MUSIC
The prosecutor in your case attempted to suggest your predisposition to criminality by pointing to the fact that you listened to rap music and had rap lyrics written in a notebook in your high school locker. What are your thoughts about that today?
In 2018, millions of people worldwide are avid rap fans — rap has become the world’s most popular genre of music. Popular rap artists like Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Drake, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, are recognized worldwide. When music artists from other genres want to increase their visibility or sales of a music single they almost always call on rap artists.
People aren’t just fans of rap music, they are fans of hip hop culture as well. Last year the N.W.A. film “Straight Outta Compton” was the highest grossing biopic film of all time. Hip hop has influenced fashion trends, language, films, the business world, and even politics. It has become deeply entrenched into the fabric of American life and become one of the most outspoken and influential voices against social injustice and a force for good that has inspired a generation of new activists and change makers.
Critics of rap music argue that the genre promotes violence, drugs, and misogyny. The most vocal opposition comes from conservative whites. Their opinions actually say more about them than rap music itself because it reveals their bias towards young people of color who they often view as predators and as being inferior. Their refusal to learn about the history of the art form leaves them mired in ignorance.
The reality is that rap music emerged as a voice from downtrodden people of color. Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy characterized the genre as the Black CNN because it was broadcasting the inequality, economic desperation, and suffering that many in the inner cities were experiencing at the time (i.e., the crack epidemic, high crime rates, etc.). It was art imitating life, not the other way around. Rap music brought visibility to police brutality and corruption years before the highly publicized beating of Rodney King, the shooting deaths of Amadou Diallo and Michael Brown, and the emergence of Black Lives Matter.
Rap music and Hip Hop culture didn’t reach mainstream America until the late 1980’s though its origins date back to the late 1970’s. In the 1980’s white suburban America was just being introduced to the genre including the area I was living in at the time (St. Joseph, Michigan). I remember being the first person in our school who even had rap cassette tapes and albums for quite some time. It is almost unbelievable to remember that was ever the case.
Back then, I would share many of my cassette tapes with other students in the school. Sharing my music became a way I met several people who wanted to hear it but didn’t know which artists they should listen to and didn’t want to go to the neighboring nearly all Black town of Benton Harbor to purchase it. I had a cousin who lived in Benton Harbor at the time who shared a lot of music with me. I was also working with someone from Benton Harbor during the late-1980’s who shared rap and R&B mixtapes with me that he recorded from a Chicago radio station.
When I was arrested, I was 15 at the time. I was a Latino youth whose father was born in Mexico and mother was the daughter of migrant workers from Texas. It’s hard for me to imagine, but my mother gave birth to me at the same age when that I was arrested. The prosecutor used my family background and choice of rap music to attempt to characterize me as a young Latino thug and manipulate jurors during my trial into believing his fantasy. He used rap lyrics I wrote down from songs on the N.W.A. “Straight Outta Compton” album to suggest their lyrics were a window into the mind of a violent adolescent, which played well before his audience of nearly all-white jurors.
He also misinterpreted a joke made amongst youth at the time when he cited “Eight Ball Posse,” a song by N.W.A. and name of a popular drink at the time. The origin of the name never came out at trial and the prosecutor used it to inflame jurors and manufacture the existence of my being in a “group” that never existed. It helped him fuel juror fears of the juvenile “superpredator” stereotype that had been created across the country in New York City in the Central Park Jogger case, which fit snugly into his distorted race-laced narrative.
Many have implied that the prosecutor is racist because of his use of rap lyrics and racist stereotypes in my trial. I have refrained from making that leap however. I think that his actions were racist and uninformed but I won’t go as far as to say that he is a racist. Only he can answer that question definitively. I hope that since 1989 he has evolved as a person and matured in his thinking about people of color and that he has changed the way he perceives them.
Some of the most successful and highest-earning films at the box office contain images of sex, drugs, or violence as part of their storyline. However, it doesn’t mean the people who view the film are drug dealers or violent. It is about artistry and creativity. Music and film are sources of entertainment in people’s lives. They don’t define who a person is. It is absurd and divorced from reality to believe otherwise.
The beats and rhythm of music have always been more important to me than the words. I can listen to and like the beat and rhythm without liking or even knowing the words to a song. Most people can identify a song quicker by listening to the beats and rhythm of a song than by telling them a line from a song. Maya Angelou once said, “People will forget what you say but they will never forget how you made them feel.” I believe this applies to music as well. I could listen to instrumental versions of my favorite songs and be just as satisfied with them as listening to them with the lyrics.
Did your experience at your trial change your relationship with rap music?
No. Music is a large part of my life and always will be. I listen to music throughout the entire day. I listen to it while walking, jogging, working out, and watching television shows. I even leave music playing while I am sleeping. When I wake up in the middle of the night I sometimes listen to it playing, and it is usually the first thing I hear in the morning when I wake up. The only time I really turn music off is when I am meditating. Sometimes even then I listen to meditative music or sounds of nature on my MP3 player. When I am reading or writing I usually listen to music and just turn the volume down.
I have resisted pressure in the prison milieu and society to become anything other than the person I am today. I didn’t become attracted to rap music because of its popularity nor have I eschewed or abandoned it for fear of what people who espouse or cling to racist views may think. People like that aren’t even on my radar when I am making choices in my life. There are always going to be people who reject diversity and freedom of expression. In many ways listening to rap music is an act of resistance to the suppression of free speech and expression.
Can you speak more to why the prosecutor’s judgment of you based on the music that you listened to was inaccurate and why you can enjoy a song without necessarily agreeing with or relating to the lyrics?
Words matter in every aspect of life and they have power. That is why we should always be careful about the words we use and choose to say. While some lyrics may be graphic or contain violent content they tell the same stories that many blockbuster movies do. Movies show the stories that many songs tell. People don’t have to agree with every word of a song’s lyrics to listen to a song, just as people don’t have to agree every scene in a movie to watch it. If we judged everyone based on every song they listen to or movie they watch everyone would be perceived to have violent tendencies which is ridiculous to any reasonably minded person.
There are times I choose to listen to music because of its lyrics. Even then though I don’t agree with every single word. No person agrees entirely with other people’s forms of creativity, that’s what makes us all unique. We don’t demonize people because of a song or movie that entertains them. Without specifically asking them we will never know what exactly they find entertaining about something and only be able to engage in conjecture which frequently leads to errors and false conclusions. I don’t believe it is fruitful or wise to aimlessly go through life making decisions based on assumptions.
If I want to listen to words that are entertaining to me because of their value, I will listen to spoken word poetry, lectures, or interviews with people that are conveying conscious messages. I may listen to podcasts and programs on NPR. That is entertaining to me but to someone else it may not be, and that’s entirely fine. Diversity is important and creates a rich mosaic and deeper appreciation of life’s myriad nuances. I frequently step outside of my bubble to listen to people and music I am unfamiliar with to expand my horizons. I try to approach everything with an open mind knowing that every unique encounter is a new opportunity for growth and learning.
