I’ve always been struck by a quote from Nelson George’s classic, The Death of Rhythm & Blues: “You can tell where black people are at any given point in history by our music.” Especially since it applies to me personally. This book was born from my fascination with hip-hop; my experiences working at various rap magazines, especially Blaze; and my opinions about the relationship between rap and crack, which goes way beyond Nas’ immortal line “The rap game sometimes remind me of the crack game.”
Rap occupies a unique position in our musical history. Black folks created the blues, jazz, rock, soul, R&B, the list goes on. And each time, the music was co-opted and controlled by the record industry. But rap was the first genre to seize control its own destiny. And the instrument of its freedom was crack cocaine.
Rap and crack have lived parallel lives. They came to America in the late 70s, blew up in the 80s, and hit the mainstream in the early 90s. Crack injected unprecedented wealth into the heart of the ghettoes that were creating this earth-shattering thing called rap. So unlike previous musical genres, rap didn’t need corporate America to succeed. That means whatever rap has become, hip-hop itself is responsible.
Hip-hop is more than 30 years old now. Pretty soon something new will change the world all over again. I hope that Black Will Shoot closes the book on this irresistible, ugly, compelling, beautiful, destructive, transformative chapter in American history.
Author photo by Benny Snyder
