Hip Hop & The Crack Epidemic

1. Hip Hop & The Crack Epidemic

2. Heroin & Cocaine • James Brown – King Heroin • Cocaine – Kurtis Blow, LL Cool J, J-Ski Love • Glamour • Expensive - $80-90,000 /kg

3. Freebase aka Crack • Ability to smoke it – more potent • Complicated chemical process • Freeway Ricky Ross – baking soda instead of ether • Mass production – cheap - $10 a rock

4. 1984 • Ronald Raegan – US president • Recession – Tax breaks for rich, cutbacks for poor

5. Dealers • Snoop, RZA, Biggie, Raekwon, Ice-T, Jay-Z • Role models • Scarface – Tony Montana – Rags to riches story

6. Media Hype • More addictive – crazy things to get it • Violence/crime – few neighborhoods in big cities • Media frenzy – focus on black neighborhoods - fear of black threat

7. War On Drugs • Violence – shootouts – becoming an epidemic • Ronald Raegan – war on drugs • Demonized - More punishment, evil • Long prison terms – 5 yrs for 5 grams – 100:1 • “Just say NO” - Hollywood

8. Music • Dealer became very rich – loaned $ to kids to press records • Too $hort, Schooly D, BDP (KRS One) – rappers became reporter – opposite from media • Fashion – gold chains, Gucci, MCM, LV

9. LA Gangs • Drugs from Nicaragua – fast food style work • Crack multiplied gangs – Crips/Bloods • Weapons in the hood – Uzi, AK-47 • LAPD – police militarization – Batteram • NWA – story tellers

10. Late 80s – Early 90s • Crack wiping out black America • Public Enemy – Baseheads – zombies • COPS – TV show • George Bush Sr – Increased prisons – mass incarceration • Police out of control – 1992 – Rodney King

11. Prisons • 1986 laws – largest prison population in the world • Disproportionally black • 2010 – Obama reduced ratio – 18:1 • 2014 – trying to reduce sentences