Gangster Rap and Its Social Cost: Exploiting Hip Hop and Using Ra ...

among rank and file gang members. Previous disputes between gangs had to be put aside, and negative judgments and score keeping had to be eliminated. These efforts did not arise from any federal or city social service or police interventions. Instead, gang leaders initiated and sustained this peace process themselves, with the assistance of several unnamed teachers who worked with them outside of classes. For example, under DJ Afrika Bambaataa’s leadership, the Black Spades street gang was transformed into the first hip hop movement organization. The Zulu Nation, formed in 1973, had a specific goal of spreading the peace message through music (Ogg & Upshal, 2001).

The belief that one’s actions are more important than one’s words originated in the gang peace dialogue and became a core value of hip hop. It was easy for people to say things while meeting directly with their rivals, but it was more revealing to see what those people did once the meeting was over. No one could know what a rival really believed until the belief was demonstrated in that person’s actions. Trying to live peacefully with someone against whom one had previously fought was both a complete turnaround and a repudiation of what one might have thought or said before. In traditional gang culture, having to retract earlier statements—to eat one’s words, so to speak—is to appear weak and indecisive and to lose face. Therefore, the less one says, the better. Whatever view one has should be flexible and open, and one’s view is secondary to one’s actions.

Hip hop was not intended to be an ideology, nor did its founders want the movement to assume an intellectualized position. Another core value that emerged from the dialogue between gangs was that a person should not criticize a rival. Criticism generates countercriticism, which leads to insults, and they in turn provoke bad blood and violence. To break this cycle, achieving a level of peace between rivals is imperative. In order to keep the peace, one does not criticize a potential adversary; live and let live is the word. It is no coincidence, therefore, that hip hop’s founders repeatedly declare what hip hop is but do not publicly criticize others’ statements or actions regarding hip hop.