Author Jeff Chang: Hip-hop Predicted the L.A. Riots

By Elano Pizzicarola Mon., Apr. 30 2012 at 4:00 AM

You write that hip-hop targeted president George H. W. Bush, who was serving at the time.
There was a huge recession beginning in 1991 that preceded the riots. And Death Certificate was dropped right into the middle of this. [Bush] had gone to war in the Persian Gulf in part to draw attention away from the huge decline in the economy and the rising unemployment rate. And of course, this was felt most intensely in the ghettos, in the barrios, and the poor neighborhoods of Los Angeles of predominately young people of color. Bush was a huge target on Death Certificate. He was a huge target on a lot of these records. There was a song out that a rapper named Paris had written called "Bush Killa."

Do you believe NWA's phrase "fuck the police" seeped into the culture?
Yeah, it was deep. The weekend after the riots, there was a huge rally in Koreatown. Like hundreds of thousands of Korean Americans rallied. And their essential message was not "Fuck the police," but was pretty much like that.

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20th Anniversary, Can't Stop Won't Stop, Jeff Chang, LA Riots

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Miami

Hate to get off the topic, but "...Can't Stop Won't Stop, perhaps the most important book about hip-hop ever written..." Really!?

It's awfully generous and frankly a bit parochial to suggest that Chang's book is THE most important book about Hip hop EVER written, especially when you consider Nelson George's "Hip Hop America" and "Black Noise" by Tricia Rose. And besides, Chang's book is a contribution to the culture - not the authority.

Also, Chang is a spectator to hip hop, the culture and the riots. What started the riots was years of poor race relations between Koreans and blacks in South LA, anger over the way blacks were being profiled, beaten, killed and unfairly prosecuted by the LAPD, and poor living conditions. It was an explosive cocktail of frustration, disenfranchisement, racism, poverty, etc. that started the riots. The last straw was the 1991 Latasha Harland case in which a Korean store owner who shot and killed Latasha was only sentenced to probation. I remember it all like it was yesterday.

It's nice that LA Weekly wants to explore the LA Riots, but a little more research, please. And by research - GOOGLE should not be your primary method.

West Coast Sound

Dissing him as a "spectator to hip-hop" seems analogous to saying that, say, only football players can write incisively about football. It also smells a bit racist. In any case, we're not taking any comments too seriously by folks unwilling to leave their name. -Ben Westhoff