWA and Mobb Deep and we didn’t understand the impact that had on us but when I look back and I look at some of my behaviors, I look at some of the things that I was doing and what I was listening to at the time. There’s a direct connection. And so I’m watching these young men, what they call each other, what they want to do to each other, what they threaten each other with. I’ve lost at least ten students over the years to gun violence. I’m seeing the young ladies that are starting to fight more and more and more.

NARR: (11:20)
Bernard believes that there has been a shift in rap music as it became more commercialized. Executives at record labels, radio stations and broadcasting agencies started promoting the more graphic forms of rap music. Songs that talked about gang life, pimping and the pursuit of lavish lifestyles.

BERNARD: (11:38)
If you have television or mass media that shows young black people the material wealth that this country possesses. And then you put all these entertainers on TV and on the radio that have all the gold, the diamonds, the big cars, the expensive clothes and you’re a poor black kid in the projects and you’re on YouTube and you’re rapping about killing and, you know, all this misogynist nonsense and material, this nonsense that you hear from the older entertainers and then some recording company comes along and says, I will give you $250,000 to take what you do on YouTube for free and go into a studio and rap about it. If I’m a poor black kid in the projects, I would have probably took it.

NARR: (12:25)
The conversation about hip hop is anything but simple. There are so many players, so many elements that make it what it is today. Young people like Starlito and Dakota Wayne are still expressing themselves positively through the music. But, lots of negative content gets major circulation on the airwaves, and through the internet. Who can really predict the future of hip hop, which forms of it will be popular, or toxic, or widely criticized? One thing’s for sure, we need to keep having the discussions about all of it. Until one day, we see less violence in our communities, and more beauty. More change.