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 Cracking
Down on Hip Hop
by Kristien Wilkinson
The
hip hop genre has not exactly been known for having a squeaky clean,
morally upright, unassailably wholesome image. We hear of rappers
getting arrested for weapons charges or assault every now and then.
A good number of hip hop lyrics tell of (and even glorify) guns,
drugs, violence, misogynist behavior, and a hodge podge of
anti-authority sentiments. And of course, the killings of high
profile rap artists such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur
have become landmark incidents that established the notoriety of hip
hop.
Along with the progression of hip hop personalities getting
embroiled in gangster-esque incidents came rumors that a task force
has been formed by the New York Police Department focused
specifically on the rap industry. Major newspapers reported that a
team of NYPD detectives were assigned to monitor hip hop events,
feuds, and even rap lyrics. Artists have complained that they were
being subjected to police surveillance.
The NYPD has repeatedly denied the existence of such unit but talks
of the hip hop cops are still far from dying down. The revelations
of retired NYPD detective Derrick Parker that he was the one who
started comprehensive investigations on the hip hop industry further
fueled the controversy. Parker said that it was his duty to compile
all information relating to hip hop and interview artists who were
involved in criminal cases. He clarified though that it wasn't as
large as the purported full-blown task force that was reported in
the media but was merely another scope of the Intelligence
Division's Gang Unit.
In 2004, it was reported that the a three-day hip hop training
session was held and attended by police officers from New York,
Miami, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. In the said seminar, six-inch
binders containing information on rappers with criminal records were
distributed to the attendees. A Miami police sergeant said the
seminar involved training on what look for in rap lyrics, monitoring
radio and TV stations, and surveying hip hop concerts.
To further compound the existence of a hip hop squad, another
voluminous document on rapper profiles was made public. This time,
it was a 500-page dossier containing rap artists' mug shots, home
addresses, license plate and social security numbers, criminal
histories, arrest details, frequented locations, and known
associates. The dossier, which bore the logo of the New York/New
Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, was published
online and was also featured on the documentary Rap Sheet: Hip Hop
and the Cops.
Not a few rappers and civil rights activists bemoaned these acts as
racial profiling and unnecessary intrusion to privacy. Police
refused to comment on the dossier but reasoned that familiarizing
themselves with the hip hop industry was just a part of doing their
job. They said that the unsolved murders of famous hip hop artists
was reason enough to monitor this particular genre of the music
industry. As Derrick Parker put it, they simply don't want another
rapper killed.
Some rap personalities place the blame on the rappers themselves for
the supposed surveillance. DMC, considered as one of the pioneers of
hip hop, pointed out the rappers' self-aggrandized gangster image
was one of the reasons police are tailing them. Wu-Tang Clan member
Method Man also commented that rap songs which glorify violence and
guns aren't any help either.
On October 2007, rapper T.I. was arrested for illegal gun possession
while the month before that, The Game was taken into custody for
allegedly pretending to be an undercover cop. Last July, Remy Ma
turned herself in to police after being involved in a shooting
incident. While these episodes are not representative of the whole
hip hop industry, police believe that these are more than enough to
keep them watching.
Kristien
Wilkinson is an online writer and contributor to
http://www.hiphop.net
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