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

music but also to the life courses reflected in the music. Moreover, after reading the literature, I suspect that I am one of the few African American fathers of adult sons who have come of age during the last two decades of rap who has written on the subject. This fact helped me learn from personal experience that hip hop and gangster rap have implications that reach far beyond the music itself.

Overview of the Chapters

Chapter 2 answers the question What is hip hop? I provide the reader with the well-known narrative of the origins of hip hop in the South Bronx, dating from the late 1970s, and the spread of the movement and its music to other New York boroughs. Particular attention is given to the evolution of hip hop values and beliefs. I have added to this narrative some social context for how and why particular values developed, for I lived my formative years in West Harlem, have vivid memories of experiences in the Bronx at that time, and began my career as a sociologist in New York City. After clearly defining hip hop, the chapter examines hip hop through social movement theory in order to characterize it and then compares hip hop with earlier social movements to find the nearest parallel. The chapter ends with a description of the current state of hip hop as a viable national underground movement.

Chapter 3 continues the developmental narrative, reviewing the progressive steps in the commercialization of hip hop. Instead of presenting this development as a single trajectory, I propose several stages of increasing commercial exploitation of rap. Then the focus of the chapter becomes the development of gangster rap and the surprise of the major players when they discovered the extent of its initial audience and sales. Suge Knight, Dr. Dre, and all involved were caught completely by surprise—and then moved quickly to exploit the market. All the major figures in the business were swept in at this time. At this point, the chapter shifts to outline the meaning of gangsta and hardness in the music. Very important