| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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music would be indistinguishable from popular music and would not sell. Ironically, a preliminary analysis done for this book found no correlation between the frequency of the N-word and the gangster rap best sellers. This finding suggests the tragic possibility that the music sells without the N-word, and that its use and the fallout from its use have been entirely unnecessary.
Chapter 8 tells the true story of the work of a multiracial coalition in San Jose, California, that came together to address a mysterious increase in racial conflicts in the schools and on the streets. As mentioned earlier, coalition members traced these conflicts to the influence of gangster rap music among white listeners. The civil authorities accepted that young whites, Asians, and Latinos called their black peers in school “niggers”; civil authorities also took no issue with anyone calling older black adults “niggers” on the streets. They reasoned that because young black people used the term and enjoyed it in the music, the N-word had been normalized, that it was passé as a racial epithet, and that anyone could use it. This gave cover to anyone with ill intent toward a black person or toward black people as a whole. An epidemic of racial harassment emerged; every case the coalition investigated led back to gangster rap as the excuse for such license. Four years of struggle ensued before every commission in the city and county corrected this situation. This is an important case study, for the circumstances it represents are by no means isolated to one city in California.
Chapter 9 presents a psychology of gangster rappers and explores what—besides the minstrel imagery—makes them so attractive to their largely young white male audiences. I contend that they have hit on the crisis of male identity by portraying the particular crisis of black male identity. This is why gangster rappers have sought models of strong black men in the illegal underground among pimps, drug dealers, hustlers, and gangsters. They are attracted by the hype about controlling women, having independence, and making money. The problem is that this world is not really as the hype describes it, nor does it afford the vast majority of men in this