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BACKGROUND

Thesis

Reagan's War on Drugs and other conservative policies that targeted marginalized, and specifically Black communities,  sparked a new wave of political commentary in rap and hip hop as seen in the lyrical messages of N.W.A and Public Enemy's music following the inauguration of Reagan.

The timeline and line graph below demonstrates the effects of President Reagan's anti-drug policies on the United States' rise in mass incarceration and shifts in the music industry. The American music industry experienced a rise in the popularity of hip-hop and old-school gangster rap genres during this time. Two prime examples of the Reagan administration's influence on the music industry are reflected in the groups N.W.A. and Public Enemy. While the groups were based on opposite sides of the country, they channeled into their music the effects of President Reagan's policies on the Black community. NWA and Public Enemy quickly became infamous for incorporating a wide array of social issues- particularly in minority communities.  Throughout the website, the two groups most controversial and best-selling songs will be studied to showcase the correlation between their lyrics and Reagan's anti-drug policies.

REAGAN'S WAR ON DRUGS

1

Nancy Reagan &

JUst say no

Just Say No was an anti-drug campaign led by Nancy Reagan that encouraged children to reject drugs by "just saying no". This public campaign enlisted the help of celebrities and schools to educate people on the harms of drug abuse.  The campaign revitalized the American public's concern about drug use and created a platform for Ronald Reagan's later policies

2

ANTI-DRUG Abuse ACT of 1986

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 granted $1.7 billion to the War on Drugs and established mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug offenses. These mandatory minimums featured a noticeable discrepancy between the sentencing of crack (5 years for 5g) and powdered cocaine (5 years for 500g). This led to the disproportionate incarceration of African American drug offenders as 80% of crack users were Black (Vagins, 2006). 

3

Sentencing Reform act

Congress passed the Sentencing Reform Act in 1984. The act served to abolish parole in the federal system and reduce early release for “good behavior”. The act was meant to create fair parole conditions in which everyone was required to remain incarcerated for the majority of their sentence. As people of color were/are disproportionately incarcerated, this had devastating implications for marginalized communities. 

Reagan's war on drugs

Landmark Recovery February 13. “The History of the War on Drugs: Reagan Era and beyond - Landmark Recovery.” Landmark Recovery -, September 6, 2022. https://landmarkrecovery.com/history-of-the-war-on-drugs-reagan-beyond/.

Landmark Recovery reports that Reagan’s War on Drugs was an expansion of Nixon’s earlier work in the 1970s. Nixon had previously passed the Comprehensive Drug Prevention and Control Act of 1970 and organized drugs based on addiction potential. Reagan followed in Nixon’s footsteps and widely expanded it. Reagan’s administration began in the midst of a crack cocaine epidemic that was ravaging lower-income communities. Media depictions of the consumption of crack cocaine and its effects heightened public fears. His Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1984 was passed due to a public spotlight on the crack epidemic and the overdose/death of Len Bias, a prominent basketball star.

The Effects

Reagan's War on Drugs had devastating effects for the Black community

Series: Reagan White House Photographs, 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989Collection: White House Photographic Collection, 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mass incarceration during reagan's presidency

The data provided in the graph above is from the Bureau of Justice Statistics which began publicizing information regarding the prisoner population in the United States in 1979.  Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive data for each year from the Bureau of Justice Statistics that details the racial makeup of the prisoners or their offenses. However, research from The Sentencing Project found that from the beginning of Reagan's presidency in 1981 to its end in 1989, drug possession arrests of black people increased by 13% and accounted for 48% of cocaine possession arrests despite only making up 24% of regular cocaine users. In terms of the geographical regions of California and New York, The Sentencing Project also found that Blacks and Hispanics accounted for 71% of drug offense prisoners in California and 91% of drug offense prisoners in New York as they were more than twice as likely to be arrested of drug possession than white people in California and three times as likely to be arrested of drug possession than white people in New York (Shine & Mauer, Does the punishment fit the crime? drug users and drunk drivers, questions of race and class 1993). 

REAGAN &
RAP

Lopez, Pablo. “The Reagan Era's Effect on Hip Hop (and Vice Versa): How Hip Hop Gained Consciousness.” Scholar Commons. Accessed December 6, 2022. https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/historical-perspectives/vol23/iss1/12/.

Origins of Political
Hip Hop

There was a clear shift to political involvement within the Hip Hop scene that came to fruition during the Reagan Administration (Lopez, 2019). In the late 1980s, there was a new political consciousness in the genre as seen in the Black Nationalist work of Public Enemy (Lopez, 2019). Hip Hop has always been a product of its environment, but the environment fostered by Reagan required a new approach to music (Lopez, 2019). 

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