1 Bilge Ebiri, “Gape at William Friedkin’s Near-Masterpiece ‘To Live and Die in L.A.,’ ” Village Voice, June 14, 2017.
2 Tupac Shakur, actually a Bay Area rapper, became associated with LA through his work for Suge Knight’s Death Row Records and the role he played in a brutal feud between New York rappers and Knight’s Los Angeles set. Incidentally, Tupac also had a single entitled “To Live & Die in LA,” which was released posthumously under an alias: Makaveli [2Pac], “To Live & Die in LA,” single (Death Row Records, 1996), vinyl, 12”.
1 Cecilia Rasmussen, “Klan’s Tentacles Once Extended to Southland,” Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1999; “Ku Klux Klan!” Los Angeles Times, January 24, 1921, II4; “Police Ban on Klan at Beach,” Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1922, I2; “Pair, Passing Ku Klux Klan Handbills, in Accident; Plane Falls to Earth Near Pomona Country Club,” Los Angeles Times, June 22, 1924, 3; “Ku Klux Klan Officers Ask Reinstatement on Force at Pasadena,” Los Angeles Times, June 16, 1925, 11.
2 Johnny Otis, Upside Your Head! Rhythm and Blues on Central Avenue (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1993), 21.
3 Morrow Mayo, Los Angeles (New York, A. A. Knopf, 1933), 42.
4 US Census Bureau, “Statistics of the Population of the United States at the Tenth Census: 1880” (Washington, DC: Department of the Interior, Census Office, 1880), 51; US Census Bureau, “Number and Distribution of Inhabitants, Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930” (Washington, DC: Department of the Interior, Census Office, 1930), 252.
5 W. E. B. Du Bois, “Editorial,” The Crisis 6, no. 3 (July 1913), 131.
6 “The Lynching Protest,” The Crisis 3, no. 3 (January 1912), 105; “Colored California,” The Crisis 6, no. 4 (August 1913), 193.
7 Liberator, September 1901, 1; Liberator, April 21, 1911, 6; Liberator, January 31, 1913, 1; Lawrence B. De Graaf, Kevin Mulroy, and Quintard Taylor, eds., Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001), 133–135.
8 “Colored California,” 193–194.
9 Horace Tapscott, interviewed by Steven Louis Isoardi, May 1, 1993, Central Avenue Sounds Oral History Project, Tape I, Side Two, Oral History Collection, UCLA Library; Douglas Flamming, Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005); US Census Bureau, “Number and Distribution of Inhabitants, Fifteenth Census, 1930.”
10 Art Pepper and Laurie Pepper, Straight Life: The Story of Art Pepper (New York: De Capo Press, 1994), 42–43; Clora Bryant, Buddy Collette, William Green, et al., eds., Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 35, 143, 197, 309, 351.
11 “Colored California,” 193–194.
12 Josh Sides, LA City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 15.
13 Although the bulk of scholarship focused on pre–World War II black migration centers on the North and the Northeast, a few California historians have explored the experiences of African Americans in early Los Angeles. Several provide examinations of the “black promised land” idea as a product of opportunity, diversity, and sprawl. These include, most notably, De Graaf, Mulroy, and Taylor, Seeking El Dorado; Flamming, Bound for Freedom; and Sides, LA City Limits.
14 A great deal has been written about California as the “arsenal of democracy” during World War II, including a wealth of scholarship exploring the era’s dramatic economic changes. Although focused on the Bay Area, Marilynn Johnson, The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996) outlines the impact of war industry and mass migration on the state as a whole. For examinations of California’s immigrant groups and black migrants in wartime, see Roger W. Lotchin, ed., The Way We Really Were: The Golden State in the Second Great War (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000), De Graaf, Mulroy, and Taylor, Seeking El Dorado; and Sides, LA City Limits.
15 US Census Bureau, “African American Population in California and Its Major Cities, 1940–60,” cited in De Graaf et al., Seeking El Dorado, 33; 1940 US Census data cited in Lotchin, The Way We Really Were, 189–190.
16 Liberator, September 1901, 1; Bryant et al., Central Avenue Sounds, 46.
17 California Office of the Attorney General, Police Training Bulletin: A Guide to Race Relations for Police Officers (Sacramento: Department of Justice, State of California, 1946).
18 For reflections on housing covenants in South Los Angeles County and black responses to them, see Jackie Kelso, interviewed by Steven Louis Isoardi, May 15, 1990, Central Avenue Sounds Oral History Project, Tape VIII, Side Two, Oral History Collection, UCLA Library; booster descriptions of Compton quoted in Josh Sides, “Straight into Compton: American Dreams, Urban Nightmares, and the Metamorphosis of a Black Suburb,” American Quarterly 56, no. 3 (September 2004): 583–605.
19 Bryant et al., Central Avenue Sounds, 24.
20 In Quest of Full Citizenship: George Beavers, Ranford B. Hopkins, interviewer George Beavers, “In Quest of Full Citizenship,” transcript of interviews by Ranford B. Hopkins, April–July 1982, Tape I, Side One, April 29, 1982, Oral History Program, University of California, Los Angeles, Special Collections, UCLA Library.
21 Gerald Horne, Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995), 3; [California] Governor’s Commission on the Los Angeles Riots, “Violence in the City—An End or a Beginning? A Report,” December 2, 1965, 1–2.
22 The National Broadcasting Company presents Meet the Press, TV episode, produced by Lawrence E. Spivak, August, 29, 1965, National Broadcasting Company, Inc.
23 California Governor’s Commission on the Los Angeles Riots, 3–9, 27–36, 77.
24 Newsweek, August 30, 1965, cover.
25 Otis, Upside Your Head, 21–23.
26 “Dootsie: Ideal Watts Entrepreneur,” Los Angeles Sentinel, March 6, 1969, F5.
27 “Dootsie: Ideal Watts Entrepreneur”; Doc Young, “Community Center Becomes Vital Cog,” Los Angeles Sentinel, August 15, 1963, B3.
28 Doc Young, “ ‘Mexican Pie’ Dootsie’s Slice: Mexican Land Trust,” Los Angeles Sentinel, May 22, 1975, A3; Doc Young, “Anatomy of a Robbery,” Los Angeles Sentinel, October 22, 1970, A6; Doc Young, “Center for Sale,” Los Angeles Sentinel, November 28, 1974, A7.
1 Jerry Heller and Gil Reavill, Ruthless: A Memoir (New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2006), 57–58.
2 For more on KDAY’s rich history, its music programming, and its uneven relationship with black listeners in the 1960s and 1970s, see “Radio-TV Programming: Wolfman Jack to KDAY; Sets New Syndie Network,” Billboard 84, no. 17 (April 22, 1972), 14; “Music News: Alan Freed Joins KDAY as R&B Jock,” Billboard 72, no. 20 (May 16, 1960), 16; “KDAY Shoots at Negro Market,” Billboard Music Week 74, no. 21 (May 26, 1962), 32; “KDAY Drops R&B Format,” Billboard 78, no. 31 (July 30, 1966), 8, 12; Sean Ross, “Radio: KDAY LA’s Glory Days,” Billboard 103, no. 15 (April 13, 1991), 12–13.
3 Ross, “KDAY LA’s Glory Days,” 12.
4 Brian Cross, ed., It’s Not about a Salary: Rap, Race, and Resistance in Los Angeles (New York: Verso, 1994), 154.
5 Von Jones, “Rapping with Radio Rappers,” Los Angeles Sentinel, May 2, 1985, A1.
6 Toddy Tee, “Batterram,” single (original self-produced cassette-tape format, 1985; Evejim Records, 1985), vinyl, 12”.
7 Daryl F. Gates, Chief: My Life in the LAPD (New York: Bantam Books, 1992), 338.
8 United States Senate, Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary, Gang Violence and Control: Ninety-eighth Congress, First Session on Gang Violence and Control in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Areas With a View to What Might Be Done by the Federal Government, February 9, 1983 (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1983), 3, 10.
9 “1984 Summer Olympics,” Official Website of the Los Angeles Police Department, http://
10 David Freed, “Policing Gangs: Case of Contrasting Styles Strides Made by Sheriff’s Dept. Cast a Pall on Methods Used by the L.A. Police Dept.,” Los Angeles Times, January 19, 1986, 1; Gates, Chief, 334–345.
11 “L.A. Declares War on Gangs,” Globe and Mail (Canada), November 22, 1984; Jack Katz, “If Police Call It Gang Crime That Doesn’t Make It True,” Los Angeles Times, September 28, 1989; Gates, Chief, 334–345.
12 “Los Angeles Police: Not So Angelic,” Economist, June 18, 1983, 26.
13 “Mayor’s Statement for Press Conference on Gang Violence,” 1984, Box 4213, Folder 31, Mayor Tom Bradley Administration Papers 1920–1993, UCLA Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles; Jesse Katz, “Tracking the Genesis of the Crack Trade; Series: The Cocaine Trail,” Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1996.
14 “Mayor’s Statement for Press Conference on Gang Violence.”
15 Gates, Chief, 319.
16 Toddy Tee, “Batterram.”
17 Patricia Klein, “Police Ram Opens Door to Debate,” Los Angeles Times, June 4, 1985, 1, 14–15.
18 Toddy Tee, “Batterram.”
19 Gates, Chief, 320–321.
20 Patricia Klein and Stephanie Chavez, “Pacoima Leaders Protest Police Use of Motorized Ram,” Los Angeles Times, February 9, 1985.
21 Gates, Chief, 320–321; Greg Braxton, “Second ‘Rock House’ Raid in Pacoima Nets Drugs,” Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1985, VA6.
22 Braxton, “Second ‘Rock House’ Raid”; Patricia Klein, “Couple Ask L.A. for $60-Million Damages in Battering-Ram Case,” Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1985.
23 Klein and Chavez, “Pacoima Leaders Protest Police Use of Motorized Ram.”
24 [California] Governor’s Commission on the Los Angeles Riots, “Violence in the City—An End or a Beginning? A Report,” December 2, 1965; Kerner Commission, Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1968); Roy Wilkins, “Police Review Board Idea Is Very Well Worth Trying,” Los Angeles Times, February 21, 1966, A5; Muhammad Speaks, May 1962, cited in “K of C against Police Review Board Here,” Los Angeles Times, August 28, 1980. See also Gerald Horne, Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995); and Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr., Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014).
25 Jocelyn Stewart, “Michael Zinzun, 57; Ex-Black Panther Challenged Southland Police Agencies,” Los Angeles Times, July 12, 2006; Coalition Against Police Abuse, “C.A.P.A. Proposal to Liberty Hill, Exhibits,” 1976, Folder 6, Box 3, CAPA Papers, Liberty Hill Foundation Collection, Southern California Library.
26 “Police ‘Picketed’ Today,” Los Angeles Sentinel, May 6, 1976, A3; Coalition Against Police Abuse, “Statement of Purpose,” n.d., Box 10, Folder 19, CAPA Papers, Liberty Hill Foundation Collection, Southern California Library.
27 Nick Brown, “Police Abuse Attacked,” Los Angeles Sentinel, May 18, 1978, A1.
28 Coalition Against Police Abuse, “Statement of Purpose.”
29 H. Vincent Price, “Community Backs Cop Abuse Seminar,” Los Angeles Sentinel, December 9, 1976, A1.
30 H. Vincent Price, “Church Marches On 77th Precinct; Church Rally Slated at Police Station,” Los Angeles Sentinel, March 3, 1977, A1; H. Vincent Price, “Sheriff Picket ‘Spirited,’ ” Los Angeles Sentinel, June 30, 1977; “LAPD Hit with Major Lawsuit; Suit Seeks Names,” Los Angeles Sentinel, July 28, 1977, A1.
31 Nick Brown, “LAPD to Answer Spying Charges,” Los Angeles Sentinel, July 6, 1978, A3.
32 Gates, Chief, 200–201; Peggy Rowe Estrada, “Don’t Weaken City Charter to Get at LAPD,” Opinion, Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1992.
33 Gates, Chief, 174; Martín Sánchez Jankowski, Islands in the Street (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 255.
34 Emphasis in original document; Los Angeles Police Department, “Training Bulletin Volume X, Issue 11, Use of Force Part II,” May 1978, Box 10, Folder 3, CAPA Papers, Liberty Hill Foundation Collection, Southern California Library.
35 John Mitchell and Doug Shuit, “Eulia Love: Anatomy of a Fatal Shooting,” Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1979.
36 Mitchell and Shuit, “Eulia Love”; Claire Spiegel, “Bullets Also Shattered Lives of 3 Daughters,” Los Angeles Times, October 4, 1979.
37 Gates, Chief, 222; Doug Shuit, “Gates Pins Police Shootings on Crime,” Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1979.
38 Gates, Chief, 224.
39 Spiegel, “Bullets Also Shattered Lives”; Mitchell and Shuit, “Eulia Love.”
40 Claire Spiegel, “Probe of Love Shooting—a Question of Credibility,” Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1979; “Controversy Brews in Shooting of L.A. Woman,” Jet, February 1, 1979, 30–31.
41 Spiegel, “Bullets Also Shattered Lives.”
42 Mitchell and Shuit, “Eulia Love.”
43 “Controversy Brews in Shooting of L.A. Woman.”
44 “Controversy Brews in Shooting of L.A. Woman”; L. C. Fortenberry, “Love Death Draws Concern,” Los Angeles Sentinel, January 18, 1979, A1.
45 Sandy Banks, “New Cynicism: Watts: Many Churches but How Helpful,” Los Angeles Times, August 19, 1980; Fortenberry, “Love Death Draws Concern.”
46 James G. Bellows, The Last Editor: How I Saved The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times from Dullness and Complacency (Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel, 2002), 235.
47 Bill Farr, “3 L.A. Policemen Charged in Shooting at Gas Station,” Los Angeles Times, March 22, 1980.
48 “All Should Be Concerned,” editorial, Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1980, C8.
49 Michael Seiler, “Nickerson Gardens—a View from a Black-and-White,” Los Angeles Times, October 8, 1979; Jerry Belcher and Tim Waters, “Police Critical of TV Newsman’s Report,” Los Angeles Times, November 16, 1979.
50 Fortenberry, “Love Death Draws Concern.”
51 “Justice: L.A. Style,” editorial, Los Angeles Sentinel, April 26, 1979, A1.
52 Jerry Belcher and Myrna Oliver, “Police Protecting Witness Shoot 15-Year-Old Boy,” Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1979.
53 Ed Davis, “Cop Shooting in Valley Feeds Fire: Youth Near Death,” Los Angeles Sentinel, May 3, 1979, A1.
54 Cassandra Smith, “Should Civilians Be Allowed to Police the Police? Part II of a Series,” Los Angeles Sentinel, September 13, 1979, A8.
55 Yusuf Jah and Sister Shah-Keyah, Uprising: Crips and Bloods Tell the Story of America’s Youth in the Crossfire (New York: Scribner, 1995), 159–160.
56 Jah and Shah-Keyah, Uprising, 121, 132, 135.
57 Brian Hiatt, “NWA: American Gangstas,” Rolling Stone, August 27, 2015.
58 The Los Angeles Times conducted two separate polls of police approval in Los Angeles, one among African Americans and another of the city’s entire population. Participants were defined as “black,” “white,” or “Hispanic.” Whites, who were most likely to approve of the department, expressed greater uncertainty about police misconduct than they had in 1977. It is also notable that the evidence of rising disapproval offered by the Times refuted an LAPD survey that showed a staggering 97 percent of residents approved of police conduct and services. Chief Gates ultimately conceded that the discrepancies could be attributed to the manner in which the poll was administered: participants were selected from a pool of those who had called the police department for help; George Skelton, “Public Taking Dimmer View of L.A. Police,” Los Angeles Times, May 15, 1979.
59 Doug Shuit, “L.A. Deputy Chief Hits Love Slaying,” Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1979.
60 Skelton, “Public Taking Dimmer View.”
61 “Medals of Valor Given to Seven L.A. Policemen,” Los Angeles Times, May 10, 1979.
62 “Medals of Valor Given”; “Love Whitewash Incites Outrage: Police Killing Upheld,” Los Angeles Sentinel, April 19, 1979, A1.
63 In 1950, a coalition of over a dozen organizations formed the Permanent Coordination Committee on Police and Minority Groups to lobby New York City’s mayor to deal with growing “police misconduct in their relations with Puerto Ricans and Negros specifically.” In response, the New York Police Department installed a civilian review board within its department. Citizen complaints were investigated and judged by board members—often police deputies—selected by the NYPD. In 1965, when Mayor John Lindsay attempted to pressure the department to appoint citizens to the board, the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association managed to collect enough signatures to place a measure on the 1966 ballot barring civilian appointments. The measure passed by a wide margin. For more on this, see Vincent J. Cannato, The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 155–188.
64 “Los Angeles: The Love Affair,” Economist, June 14, 1980.
65 David Johnston and Joel Sappell, “Police Spying Data Was Channeled to Top Brass,” Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1982.
66 Robert Lindsey, “Los Angeles Police Find Image of Efficiency Fades,” New York Times, June 16, 1980; Johnston and Sappell, “Police Spying Data Was Channeled to Top Brass.”
67 Gates, Chief, 208; Shuit, “Gates Pins Police Shootings on Crime.”
68 “March on Crime,” editorial, Los Angeles Sentinel, March 1, 1984, A6.
69 “Crime Prevention Week Asks Citizens to Behave,” Los Angeles Times, February 17, 1952, B1; see also Edward J. Escobar, “Bloody Christmas and the Irony of Police Professionalism: The Los Angeles Police Department, Mexican Americans, and Police Reform in the 1950s,” Pacific Historical Review 72, no. 2 (May 2003): 171–199.
70 “Wholesome Recreation Curbs Delinquency Says Hahn,” Los Angeles Sentinel, May 24, 1951, B1; “Fairness Promised Minorities by Chief,” Los Angeles Times, July 2, 1949, 1; “New Chief,” Los Angeles Sentinel, August 10, 1950, A8.
71 Brad Pye, “Teenagers, Police Clash in Compton: Incident Stories Conflict,” Los Angeles Sentinel, October 26, 1961, A1; Stanley G. Robertson, “L.A. Confidential: The ‘Real Villains’ in the Park,” Los Angeles Sentinel, September 13, 1962, A7; “Negroes Hostile, Police Are Victims,” Los Angeles Sentinel, April 30, 1964, A1. For more on the escalating conflict between black youth and the police leading up to the Watts Rebellion, see Horne, Fire This Time; and Josh Sides, LA City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).
72 L. M. Meriwether, “Citizens, Police in Head-On Clash: Incidents Alarm Public,” Los Angeles Sentinel, April 16, 1964, A1.
73 Listing of Physical Attacks on RTD Buses, Report Submitted by SCRTD Manager of Employee Relations John S. Wilkens to Earl Clark, General Chairman of United Transportation Union, March 3, 1975, in “Unprovoked Attacks”; and Earl Clark, General Chairman of United Transportation Union to Peter F. Schabarum, Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, March 3, 1975; both in Box 2091, Folder 9, Mayor Tom Bradley Administration Papers 1920–1993, UCLA Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
74 Cynthia Hamilton, “The Making of an American Bantustan,” LA Weekly, December 30, 1988–January 5, 1989, 32; letter from Manager of Operation George W. Heinle of SCRTD to Mr. Earl Clark, General Chairman of United Transportation Union, April 13, 1976, in “Unprovoked Attacks,” Box 2091, Folder 9, Mayor Tom Bradley Administration Papers 1920–1993, UCLA Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
75 Von Jones, “The Life and Times of a Gang Leader,” Los Angeles Sentinel, February 21, 1985, A1; United States Senate, Gang Violence and Control, 3.
76 “CRASH Knows ‘Who’ of Westside Gangs,” Pico Post—Century City, August 7, 1980; Bob Baker, “County May Act on Rising Gang Violence,” Los Angeles Times, October 13, 1980; Assembly Bill No. 788, Chapter 1030, Section 1, “Gang Violence Suppression,” filed with Secretary of State, September 30, 1981, Box 130, Folder 7, Mayor Tom Bradley Administration Papers 1920–1993, UCLA Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
77 Steven R. Cureton, “Something Wicked This Way Comes: A Historical Account of Black Gangsterism Offers Wisdom and Warning for African American Leadership,” Journal of Black Studies 40, no. 2 (November 2009), 351–352.
78 Jah and Shah-Keyah, Uprising, 259.
79 Saleem Ibrahim, “ ‘Freeze’ Means: Stop All Action,” Los Angeles Sentinel, November 27, 1980, A5.
80 Ibrahim, “Freeze.”
81 “Change or Perish,” editorial, Los Angeles Sentinel, November 28, 1974, A6.
82 “March on Crime.”
83 “A Fighting Chance,” editorial, Los Angeles Sentinel, August 23, 1984, A6; “Compton Battles Crimes,” Los Angeles Sentinel, December 6, 1984, A1.
84 “A Critical Situation; Police Deployment in South Central LA,” Los Angeles Sentinel, editorial, June 7, 1984, A6.
85 Dan Divito, Affidavit Statement, April 16, 1978; and Robert W. Barnwell, Statement to CAPA on “Events of September 30, 1977,” October 2, 1977, both in Box 10, Folder 3, CAPA Papers, Liberty Hill Foundation Collection, Southern California Library; Los Angeles Police Department, “Training Bulletin”; “L.A. Panel Orders Inquiry on Police Chief’s Remarks,” Christian Science Monitor, May 14, 1982, 2.
86 “Coast Police Chief Accused of Racism,” New York Times, May 13, 1982; see also “Gangbusters,” in Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (London: Verso, 1990).
87 “Los Angeles Police End Use of Choke Hold That Stops Air,” New York Times, May 8, 1982, A20; “Urban League in Los Angeles Asks Police Chief Suspension,” New York Times, May 12, 1982, A24; “Coast Police Chief Reprimanded for Remark,” New York Times, June 2, 1982, A18; Daryl F. Gates, “Memorandum No. 6: Moratorium on the Use of Upper Body Control Holds,” Office of the Chief of Police, June 18, 1982, Box 10, Folder 2, CAPA Papers, Liberty Hill Foundation Collection, Southern California Library.
88 Jocelyn Y. Stewart, “Michael Zinzun, 57; Ex-Black Panther Challenged Southland Police Agencies,” Los Angeles Times, July 12, 2006.
89 Klein and Chavez, “Pacoima Leaders Protest Police Use of Motorized Ram.”
90 “LAPD’s Battering Ram Draws Suit,” Los Angeles Sentinel, February 28, 1985, A8.
91 “A Change of Pace,” editorial, Los Angeles Sentinel, February 21, 1985, A6; Chief Daryl F. Gates, Letter to the Editor, Los Angeles Sentinel, August 1, 1985, A6.
92 Klein and Chavez, “Pacoima Leaders Protest Police Use of Motorized Ram”; Betty Pleasant and Michael Taylor, “Police May Have Wrecked Wrong House; Armored Attack Decried,” Los Angeles Sentinel, February 14, 1985, A1.
93 Betty Pleasant, “Ram Smashes City’s Largest Rock House,” Los Angeles Sentinel, May 2, 1985, A1.
94 Patricia Klein, “LAPD’s Battering Ram Sitting Idle: Critics Say It’s the Pressure; Police Claim It’s Not Needed,” Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1986, A8D.
95 “Mayor’s Statement for Press Conference on Gang Violence,” 1984, Box 4213, Folder 31, Mayor Tom Bradley Administration Papers 1920–1993, UCLA Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles; James Rice, Letter to the Editor, Los Angeles Sentinel, August 1, 1985, A6.
96 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 146.
97 Mixmaster Spade, interview by The Poetess, “Mixmaster Spade,” March 17, 2003, in Davey D’s Hip Hop Political Palace, http://
98 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 146.
99 UTFO “Hanging Out / Roxanne, Roxanne,” single (Select Records, 1984), vinyl, 12”; for examples of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s parodied pop hits, see Weird Al Yankovic, album (Rock ’n’ Roll, 1983), vinyl, LP; In 3-D, album (Rock ’n’ Roll, 1984), vinyl, LP; Dare to Be Stupid (Rock ’n’ Roll, 1985), vinyl, LP.
100 Whodini, “Freaks Come Out at Night,” single (Jive, 1984), vinyl, 12”; Rappin’ Duke, “Rappin’ Duke,” single (JWP Records, 1985), vinyl, 12”; Toddy Tee, “Batterram,” single (original self-produced cassette-tape format, 1985; Evejim Records, 1985), vinyl, 12”.
101 Sacha Jenkins, ed., Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists (New York: Macmillan, 1999), 108.
102 “The L.A. Riots: 20 Years Later; Rhythm of the Street,” Los Angeles Times, May 2, 2012, A1; Robin D. G. Kelley, “Straight from the Underground,” The Nation, June 8, 1992, 793.
103 Johnny Mann, “Interview: MC Eiht,” Elemental Magazine, issue 63, 2004, available at http://
104 Eric Bailey, “The Gangs of Long Beach: Signs Are Obvious; Graffiti, Poverty, Drugs, Turf Wars, Murders,” Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1985; Jonah Weiner, “The Lion Smokes Tonight,” Rolling Stone, May 23, 2013.
105 Klein, “LAPD’s Battering Ram Sitting Idle”; Toddy Tee, “Batterram.”
106 Jah and Shah-Keyah, Uprising, 121.
1 Frank Owen, “Run DMC: Homeboys’ Home Truths,” Melody Maker 62, no. 21 (May 23, 1987), 24–25; Jess Cagle, “All Hell Breaks Loose at a Run-DMC ‘Raising Hell’ Rap Concert in California,” People, September 1, 1986; Sacha Jenkins, ed., Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists (New York: MacMillan, 1999), 108; Bill Adler, Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-DMC (Los Angeles: Consafos Press, 1987), 5.
2 “Violence Silences Rap Group,” Los Angeles Times, August 19, 1986.
3 Brian Cross, ed., It’s Not about a Salary: Rap, Race, and Resistance in Los Angeles (New York: Verso, 1993), 156–157; Daryl Kelley, “Council Asks How Riot Hit, How It Can Avoid Replay,” Los Angeles Times, August 21, 1986; Chris Morris, “Venue Reads Riot Act Following Melee,” Billboard 98, no. 35 (August 30, 1986): 7, 77.
4 Morris, “Venue Reads Riot Act”; Adler, Tougher Than Leather, 4.
5 Morris, “Venue Reads Riot Act”; “42 Are Hurt as Gang Fighting Breaks Up California Concert,” New York Times, August 19, 1986.
6 George Ramos, “30 Injured at Long Beach Concert; L.A. Show Off,” Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1986; George Ramos, “40 Hurt at Long Beach Concert; Palladium Drops ‘Rap’ Group,” Los Angeles Times, August 19, 1986.
7 Morris, “Venue Reads Riot Act.”
8 George Ramos, “‘Rap’ Musicians’ Concert Is Canceled at Palladium after Long Beach Fights,” Los Angeles Times, August 19, 1986; Eric Hubler, “Rap Repercussions?,” Washington Post, August 19, 1986; Ed Kiersh, “Run D.M.C. Is Beating the Rap,” Rolling Stone, December 4, 1986.
9 Owen, “Run DMC: Homeboys’ Home Truths”; “Violence Silences Rap Group”; The Warriors, motion picture, directed by Walter Hill (1979; Paramount Pictures, 2001), DVD; Patrick Goldstein, “Can Rap Survive Gang War?” Los Angeles Times, August 24, 1986; Adler, Tougher Than Leather, 5–6.
10 And You Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop, mini-series documentary, directed by Richard Lowe and Dana Heinz Perry (2004; Bring the Noise LLC), TV broadcast.
11 Steve Hosley, “On the Record: Sugarhill Gang,” Sepia, May 1980, 14; Jerry Heller and Gil Reavill, Ruthless: A Memoir (New York: Simon Spotlight, 2006), 35; Glenn Collins, “Rap Music, Brash and Swaggering, Enters Mainstream,” New York Times, August 29, 1988; Greg Tate, “They’re Gonna Smash Their Brains In,” Village Voice, April 9, 1985, 61; Andrew Mason, “Blondie Rose to Stardom Out of New York City’s Burgeoning Downtown Scene of Punk Rock and New Wave,” Wax Poetics 60 (November 2014), accessed via www
12 Owen, “Run DMC: Homeboys’ Home Truths.”
13 Annette Stark, “There’s a Riot Going On,” Spin 2, no. 9 (December 1986): 68–74.
14 Peter H. King, “Punk Rockers Put on Notice by Santa Ana,” Los Angeles Times, Orange County edition, Section 2, January 9, 1982, 1, 8; Cary Darling, “41 Arrested at L.A. ‘Punk Riot,’” Billboard 95, no. 8. (February 26, 1983): 30, 35; Dan Nakaso, “Punk Rock May Cost Theater Owner His License,” Los Angeles Times, South Bay section, January 20, 1983, 1.
15 Mike Boehm, “Kids of the Black Hole: The 1970s Were Waning When Orange County’s Punk Rock Scene Roared Its Dark, Hostile Message,” Los Angeles Times, July 23, 1989; Darling, “41 Arrested at L.A. ‘Punk Riot’”; Peter H. King, “Punk Rockers Put on Notice by Santa Ana: Punk Rock: Santa Ana Is Wary,” Los Angeles Times, January 9, 1982.
16 Patrick Goldstein, “Is Heavy Metal a Loaded Gun Aimed at Its Fans?” Los Angeles Times, January 26, 1986; “Record Labeling” Senate Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, First Session on Content of Music and the Lyrics of Records, Sept. 19, 1985 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1985), 10–17; Dennis McLellan, “Spikes and Studs: Tipping the Scales against Heavy Metal, Punk,” Los Angeles Times, Orange County edition, View section, February 21, 1985, 1, 20–22.
17 Bob Schwartz, “1 Dead, 3 Hurt in Violence at Rock Concerts,” Los Angeles Times, June 16, 1986, 3.
18 Goldstein, “Can Rap Survive Gang War?”; “Brawl Erupts at Rap Film in New York,” Washington Post, December 29, 1985, A10.
19 “Security to Be Beefed Up for RUN-DMC Concert Sat,” Atlanta Daily World, August 21, 1986.
20 Adler, Tougher Than Leather, 4, 21, 169.
21 Goldstein, “Can Rap Survive Gang War?”; USA Today, quoted in Adler, Tougher Than Leather, 176.
22 Owen, “Run DMC: Homeboys’ Home Truths.”
23 “40 Injured at ‘Rap’ Concert as Gangs Go on Rampage,” Sun Sentinel, August 19, 1986; Owen, “Run DMC: Homeboys’ Home Truths”; Cagle, “All Hell Breaks Loose”; Kelley, “Council Asks How Riot Hit”; Goldstein, “Can Rap Survive Gang War?”; Adler, Tougher Than Leather, 4–6.
24 Breakin’ ’n’ Enterin’, documentary, directed by Topper Carew (1983; Rainbow TV Works).
25 Jesse Thorn, “Ice-T Revisits His O. G. Roots in the Documentary Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap,” A.V. Club, July 5, 2012, http://
26 Prior to the late 1980s, “graffiti” in Los Angeles was synonymous with “tagging” one’s name, initials, crew moniker, or gang insignia. The “aerosol art” or “spray-can art” commonly associated with the colorful, cartoonish murals painted on New York City subway trains (and later on canvases for art galleries downtown), was virtually absent from LA cityscapes, save for the interiors of venues like The Radio that aimed for a New York aesthetic. For more on tagging in 1970s and 1980s Los Angeles and the late introduction of large-scale subway-style graffiti to the region, see “El Chingaso” in Ulysses L. Zemanova, The Ulysses Guide to the Los Angeles River, vol. 1: Biology and Art (Grimmelbein Kitamura Editions, 2009), np; Bombing L.A., documentary, directed by Gary Glaser (1991; Glaser Productions), VHS.
27 Chris “The Glove” Taylor, interview by Stefan Schuetze, West Coast Pioneers (website, now defunct), July 2004, accessible at https://
28 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 174.
29 Richard Cromelin, “Street Art at Lingerie; L.A. Takes the Rap from N.Y. Movement,” Los Angeles Times, February 7, 1983, F1; Flea, “Brendan Mullen,” Los Angeles Times, October 14, 2009.
30 Al Martinez, “Hip-Hoppin’ with Afrika and Ice T,” Los Angeles Times, July 18, 1985.
31 Breakin’ ’n’ Enterin’.
32 “Interview with Ice-T,” Behind the Beat, television series (originally aired in 1988; BBC TV Pebble Mill).
33 Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn, eds., Yes, Yes, Y’all: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop’s First Decade (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002), 309.
34 Breakin’, motion picture, directed by Joel Silberg (1984; MGM); Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, motion picture, directed by Sam Firstenberg (1984; MGM).
35 Rodger Clayton, interview by Stefan Schuetze, West Coast Pioneers (website, now defunct), September 2006.
36 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 174; “Interview with Ice-T,” Behind the Beat; Henry “Hen Gee” Garcia, interview by Stefan Schuetze, West Coast Pioneers (website, now defunct), June 2006.
37 Don Snowden and Connie Johnson, “In Search of the Black Beat,” Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1983, U59, 84–86.
38 Snowden and Johnson, “In Search of the Black Beat.”
39 Clayton’s Uncle Jamm’s Army was first christened as “Unique Dreams Entertainment.” Later he and his partners renamed the group Uncle Jam’s Army, with one “m,” as an homage to Funkadelic’s 1979 album Uncle Jam Wants You. Clayton later added the additional “m” as his business grew and as he sought to better distinguish his crew from George Clinton’s; DJ Zen [Jeff Chang] and Mike Nardone, “Saturday Nite Fresh: An Interview with Uncle Jamm’s Army,” Rap Pages, December 1994, 36–38, 70–74.
40 DJ Zen and Nardone, “Saturday Nite Fresh.”
41 In May 1984, Uncle Jamm’s Army promoted a benefit concert for Jesse Jackson, which featured Lakeside, Cheryl Lynn, and Shalamar, as well as performances from UJA. Later that year, the DJ outfit hosted the “1984 Music Festival,” which was sponsored by Coca-Cola and featured New York rapper Melle Mel, Gladys Night and the Pips, Cameo, Nona Hendryx, Lakeside, and Midnight Star. “Display Ad 380,” Los Angeles Times, May 13, 1984, L71; “Today’s Highlights,” Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1984, E2.
42 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 155.
43 Tracy Jones, “Uncle Jamm’s Army Was the West Coast’s Real-Life Answer to The Get Down,” LA Weekly, September 7, 2016.
44 Snoop Dogg with Davin Seay, Tha Doggfather: The Times, Trials, and Hardcore Truths of Snoop Dogg (New York: William Morrow, 1999), 35.
45 Gregory “G-Bone” Everett in “The Power of Hip-Hop: Lyrics, Accountability, and Behavior,” ProfessU, https://
46 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 146; Toddy Tee, “Batterram,” single (original self-produced cassette-tape format, 1985; Evejim Records, 1985), vinyl, 12”.
47 Snowden and Johnson, “In Search of the Black Beat.”
48 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary 159.
49 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 121.
50 Jones, “Uncle Jamm’s Army.”
51 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 155; Rodger Clayton interview, West Coast Pioneers; Don Snowden, “Mobile Disco ‘Army’ Dances to a Different Beat,” Los Angeles Times, October 30, 1983, U66–67.
52 Rodger Clayton, the founder of Uncle Jamm’s Army, referred to himself and his fellow DJs as “programmers,” a term that, for him, illustrated the fellowship (and rivalry) between the mobile DJ and the radio jock. Greg Mack, Statement on Death of Rodger Clayton, quoted in Dan Charnas, “Hip-Hop Pioneer Rodger ‘Uncle Jamm’ Clayton Dies,” The Urban Daily, October 11, 2010; Snowden, “Mobile Disco ‘Army’ Dances to a Different Beat,” U66; Rodger Clayton interview, West Coast Pioneers; Jones, “Uncle Jamm’s Army.”
53 Dan Charnas, “Hip-Hop Pioneer Rodger ‘Uncle Jamm’ Clayton Dies,” Urban Daily, October 11, 2010.
54 Jerry L. Barrow, “Andre Young Is Still Buzzing,” Vibe, September 1, 2010.
55 Snowden, “Mobile Disco ‘Army’ Dances to a Different Beat”; Red Bull Music Academy, “Nightclubbing: Uncle Jamm’s Army,” Red Bull Music Academy Daily, October 31, 2017.
56 Diane E. Herz, “Worker Displacement in a Period of Rapid Job Expansion: 1983–1987,” Monthly Labor Review 113 (May 1990), 21, 31, as cited in John Ehrman, The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005).
57 For more on the impact of economic decline on African Americans during the Carter and Reagan administrations, see Ehrman, Eighties.
58 Snowden, “Mobile Disco ‘Army’ Dances to a Different Beat,” 66.
59 Donnell Alexander, “Do Rappers Dream of Electro-Beats?” Los Angeles City Beat, July 28, 2005.
60 Alexander, “Do Rappers Dream of Electro-Beats?”
61 Yusef Jah and Sister Shah-Keyah, Uprising: Crips and Bloods Tell the Story of America’s Youth in the Crossfire (New York: Scribner, 1995), 259.
62 Snowden, “Mobile Disco ‘Army’ Dances to a Different Beat.”
63 Chris “The Glove” Taylor interview, West Coast Pioneers.
64 Henry “Hen Gee” Garcia interview, West Coast Pioneers.
65 Sam Sweet, “The Roller Rink Origins of N.W.A.,” New York Times Magazine, August 13, 2005; also in Sam Sweet, All Night Menu vol. 2 (December 2014).
66 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 291.
67 Snowden, “Mobile Disco ‘Army’ Dances to a Different Beat.”
68 Sweet, “The Roller Rink Origins of N.W.A.”
69 Egyptian Lover, interview by Chad Kiser, DUBCNN, August 2008, http://
70 Egyptian Lover, interview by West Coast Pioneers, January 2006, transcript posted at http://
71 Mixmaster Spade, interview by The Poetess, March 17, 2003, transcript posted on Davey D’s Hip Hop Political Palace, http://
72 Ice Cube, interview by Terry Gross, “Hip-Hop Renaissance Man,” Fresh Air, National Public Radio, January 10, 2005; Robert Hilburn, “The Rap Is—Justice: Ice Cube Finally Talks about the Uprising That He Says Had to Happen,” Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1992.
73 Ice-T and Douglas Century, Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption—From South Central to Hollywood (New York: Random House, 2011), 22; Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 181–182; Brian Coleman, ed., Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies (New York: Random House, 2005), 233.
74 Patrick Goldstein, “Pop Eye: Life Is a Rap-sody to California Impresario,” Los Angeles Times, July 27, 1986.
75 Alexander, “Do Rappers Dream of Electro-Beats?”
76 Jones, “Uncle Jamm’s Army.”
77 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 155; Ben Westhoff, “KDAY, the Gangsta Rap Oldies Station, Breaks New Ground by Playing Music from the Bad Old Days,” LA Weekly, August 2, 2012.
78 Toddy Tee, “Batterram”; Patricia Klein, “A Ram at Rest: These Are Quiet Times for LAPD’s ‘Battering’ Vehicle,” Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1986; Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 146.
79 Fricke and Ahearn, Yes, Yes, Y’all, 329.
80 John Leland, “It’s Like This,” Village Voice, June 17, 1986, 67, 70; Tate, “They’re Gonna Smash Their Brains In.”
81 Adler, Tougher Than Leather, 57.
82 For more on the influence of early hip-hop groups on the late 1970s and early 1980s Manhattan club scene, see Tim Lawrence, Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016); and Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey (New York: Grove Press, 2000); Fricke and Ahearn, Yes, Yes, Y’all, 328.
83 Leland, “It’s Like This.”
84 Leland, “It’s Like This.”
85 Owen, “Run DMC: Homeboys’ Home Truths.”
86 Jay-Z, Decoded (New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2010), 9–10.
87 The D.O.C., interview by Charlie Braxton, Murder Dog, murderdog.com, 2003.
88 Run-DMC, “It’s Like That,” and “Sucker M.C.’s (Krush-Groove 1),” Run-DMC (Profile Records, 1984), vinyl, LP; Run-DMC, “It’s Tricky,” “My Adidas,” and “Proud To Be Black,” Raising Hell (Profile Records, 1986), vinyl, LP.
89 “Sucker M.C.’s (Krush-Groove 1)”; “It’s Tricky”; “My Adidas.”
90 Adler, Tougher Than Leather, 82–83; “My Guy, George,” The Jeffersons, TV series, directed by Oz Scott (originally aired March 4, 1984; Universal City: Universal Studios, 1984); Connie Johnson, “Rap Goes Mainstream at Universal Amphitheatre,” Los Angeles Times, August 2, 1986.
91 Fricke and Ahearn, Yes, Yes, Y’all, 328.
92 Fricke and Ahearn, Yes, Yes, Y’all, 329.
93 Fricke and Ahearn, Yes, Yes, Y’all, 329.
94 Owen, “Run DMC: Homeboys’ Home Truths.”
95 Rob Tannenbaum and Craig Marks, eds., I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution (New York: Penguin, 2012), 241; Jacob Hoye, ed., MTV: Uncensored (New York: Pocket Books, 2001), 70.
96 Hoye, MTV: Uncensored, 70.
97 Owen, “Run DMC: Homeboys’ Home Truths.”
98 Artists United Against Apartheid, Sun City (EMI Manhattan Records, 1985), vinyl, LP. The anti-apartheid compilation record included, along with Bambaataa and Run-DMC, Peter Gabriel, Ringo Starr, Miles Davis, Keith Richard, Gil Scott-Heron, and Melle Mel, among others.
99 Cromelin, “Street Art at Lingerie”; McKenna, “Taking the Rap in L.A.,” Village Voice, March 7, 1983, G1, 3.
100 Adler, Tougher Than Leather, 137, 153.
101 Keith Murphy, “Full Clip: DMC Breaks Down Run-DMC’s Catalogue and Solo Work Feat. Fat Boys, Beastie Boys, Biggie, and Pete Rock,” Vibe, February 4, 2011; Kelley, “Council Asks How Riot Hit.”
102 “Record Labeling” Senate Hearing, 11.
103 Adler, Tougher Than Leather, 172.
104 Morris, “Venue Reads Riot Act.”
105 Goldstein, “Can Rap Survive Gang War?”
106 Owen, “Run DMC: Homeboys’ Home Truths.”
107 Victor Valle, “Some Anxiety Clouds Rap Concert Tonight,” Los Angeles Times, December 31, 1987.
108 Goldstein, “Can Rap Survive Gang War?”
109 “42 Are Hurt as Gang Fighting Breaks Up California Concert”; Ramos, “‘Rap’ Musicians’ Concert Is Canceled”; Goldstein, “Can Rap Survive Gang War?”
110 Goldstein, “Can Rap Survive Gang War?”
111 “Security to Be Beefed Up for RUN-DMC Concert Sat,” Atlanta Daily World, August 21, 1986; “Run-DMC Member Shot; Suspect Sought,” Los Angeles Sentinel, November 26, 1987.
112 Ramos, “30 Injured at Long Beach Concert”; Morris, “Venue Reads Riot Act.”
113 Morris, “Venue Reads Riot Act”; Ramos, “‘Rap’ Musicians’ Concert Is Canceled.”
114 Morris, “Venue Reads Riot Act.”
115 Bob Baker, “Rap Group Hot Item in Street Scene Safety Talks,” Los Angeles Times, Metro Section, September 16, 1986, 1; Robert Hilburn, “Run-DMC Says Street Scene Festival Ban Is a Bum Rap,” Los Angeles Times, Calendar Section, September 20, 1986, 7.
116 Edward J. Boyer, “Celebrities Use Airwaves to Take on Street Violence,” Los Angeles Times, October 10, 1986; Bob Baker, “He Walks the Mean Side of the Street to Help a Few,” Los Angeles Times, July 27, 1987.
117 Boyer, “Celebrities Use Airwaves.”
118 Sean Ross, “KDAY L.A.’s Glory Days,” Billboard Magazine, April 13, 1991, 12–13.
119 Robert Hilburn, “Rap: Striking Tales of Black Frustration and Pride Shake the Pop Mainstream,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1989, 7, 80–81, 87.
120 Hilburn, “Rap: Striking Tales”; Boyer, “Celebrities Use Airwaves”; “The News in Brief: The Region,” Los Angeles Times, October 9, 1986, 2.
121 Boyer, “Celebrities Use Airwaves.”
122 Boyer, “Celebrities Use Airwaves.”
123 Scott Harris, “‘We Agree to Stop Killing Each Other’: Gang Peace Treaties Being Negotiated,” Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1986.
124 “Rappers Deny Link to Killing,” Los Angeles Sentinel, June 30, 1988.
125 Valle, “Some Anxiety Clouds Rap Concert Tonight”; Robert Hilburn, “Groups’ Violence-Plagued Image Dogs Concerts in Northwest: Run-DMC and Beasties Subdued?” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1987.
126 Stephen Holden, “The Pop Life: Two Rap Groups Plan Extensive Summer Tour,” New York Times, May 20, 1987; Valle, “Some Anxiety Clouds Rap Concert Tonight.”
127 “Beastie Boys and Run-DMC Discuss the ‘Together Forever’ Tour,” CBS News Nightwatch, TV news program (originally aired August 1987; New York: CBS News Production).
128 “Beastie Boys and Run-DMC Discuss the ‘Together Forever’ Tour”; Lyor Cohen, “On Tour: Dispatch from the Front Lines,” commentary, Billboard 99, no. 37 (September 12, 1987), 9.
129 Charisse Jones, “A Dirge of Discouragement; Mother of Youth Who Wrote Gang Peace Treaty Can’t Afford Funeral,” Los Angeles Times, March 14, 1989; Charisse Jones, “‘Do-Man’s’ Legacy: Rites Finally Held for Ex-Gang Member Who Wrote Peace Treaty,” Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1989; Paul Feldman, “‘Murder by Strangers’: From Gang Gunfire to Freeway Shootings, L.A. County’s 1987 Homicides Often Linked by Their Random Nature,” Los Angeles Times, December 30, 1987, R6; Ralph Bailey, Jr., “Drive-By Wars Claim 8 Lives in 48 Hours,” Los Angeles Sentinel, December 3, 1987.
130 Valle, “Some Anxiety Clouds Rap Concert Tonight.”
131 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 156.
132 Cohen, “On Tour.”
133 C.I.A., “Jus 4 the Cash $,” track 2 on The C.I.A.: Cru In Action (Kru-Cut Records, 1987), vinyl, EP.
1 Linda Moleski, “Grass Route,” Billboard 98, no. 49 (December 6, 1986), 61.
2 Dave Dexter, Jr., “LA Grows to the Sound of Music for 200 Years,” Billboard 92, no. 46 (November 15, 1980): 4–6, 8, 12; Sam Sutherland and Roman Kozak, “Report Pressing Outlook Solid,” Billboard 93, no. 32 (August 15, 1981): 1, 11, 88.
3 “Cadet Records, Inc,” advertisement, Billboard, November 10, 1973, 33; “Cadet Hit by L.A. Raiders,” Billboard, September 12, 1981, 86; John Sippel, “Seized LPs Are VeeJay Beatle Copies,” Billboard, September 19, 1981, 4, 77; Howard S. Alperin, “Letters to the Editor,” Billboard, October 3, 1981, 16; “RIAA Probe Fingers Cadet,” Billboard, October 16, 1982, 92.
4 Dexter, “LA Grows to the Sound of Music”; “Presser Plays Many Roles,” Billboard 97, no. 11 (March 16, 1985): 77.
5 Egyptian Lover, interview by Stefan Schuetze, West Coast Pioneers, January 2006; Ural Garrett, “Egyptian Lover Reminisces over Early West Coast Hip Hop,” Hip Hop DX, March 24, 2016, http://
6 Uncle Jamm’s Army, “Dial-A-Freak / Yes, Yes, Yes,” single (Freak Beat Records, 1983), vinyl, 12”; Egyptian Lover, “Egypt, Egypt,” single (Freak Beat Records, 1984), vinyl, 12”; Garrett, “Egyptian Lover Reminisces.”
7 Cary Darling, “L.A.: The Second Deffest City of Hip-Hop,” Los Angeles Times, Calendar section, February 7, 1988, 62, 70.
8 “Presser Plays Many Roles.”
9 Darling, “L.A.: The Second Deffest City of Hip-Hop.”
10 Darling, “L.A.: The Second Deffest City of Hip-Hop.”
11 Egyptian Lover, interviewed by Chad Kiser, August 2008, DUBCNN, http://
12 Darling, “L.A.: The Second Deffest City of Hip-Hop”; Linda Moleski, “Indie Grass Route,” Billboard 99, no. 15 (April 11, 1987): 65; Moleski, “Grass Route,” 63.
13 For more on the history of race, class, and housing in Compton, see Josh Sides, “Straight into Compton: American Dreams, Urban Nightmares, and the Metamorphosis of a Black Suburb,” American Quarterly 56, no. 3 (September 2004): 583–605; Alex Spillius, “The Short, Shocking Life of Eric Wright,” Guardian, January 27, 1996.
14 Sandy Banks, “School Denies Problem after Attack: Shooting Site Called Back to Normal,” Los Angeles Times, September 14, 1983, SD3; Chico C. Norwood, “Gunfire Mars School Opening,” Los Angeles Sentinel, September 15, 1983, A1; Emily E. Straus, Death of a Suburban Dream: Race and Schools in Compton, California (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), 129–130.
15 Yo! MTV Raps Eazy-E interview, featured in NWA: The World’s Most Dangerous Group, directed by Mark Ford (2008; VH1 Rock Docs, 2008), TV broadcast.
16 Jimmy Summers, “Screen Fare Takes Back Seat to Swap Meet at Calif. Ozoner,” Boxoffice 116, no. 9 (March 3, 1980): M12, M14.
17 Mikey Hirano Culross, “A Long, Legendary Reach,” Rafu Shimpo [Los Angeles Japanese Daily News] September 26, 2014, http://
18 Terry McDermott, “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics,” Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2002.
19 Culross, “A Long, Legendary Reach”; McDermott, “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics.”
20 Jerry L. Barrow, “Andre Young Is Still Buzzing,” Vibe, September 1, 2010.
21 Spillius, “The Short, Shocking Life of Eric Wright”; Martin Cizmar, “MC Ren: What Happened after N.W.A. and the Posse,” Phoenix New Times, March 18, 2010; Rob Kenner, “Interview: Ice Cube Talks about the Making of Eazy-E’s ‘Eazy-Duz-It,’” Complex, September 13, 2013, http://
22 Kenner, “Interview: Ice Cube Talks.”
23 Brian Cross, ed., It’s Not about a Salary: Rap, Race, and Resistance in Los Angeles (New York: Verso, 1994), 143.
24 Dennis Hunt, “Dr. Dre Joins an Illustrious Pack in the Last Year,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1989, 76.
25 Ronin Ro, “Shock Treatment,” The Source, February 1994, 46.
26 Ronin Ro, “Dr. Dre: Moving Target,” The Source, November 1992, 40–42; Keith Murphy, “Full Clip: Ice Cube Breaks Down His Entire Catalog,” Vibe, October 8, 2010, http://
27 Robert Hilburn, “Notorious Ice Cube: Still the ‘Most Wanted,’” Los Angeles Times, May 27, 1990.
28 Ro, “Dr. Dre: Moving Target,” 41.
29 Stereo Crew, “She’s a Skag,” single (Epic Records, 1986), vinyl, 12”.
30 Mark Coleman, “Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill,” review, Rolling Stone, November 15, 1986.
31 Murphy, “Full Clip”; The C.I.A., Cru’ In Action, single (Kru-Cut Records, 1987), vinyl, EP.
32 Jerry Heller, with Gil Reavill, Ruthless: A Memoir (New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2006), 67–68. For samples of Ice Cube’s earlier recorded rhymes, see C.I.A., Cru’ In Action.
33 Kenner, “Interview: Ice Cube Talks.”
34 Kenner, “Interview: Ice Cube Talks.”
35 Darryl “Lyrrad” Davis, interview by Stefan Schuetze, West Coast Pioneers, April 2006; Eazy-E, “The Boyz-N-The Hood / L.A. Is the Place,” single (Ruthless/Macola, 1987), vinyl, 12” promo.
36 Eazy-E, “The Boyz-N-The Hood / L.A. Is the Place.”
37 Ice-T and Douglas Century, Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption—From South Central to Hollywood (New York: Random House, 2011), 92.
38 Not to be confused with A Tribe Called Quest’s “8 Million Stories,” in which Phife Dawg described his no good very bad day. Tribe’s track, recorded for the group’s 1993 album Midnight Marauders, echoes Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks” more than it does his other song of the same name. Kurtis Blow, “8 Million Stories,” single (Polygram Records/Mercury, 1984), vinyl, 12”.
39 Divine Sounds, “What People Do for Money,” single (Specific Records, 1984), vinyl, 12”; Run-DMC, “It’s Like That / Sucker M.C.’s,” single (Profile Records, 1983), vinyl, 12”.
40 Nelson George, Sally Banes, Susan Flinker, and Patty Romanowski, Fresh, Hip Hop Don’t Stop (New York: Random House, 1985), 7; Nelson George’s quote is reprinted in the album liner notes of LL Cool J, Radio, album (Def Jam/Columbia, 1985), vinyl, LP.
41 LL Cool J, “I Can Give You More” / “I Can’t Live without My Radio,” single (Def Jam Recordings, 1985), vinyl, 12”.
42 Boogie Down Productions, “My 9mm Goes Bang,” single (B-Boy Records, 1986), vinyl, 12”; Public Enemy, “You’re Gonna Get Yours / Rebel without a Pause / Miuzi Weighs a Ton,” single (Def Jam Recordings, 1987), vinyl, 12”; D.J. Polo and Kool G. Rap, “It’s a Demo / I’m Fly,” single (Cold Chillin’, 1986), vinyl, 12”; Eric B. featuring Rakim, “Eric B. Is President / My Melody,” single (4th & Broadway, 1986), vinyl, 12”.
43 Jay-Z, Decoded (New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2010), 10; Lisa Robinson, “Jay Z on His Rags-to-Riches Story, Wooing Beyoncé, and How Blue Ivy Is His Biggest Fan,” Vanity Fair, November 2013, 156.
44 Too Short, “Girl (Cocaine)” / “Shortrapp,” single (75 Girls Records and Tapes, 1985), vinyl, 12”; Too Short, Don’t Stop Rappin’, album (75 Girls Records and Tapes, 1987), cassette, LP; Too Short, Players, album (75 Girls Records and Tapes, 1987), cassette, LP. Too $hort added the “$” to his name in 1988, with the release of the Life Is … Too $hort record.
45 Schoolly D, “Gangster Boogie / Maniac,” single (Cut Masters Records, 1984), vinyl, 12”; Schoolly D, “C.I.A … (Crime In Action) / Cold Blooded Blitz,” single (Schoolly-D Records, 1985), vinyl, 12”; Schoolly D, “P.S.K.—What Does It Mean? / Gucci Time,” single (Schoolly-D Records, 1985), vinyl, 12”.
46 Brian Coleman, ed., Rakim Told Me: Hip-Hop Wax Facts, Straight from the Original Artists (Somerville, MA: Wax Facts Press, 2005), 174; Craig Lee, “A Tongue-lashing from Schoolly D,” Los Angeles Times, Calendar section, June 5, 1987, 14.
47 Ice-T, Ice, 90, 92.
48 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 181–182.
49 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 183. Ice-T’s records before 1986 exemplify this, including “The Coldest Rap” / ”Cold Wind-Madness,” single (Saturn Records, 1983), vinyl, 12”; and “Killers” / “Body Rock,” single, (Electro, 1985), vinyl, 12”.
50 Cross, It’s Not about a Salary, 184; Ice-T, “Dog’n The Wax (Ya Don’t Quit - Part II” / “6 in the Mornin,’” single (Techno Hop Records, 1986), vinyl, 12”.
51 This seems to have been an effective tactic, based on music critic Craig Lee’s assertion in the Los Angeles Times: “If parents have bad dreams about the Beastie Boys or Run-DMC, Schoolly D is a full-blown nightmare.” Lee, “A Tongue-lashing from Schoolly D.”
52 Toddy Tee, “Batterram,” single (original self-produced cassette-tape format, 1985; Evejim Records, 1985), vinyl, 12”; Eazy-E, “The Boyz-N-The Hood / L.A. Is The Place.”
53 Kenner, “Interview: Ice Cube Talks.”
54 Eazy-E, “The Boyz-N-The Hood / L.A. Is The Place.”
55 Spillius, “The Short, Shocking Life of Eric Wright”; McDermott, “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics.”
56 Heller and Reavill, Ruthless, 121; McDermott, “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics.”
57 McDermott, “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics.”
58 Heller and Reavill, Ruthless, 63, 121; McDermott, “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics”; Dennis Hunt, “The Rap Reality: Truth and Money; Compton’s N.W.A. Catches Fire with Stark Portraits of Ghetto Life,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1989.
60 Victor Valle, “Some Anxiety Clouds Rap Concert Tonight,” Los Angeles Times, December 31, 1987; “42 Are Hurt as Gang Fighting Breaks Up California Concert,” New York Times, August 19, 1986; George Ramos, “ ‘Rap Musicians’ Concert Is Canceled at Palladium after Long Beach Fights,” Los Angeles Times, August 19, 1986; Goldstein, “Can Rap Survive Gang War?”; see also Chapter 3.
61 Darling, “L.A.: The Second Deffest City of Hip-Hop.”
62 Jay-Z, Decoded, 10, 16; Darling, “L.A.: The Second Deffest City of Hip-Hop.”
63 Patrick Goldstein, “Pop Eye: Indie Promo Cutbacks Hurting Young Groups,” Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1986, R78.
64 Ralph Bailey, Jr., “Drive-By Wars Claim 8 Lives in 48 Hours,” Los Angeles Sentinel, December 3, 1987; “Summit Meeting on Gangs,” Los Angeles Times, February 12, 1988; Robert Reinhold, “In the Middle of L.A.’s Gang Wars,” New York Times, May 22, 1988; Jim Goins, “Compton Awarded Anti-Gang Grant,” Compton Bulletin, April 29, 1987, Mayor Tom Bradley Administration papers 1920-1993, UCLA Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
65 Christian L. Wright, “Kicking the Ballistics,” Spin, September 1, 1989, 12–13.
66 Elaine Lafferty and Margaret B. Carlson, “The Price of Life in Los Angeles,” Time, February 22, 1988.
67 Robert Reinhold, “Gang Violence Shocks Los Angeles,” New York Times, February 8, 1988; Lafferty and Carlson, “The Price of Life in Los Angeles”; Ivor Davis, “Gangs Invade Yuppie Haven: Violence in Los Angeles,” Times (London), February 8, 1988; Stanley Robertson, “L.A. Confidential: Won’t Find Solutions in ‘Ugliness,’” Los Angeles Sentinel, February 11, 1988, A6; John M. Glionna, “A Murder That Woke Up L.A.,” Los Angeles Times, January 30, 1998; Ann Wiener, “Woman Fatally Hit by Gang Gunfire in Westwood,” Los Angeles Times, February 1, 1988; “Los Angeles Drug Gangs Spread Out Over the West,” Chris Reed, Guardian, February 20, 1988.
68 “Police Chiefs Hold Summit on Gangs,” Los Angeles Sentinel, February 11, 1988, A1; Glionna, “A Murder That Woke Up L.A.”
69 Wright, “Kicking the Ballistics.”
70 “Hahn Seeks ‘Summit’ to End Gang Wars,” Los Angeles Sentinel, January 28, 1988, A10; “Police Chiefs Hold Summit on Gangs.”
71 Robertson, “L.A. Confidential: Won’t Find Solutions in ‘Ugliness.’”
72 F. Finley McRae, “Citizens Demand LAPD Deployment,” Los Angeles Sentinel, February 18, 1988, A1.
73 Daryl F. Gates and Diane K. Shah, Chief: My Life in the L.A.P.D. (New York: Bantam Books, 1992), 339; Stanley G. Robertson, “L.A. Confidential: Hit ’Em Again, Harder, Harder,” Los Angeles Sentinel, March 24, 1988, A6.
74 “Citing Recent Violence by Gangs, Los Angeles to Add 150 Officers,” New York Times, February 11, 1988; Reinhold, “Gang Violence Shocks Los Angeles.”
75 Reinhold, “Gang Violence Shocks Los Angeles.”
76 Legislative Counsel’s Digest, Senate Bill No. 1555 (1987–1988 Regular Session) Statutes 1988, Chapter 1256, signed by Governor, September 23, 1988; J. Franklin Sigal, “Out of Step: When the California Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act Stumbles into Penal Code Limits,” Golden Gate University Law Review 38, no. 1 (January 2007): 1–32; Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of Los Angeles (New York: Verso, 1990), 281–282.
77 Robert Reinhold, “Police Deployed to Curb Gangs in Los Angeles,” New York Times, April 9, 1988; Lafferty and Carlson, “The Price of Life in Los Angeles”; Jay Mathews, “More Than 600 Arrested in Anti-Gang Sweep by Los Angeles Police,” Washington Post, April 10, 1988, A3.
78 “‘The Ram’ Returns to Duty,” Los Angeles Sentinel, March 17, 1988, A1; Elena I. Popp to David Lynn, Attorney at Law for Police Misconduct Lawyer Referral Service, Los Angeles, “Re: Oakwood/Venice situation,” May 26, 1988, Box 6, Folder 2, CAPA Papers, Liberty Hill Foundation Collection, Southern California Library.
79 Ralph Bailey, Jr., “City Declares War on Gangs: Sweeps Stop Gang Killings,” Los Angeles Sentinel, March 10, 1988, A1.
80 Bob Baker, “‘The Hammer’ Is Nailing Gangs, LAPD Reports,” Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1988; “How California Is Fighting Gangs,” Western City, April 1989, 19.
81 John Johnson, “Night of the ‘Hammer’: Retaking the Streets of South L.A.,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1989; Wesley D. McBride and Robert K. Jackson, “In L.A. County, a High-Tech Assist in the War on Drugs,” The Police Chief, vol. 56 (June 1989); Baker, “‘The Hammer’ Is Nailing Gangs.”
82 Mark Thompson, “Los Angeles Seeks Ultimate Weapon in Gang War,” Wall Street Journal, March 30, 1988, 1.
83 “Reagan and Bush Place New Stress on the Drug Issue,” New York Times, May 19, 1988, A1.
84 Lynell George and David Dante Troutt, “Guns No Butter,” LA Weekly, January 1989, reprinted in No Crystal Stair: African-Americans in the City of Angels (New York: Verso, 1992), 27; Baker, “‘The Hammer’ Is Nailing Gangs.”
85 George and Troutt, “Guns No Butter.”
86 Stan James, “‘Reformed’ Rebel Dennis Hopper Reveals His … True Colors,” The Advertiser, July 21, 1988; Reinhold, “Police Deployed to Curb Gangs in Los Angeles”; Michael Reese, “War on the Mean Streets,” Newsweek, April 18, 1988, 73A.
87 Laurie Deans, “LA Clips: Brouhaha Fading as Colors Opens,” Globe and Mail (Canada), April 8, 1988; Michael White, “Film of Los Angeles Gang Warfare Stirs Up a Feud,” Guardian, April 12, 1988.
88 “Streets of Blood,” Courier-Mail (Brisbane), April 30, 1988; Bill Kelley, “‘Colors,’ Controversy and Hopper,” Sun Sentinel, April 17, 1988.
89 Colors, directed by Dennis Hopper (1988; Orion Pictures, 2001), DVD; Kelley, “‘Colors,’ Controversy and Hopper”; “Gang Movie ‘Colors’ Will Trigger Violence,” Los Angeles Sentinel, March 31, 1988, A1.
90 The title sequence of the film offers this information: “The combined anti-gang force numbers 250 men and women. In the greater Los Angeles area there are over 600 street gangs with almost 70,000 members. Last year [1987] there were 387 gang-related killings.” Police officials serving as technical assistants corroborated these statistics. Colors.
91 Kelley, “‘Colors,’ Controversy and Hopper.”
92 Sheena Lester, “‘Colors’: Controversial Film Met with Protest,” Los Angeles Sentinel, April 14, 1988, A3; Ice-T, Ice: A Memoir, 107–108.
93 Ben Cheshire, “Film Stirs Fear of Gang Warfare; Banned,” Sun Herald (Sydney), April 10, 1988, 33.
94 “Gang Movie ‘Colors’ Will Trigger Violence.”
95 Reinhold, “Police Deployed to Curb Gangs in Los Angeles.”
96 John Voland, “Weekend Box Office: ‘Colors’ Gives Orion a Big Boost,” Los Angeles Times, May 3, 1988; Sheena Lester, “‘Colors’ Gets Dismal Reviews from Public,” Los Angeles Sentinel; Courtland Milloy, “Profits Top Responsibility in Hollywood,” editorial, Washington Post, April 19, 1988; Colors, Box Office Mojo, http://
97 Ice-T, Ice: A Memoir, 109.
98 Janet Maslin, “Police vs. Street Gangs in Hopper’s ‘Colors,’” New York Times, April 15, 1988.
99 Ice-T, Ice: A Memoir, 108–109; Lester, “‘Colors’ Gets Dismal Reviews from Public.”
100 Maslin, “Police vs. Street Gangs in Hopper’s ‘Colors,’”; “Hopper Is Back in Favor,” Courier-Mail (Brisbane), August 13, 1988.
101 UK release Colors movie poster, image, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 1988, http://
102 “Niggers With Attitude,” Melody Maker, August 5, 1989, 42–43.
103 Gates, Chief, 339; Ice-T, Ice: A Memoir, 111; Thompson, “Los Angeles Seeks Ultimate Weapon in Gang War.”
104 Youth and Violence: The Current Crisis, Hearing Before the Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, Second Session (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, March 9, 1988), 19–20, 25–28, 38, 65–67, 83, 87; “The Drug Gangs,” Newsweek, March 28, 1988, 20–27.
105 McDermott, “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics.”
106 Eazy-E, “The Boyz-N-The Hood / L.A. Is The Place.”
107 Hunt, “The Rap Reality,” 80, 87.
108 “Niggers With Attitude,” 42–43.
109 David Mills, “Guns and Poses; Rap Music Violence: Glorifying Gangsterism or Reflecting Reality?” Washington Times, August 17, 1989, E1.
110 Hunt, “Dr. Dre Joins an Illustrious Pack.”
111 Brian Coleman, Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies (New York: Random House, 2002), 124–125.
112 Hunt, “The Rap Reality,” 80, 87.
113 Mills, “Guns and Poses,” E1.
114 Ro, “Dr. Dre: Moving Target,” 42.
115 McDermott, “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics.”
116 John Leland, “Rap as Public Forum on Matters of Life and Death,” New York Times, March 12, 1989.
117 Darling, “L.A.: The Second Deffest City of Hip-Hop.”
1 “Niggers With Attitude,” Melody Maker, August 5, 1989, 42–43; Jonathan Gold, “N.W.A.: A Hard Act to Follow,” LA Weekly, May 4, 1989.
2 Elizabeth Hayes, “Link between Gang Violence and Films?” Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1988.
3 John L. Mitchell, “The Raid That Still Haunts L.A.,” Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2001; Pamela Klein, “By All Means Necessary,” LA Weekly, December 30, 1988, to January 5, 1989, 43–44, 46; “Looking into a Police Raid,” Los Angeles Times, August 10, 1988, C6.
4 “Niggers With Attitude.”
5 Ted Rohrlick, “A Courthouse Called ‘Fort Compton’ Lives on the Cutting Edge of Justice,” Los Angeles Times, February 1, 1988.
6 N.W.A., “Straight Outta Compton,” directed by Rupert Wainwright (May 1989; Los Angeles: Ruthless Records), music video.
7 Deborah Russell, “Fragile Going Strong with Hammer and ‘Gang’ Vids,” Billboard 102, no. 23 (June 9, 1990), 59–60.
8 Gold, “N.W.A.: A Hard Act to Follow”; Jessica Bendinger, John Leland, Christian Wright, “The Cold Rock Stuff,” Spin 5, no. 4 (July 1, 1989), 2; Richard Harrington, “On the Beat: The Rap Jive from MTV,” Washington Post, May 24, 1989, D7.
9 “Niggers With Attitude.”
10 “Niggers With Attitude.”
11 “The Drug Gangs,” Newsweek, March 28, 1988, 20–27.
12 John Leland, “Do the Right Thing,” Spin, September 1, 1989, 68–70, 72, 74, 100.
13 Eazy E, “The Boyz-N-The Hood / L.A. Is The Place,” single (Ruthless Records, 1987), vinyl, 12”; examples of early New York street rap include Kool Moe Dee, How Ya Like Me Now, album (Jive, 1987), vinyl, LP; Boogie Down Productions, Criminal Minded, album (B-Boy Records, 1987), vinyl, LP; Public Enemy, Yo! Bum Rush The Show, album (Def Jam Recordings, 1987), vinyl, LP; Run-DMC, Run-DMC, album (Profile Records, 1984), vinyl, LP; Run-DMC, Raising Hell, album (Profile, 1986), vinyl, LP.
14 Jerry Heller, Ruthless: A Memoir (New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2006), 109.
15 Heller, Ruthless, 110–113; Keith Murphy, “Public Enemies,” Vibe 16, no. 8 (August 2008): 94.
16 Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn, eds., Yes, Yes, Y’all: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop’s First Decade (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002), 328, 329.
17 Run-DMC’s debut single “You Be Illin’” did appear on Billboard’s “Hot 100 Singles Spotlight” in the fall of 1986. But a careful scan of industry reports about chart movement and programming additions shows that this was an anomaly, especially in that year; “Hot 100 Singles Spotlight,” Billboard 98, no. 46 (November 15, 1986): 91.
18 Debi Fee, “The Rap against Rap at Black Radio: Professional Suicide or Cultural Smokescreen,” Billboard 100, no. 52 (December 24, 1988): R8, R21.
19 Patrick Goldstein, “Indie Promo Cutbacks Hurting Young Groups,” Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1986, R78; Michael Goldberg, “Grand Juries Investigate Mob Ties to Record Biz,” Rolling Stone, May 8, 1986; William K. Knoedelseder, Jr., “Growing Force of Investigators Probes Mob Ties to Record Industry,” Los Angeles Times, October 19, 1986; Tom Brokaw and Brian Ross, “The New Payola,” NBC Evening News, February 24, 1986; “Ross Plans New Payola Probe,” Radio & Records, June 26, 1987; “Payola: The Record-Label Connection,” Rolling Stone, April 21, 1988.
20 Irv Lichtman and Sam Sutherland, “Capitol, MCA Drop Indies; RIAA Subpoenaed,” Billboard 98, no. 10 (March 8, 1986), 1; Irv Lichtman, “More Key Labels Sever Indie Ties,” Billboard 98, no. 11 (March 15, 1986), 1; Richard Harrington, “CBS Records Takes on Rolling Stone,” Washington Post, April 15, 1986; “Black Indie Promotion Dismissal Protest Set,” Black Radio Exclusive 11, no. 8 (March 21, 1986), 6.
21 John Leland, “Droppin’ Science,” Spin, August 1, 1989, 48–52; for trends in black radio programming, see “Regional Adds” in issues of Black Radio Exclusive, particularly from 1985 through 1989.
22 “Inside Urban Radio,” Gavin Report, issue 1703 (April 22, 1988), 55; “Urban Contemporary Adds,” Gavin Report, issue 1705 (May 6, 1988); “R&R National Airplay: Contemporary Hit Radio,” Radio & Records, issue 740 (June 3, 1988); “National Airplay: Contemporary Hit Radio,” Radio & Records, issue 734 (April 22, 1988); “National Airplay: Contemporary Hit Radio,” Radio & Records, issue 726 (February 26, 1988): 102; “CHR Adds & Hots,” Radio & Records, issue 735 (April 29, 1988): 82–85; “D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince,” Radio & Records, issue 737 (May 13, 1988): 28; “Hot 100 Singles Spotlight,” Billboard 100, no. 24 (June 11, 1988): 84.
23 “Colors Ad,” Black Radio Exclusive 13, no. 18 (May 20, 1988): 40; Coming to America ad, cover, Black Radio Exclusive 13, no. 24 (July 8, 1988); “Coming to America Feature,” Black Radio Exclusive 13, no. 24 (July 8, 1988): 10; Duff Marlowe, “Rap Report,” Black Radio Exclusive (August 5, 1988): 14.
24 Bob Pool, “Station’s Neighbors Rap Its Wrap-Around Sound,” Los Angeles Times, November 4, 1989.
25 Ben Westhoff, “KDAY, the Gangsta Rap Oldies Station Breaks New Ground by Playing Music from the Bad Old Days,” LA Weekly, August 2, 2012.
26 Alex Henderson, “Rap’s Cutting Edge Seeks Next New Creative Frontiers to Stay Sharp—and Successful,” Billboard 100, no. 52 (December 24, 1988): R6, R16, R20.
27 “Billboard Advertising Supplement: K-Tel,” Billboard 109, no. 10 (March 8, 1997): K10; SuCarroll Pursell, Technology in Postwar America: A History (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012), 100. For more on the Veg-O-Matic and the evolution of the so-called infomercial, see Malcolm Gladwell, “Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius,” in What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures (New York: Little, Brown, 2009).
28 Bartley Kives, “Straight Outta West K,” Winnipeg Free Press, September 8, 2015; “K-TEL Records,” Billboard 85, no. 44 (November 3, 1973): UK9.
29 Craig Rosen, “After 10 Years, Priority Proves It’s More Than Rap,” Billboard 107, no. 23 (June 10, 1995): 18; Elliot Wilson, “Ten Years of Priority Records,” Vibe 3, no. 8 (August 1995): 34.
30 Rosen, “After 10 Years, Priority Proves,” 18.
31 Interestingly, though, the dialogue around these anthropomorphic purple fruits, who had exaggerated black facial features and performed for white characters, never addressed minstrelsy; Dave DiMartino, “California Raisins Harvest Success for Priority Label,” Billboard 100, no. 2 (January 9, 1988): 4, 84; Stanley Mieses, “Raisins,” Spin 3, no. 9 (February 1, 1988): 74.
32 DiMartino, “California Raisins Harvest Success,” 4.
33 Heller, Ruthless, 113.
34 “The Drug Gangs”; Bob Baker, “Cold Killers and Fearful Innocents,” Los Angeles Times, June 26, 1988.
35 “The Drug Gangs.”
36 Kives, “Straight Outta West K”; Robert Hilburn, “Making Music the Priority,” Los Angeles Times, January 6, 1999.
37 Henderson, “Active Indies: Rap’s Cutting Edge,” R16.
38 Neil Strauss, “The Secret Power in Big Rap: Bryan Turner Makes Rap Records but Escapes the Criticism,” New York Times, September 3, 1998.
39 Patrick Goldstein, “This Record Exec Takes the Rap—Gladly,” Los Angeles Times, September 14, 1986.
40 Rob Tannenbaum and Craig Marks, eds., I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution (New York: Plume, 2012), xxxviii–xiv; for a cultural history of dance television in the disco era, see also Alice Echols, Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture (New York: W. W. Norton, 2011).
41 Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 6, 21.
42 Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 15.
43 Patrick Goldstein, “Uncertain Notes Hit at Video Music Parley,” Los Angeles Times, November 16, 1981, G1.
44 Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 5, 26.
45 Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 22, 60–84, 70; Pekka Gronow, “The Record Industry: The Growth of a Mass Medium,” Popular Music 3 (January 1983): 53–75.
46 Dennis Hunt, “How Goes the Music Revolution?” Los Angeles Times, September 3, 1989, 55.
47 Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 207.
48 For the most thorough demonstration of the visual elements so critical to the first five years of hip-hop, see Martha Cooper’s incredible collection of photographs and reflections in Hip Hop Files: Photographs, 1979–1984 (Cologne, Germany: From Here to Fame Publishing, 2004); and Fricke and Ahearn, Yes, Yes, Y’all; John Leland, “It’s Like That,” Village Voice, June 17, 1986, 67, 70; Greg Tate, “They’re Gonna Smash Their Brains In,” Village Voice, April 9, 1985, 61. Jonathan Gold, “N.W.A.: A Hard Act to Follow,” Spin, May 5, 1989.
49 Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 60–84.
50 Sugarhill Gang, “Rapper’s Delight,” music video (Rhino Home Video, 1998; original 1982), VHS; Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, “The Message,” music video (Rhino Home Video, 1998; original, 1982), VHS; Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force, “Planet Rock,” music video (BBC TV, 1984; original on Intersong Music / Tommy Boy Records, 1982), VHS.
51 Leland, “Droppin Science.”
52 Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 244.
53 Nelson George, The Hippest Trip in America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture and Style (New York: William Morrow, 2014), 138.
54 David Fear, “Dance Dance Revolution: Nelson George on ‘Soul Train,’” Rolling Stone, April 24, 2014.
55 “Debbie Harry and Funky 4 + 1 More,” Saturday Night Live, season 6, episode 10, aired February 14, 1981 (NBC Studios); Andrew Mason, “Sound Image: Blondie,” Wax Poetics, issue 60 (November 21, 2014); Soul Train, season 10, episode 336, L.T.D./Seventh Wonder/Kurtis Blow, originally aired September 27, 1980.
56 Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 39.
57 Laura Foti, “Taste & Fairness on Video,” Billboard, December 11, 1982, 10; Nelson George, “Slick Rick Says MTV Is Sick,” Billboard, February 19, 1983, 53; Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 139; see also George, The Hippest Trip in America.
58 Cary Darling, “R&B Denied?” Billboard 93, no. 47 (November 28, 1981): 4, 62.
59 Laura Foti, “Sylvester Dances into MTV View,” Billboard 95, no. 15 (April 15, 1983): 82–83; Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 139.
60 MTV News, clip and transcript of David Bowie interview cited in “David Bowie Accusing MTV of Racism in ’83: Read the Interview Transcript,” Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2016.
61 Douglas Frohman, “Spotlight on Music Video: Spotlight Talks with MTV,” Back Stage 25, no. 20 (May 18, 1984): 38B; Jim Bessman, “Majors Look to Youth Movement to Spread Gains, Challenge Platinum,” Billboard 97, no. 24 (June 15, 1985): BM3; Nelson George, “At Last Black Acts Making MTV Inroads,” Billboard 101, no. 14 (April 8, 1989): 20.
62 Fred Rothenberg, “NBC Hops on Video Music Bandwagon,” Globe and Mail (Toronto), July 30, 1983.
63 Nancy Hass, “Music Video Beat,” Back Stage 25, no. 23 (June 8, 1984): 52–53, 56; Marc Kirke, “‘Night Flight’ Takes Off,” American Film 7, no. 10 (September 1, 1982): 26–27.
64 Hass, “Music Video Beat”; “Video Music: Raiding the Ranks of Daytime,” Billboard 98, no. 15 (April 12, 1986): 61; Chris McGowan, “Music Video on TV: From Youth to Middle Age in Seven Years,” Billboard 100, no. 46 (November 12, 1988): V1, V5.
65 Rothenberg, “NBC Hops on Video Music Bandwagon”; Richard Lacayo, “The Rock Competition Steps Up a Beat,” New York Times, August 7, 1983, A23.
66 Steven Dupler, “Jukebox Format Making Waves in Miami,” Billboard 98, no. 10 (March 8, 1986): 44–45.
67 “Friday Night Videos,” Variety 312, no. 1 (August 3, 1983): 48.
68 Rothenberg, “NBC Hops on Video Music Bandwagon”; Eric Zorn, “Tempo: NBC Quicksteps into the Music-Video Craze with ‘Friday Night Videos,” Chicago Tribune, May 19, 1983, E12.
69 Laura Foti, “NBC Takes a Chance on Rock,” Billboard 95, no. 26 (July 2, 1983): 34; Rothenberg, “NBC Hops on Video Music Bandwagon”; Kev, “Friday Night Videos,” 48.
70 Ken Terry, “ABC-TV’s Gotham Outlet Debuts Black-Oriented Video Program; Not Paying for Use of Clips,” Variety, July 27, 1983; Hass, “Music Video Beat”; Fred Goodman, “‘Hot Tracks’ Vidclips Now on 80 Stations,” Billboard 96, no. 19 (May 12, 1984): 66; “Uggams to Host Finals of Break Dance Contest,” New York Amsterdam News, December 17, 1983, 21; “New York Hot Tracks on Location at Apollo,” New York Amsterdam News, August 2, 1986, 21; Jay Blotcher, “Airplay’s Up and Everyone’s High or at Least That’s What They Say,” Back Stage 25, no. 40 (September 28, 1984): 8B; [advertisement] “New York Hot Tracks,” Broadcasting 106, no. 5 (January 30, 1984): 57.
71 John Dempsey, “More Indie TV Stations Use Vidclips as Staple; MTV Exclusivity Hurts,” Variety 318, no. 9 (March 27, 1985): 88.
72 Jack McNonough, “California Music Channel Scores,” Billboard 95, no. 20 (May 14, 1983): 56.
73 Kip Kirby, “Clip Shows Compared to Radio,” Billboard, October 6, 1984, 6, 70.
74 Jon Pareles, “Music Videos Try a New Tack: Their Novelty Worn Thin, Music Videos Try New Tricks,” New York Times, April 13, 1986, H1.
75 Pareles, “Music Videos Try a New Tack”; McGowan, “Music Video on TV.”
76 Susan Orlean, “Profiles: Living Large,” New Yorker, June 17, 1991; Jon Caramanica, “Peter Dougherty, Who Brought Rap to MTV, Dies at 59,” New York Times, October 27, 2015.
77 Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 379–382.
78 Leland, “Droppin Science.”
79 McGowan, “Music Video on TV.”
80 Goldstein, “This Record Exec Takes the Rap—Gladly.”
81 Goodman, “‘Hot Tracks’ Vidclips.”
82 “BRE Flicks,” Black Radio Exclusive, 10, no. 2 (February 5, 1985) photo, 5.
83 Jacob Hoye, ed., MTV: Uncensored (New York: Pocket Books, 2001), 96–98.
84 David Samuels, “Yo! MTV Unwrapped,” Spin 7, no. 6 (September 1, 1991): 44–45; “Chuck D: Rap Addresses Life,” Los Angeles Sentinel, August 3, 1989, A2; Ted Turner, “My Beef with Big Media,” Washington Monthly 36, no. 7 (July 1, 2004): 30–37.
85 Caramanica, “Pete Dougherty”; Paul Grein, “Rappers Welcome MTV’s Enthusiasm,” Los Angeles Times, June 18, 1989, 365.
86 George, “At Last Black Acts Making MTV Inroads,” 20.
87 Samuels, “Yo! MTV Unwrapped”; Jessica Bendinger, “Public Enemy,” Spin 3, no. 8 (January, 1 1988): 65–66.
88 Samuels, “Yo! MTV Unwrapped.”
89 Grein, “Rappers Welcome MTV’s Enthusiasm.”
90 Tannenbaum and Marks, I Want My MTV, 244.
91 Orlean, “Profiles: Living Large.”
92 Orlean, “Profiles: Living Large.” For an in-depth, contemporaneous profile of Fred “Fab 5 Freddy” Brathwaite, his participation in the East Village art scene that flowered in the early 1980s, and his role as an ambassador of cultural fusion, see Steven Hager, Art after Midnight: The East Village Scene (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986).
93 Samuels, “Yo! MTV Unwrapped.”
94 David Nathan, “L.A.’s Priority Puts West Coast Rap on the Map,” Billboard, March 18, 1989, 27–28.
95 Nathan, “L.A.’s Priority”; Strauss, “The Secret Power in Big Rap”; Brian Cross, ed., It’s Not about a Salary: Rap, Race, and Resistance in Los Angeles (New York: Verso, 1993), 36–37.
96 Mark Cooper, “NWA: ‘Our Raps Are Documentary. We Don’t Take Sides,’” Guardian, October 1, 1989.
97 “Album Reviews: Black,” Billboard 101, no. 8 (February 25, 1989): 70; Andy Gill, “Taking a Rap on the Knuckles,” Independent, September 8, 1989; Robert Hilburn, “Ice Cube Keeps Cool, Chills Clash,” Los Angeles Times, March 24, 1989, P4.
98 “Ice Cube / N.W.A. / D.O.C.,” Pump It Up, TV series, directed by Spencer Thornton (originally aired in 1989; Fox Television Productions, 1989), http://
99 Cooper, “NWA: ‘Our Raps Are Documentary.’”
100 Jane Garcia, “Live: NWA / Eazy-E / Ice-T / King Tee / The DOC,” New Musical Express, April 15, 1989, 49.
101 “‘Raptalk’ Slated for Public,” Los Angeles Sentinel, September 1, 1988; “‘Raptalk’ Seminar Set,” Los Angeles Times, September 5, 1988, E10; Henderson, “Active Indies: Rap’s Cutting Edge”; “UC Adds and Hots,” Radio & Records 765 (November 25, 1988): 53; “Urban: National Airplay,” Radio & Records 767 (December 9, 1988): 56; “Top Pop Albums,” Billboard 100, no. 50 (December 10, 1988): 76; “Top Pop Albums,” Billboard 100, no. 51 (December 17, 1988): 79; “Urban: National Airplay: Significant Action,” Radio & Records 769 (December 23, 1988): 56.
102 Yo! MTV Raps, Episode 29, TV series, directors Ted Demme and Moses Edinborough (originally aired April 8, 1989; MTV Networks, 1989); NWA: The World’s Most Dangerous Group, directed by Mark Ford (2008; VH1 Rock Docs, 2008), TV broadcast.
103 Alan Light, “Beating Up the Charts,” Rolling Stone, August 8, 1991, 65; “Ice Cube/N.W.A./D.O.C.,” Pump It Up; Dennis Hunt, “The Rap Reality: Truth and Money,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1989, 80.
104 “Demographics,” City of Compton, comptoncity.org, http://
105 “VH1 Rock Docs: Yo! The Story of Yo! MTV Raps,” documentary, directed by Mimi Adams, (VH1 Productions, 2012), TV.
106 Preezy Brown, “The Amazing Oral History of ‘Yo! MTV Raps,’” Vibe, June 1, 2018.
107 Gold, “N.W.A.: A Hard Act to Follow.”
108 Kevin Zimmerman, “Independent Labels Want Their MTV,” Variety, May 23, 1990.
109 Leland, “Droppin Science”; Peter Watrous, “Rappers Keep Their Music’s Content Fresh,” New York Times, January 10, 1988, 290.
110 Steve Hochman, “NWA Keeping Attitude Alive,” Musician no. 149 (March 1, 1991): 58–61.
111 Susan King, “Pick a Video: Cable’s New Jukebox Network,” Los Angeles Times, June 13, 1990.
112 Gold, “N.W.A.: A Hard Act to Follow.”
113 Heller, Ruthless, 110–111.
1 Richard Harrington, “The FBI as Music Critic; Letter on Rap Record Seen as Intimidation,” Washington Post, October 4, 1989; Steve Hochman, “Compton Rappers versus the Letter of the Law,” Los Angeles Times, October 5, 1989, Calendar section, 1, 6; Tipper Gore, “Hate, Rape, and Rap,” Washington Post, January 8, 1990; Robert Hilburn, “Notorious Ice Cube: Still the ‘Most Wanted,’” Los Angeles Times, May 27, 1990, F65; David Mills, “Guns and Poses; Rap Music Violence: Glorifying Gangsterism or Reflecting Reality?” Washington Times, August 17, 1989, E1.
2 N.W.A., “Fuck tha Police,” Straight Outta Compton, album (Ruthless/Priority, 1988), vinyl, LP, cassette, and CD; Peter H. King, “Punk Rockers Put on Notice by Santa Ana: Punk Rock: Santa Ana Is Wary,” Los Angeles Times, January 9, 1982; Dan Nakaso, “Skin Slashed, Furniture and Windows Smashed: Punk Rock May Cost Theater Owner His License,” Los Angeles Times, January 20, 1983; Cary Darling, “41 Arrested at L.A. ‘Punk Riot,’” Billboard 95, no. 8. (February 26, 1983): 30, 35; Patrick Goldstein, “Is Heavy Metal a Loaded Gun Aimed at Its Fans?” Los Angeles Times, January 26, 1986; “Record Labeling” Senate Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, First Session on Content of Music and the Lyrics of Records, Sept. 19, 1985 (US Government Printing Office, Washington, 1985). See also Chapter 3.
3 Mills, “Guns and Poses.”
4 N.W.A., “Fuck tha Police.”
5 Jonathan Gold, “N.W.A.: A Hard Act to Follow,” LA Weekly, May 5, 1989; Mike Sager, “Cube,” Rolling Stone, issue 588 (October 4, 1990): 78.
6 Miami Vice, created by Anthony Yerkovich (NBC, 1984–1990), TV series; America’s Most Wanted, created by Michael Linder and Stephen Chao (Fox Broadcasting, 1988–2011), TV series; Cops, created by John Langley and Malcolm Barbour (Fox Broadcasting, 1989–2013), TV series.
7 Gold, “N.W.A.: A Hard Act to Follow”; Sager, “Cube.”
8 Robert Reinhold, “In the Middle of L.A.’s Gang Wars,” New York Times, May 22, 1988; Elaine Lafferty and Margaret B. Carlson, “The Price of Life in Los Angeles,” Time, February 22, 1988; Ivor Davis, “Gangs Invade Yuppie Haven: Violence in Los Angeles,” Times (London), February 8, 1988; Ann Wiener, “Woman Fatally Hit by Gang Gunfire in Westwood,” Los Angeles Times, February 1, 1988; “Los Angeles Drug Gangs Spread Out over the West,” Chris Reed, Guardian, February 20, 1988; “Citing Recent Violence by Gangs, Los Angeles to Add 150 Officers,” New York Times, February 11, 1988; Laurie Deans, “LA Clips: Brouhaha Fading as Colors Opens,” Globe and Mail (Canada), April 8, 1988; Michael White, “Film of Los Angeles Gang Warfare Stirs Up a Feud,” Guardian, April 12, 1988. See also Chapter 4.
9 Pamela Klein, “By All Means Necessary,” LA Weekly, December 30, 1988, to January 5, 1989, 43–44.
10 Jon Pareles, “Outlaw Rock: More Skirmishes on the Censorship Front,” New York Times, December 10, 1989; Dennis Hunt, “Dr. Dre Joins an Illustrious Pack in the Last Year,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1989, 76.
11 NWA: The World’s Most Dangerous Group, directed by Mark Ford (2008; VH1 Rock Docs, 2008), TV broadcast.
12 H. Curtis Wiggins, “Media Power and the Black American,” Crisis 82, no. 6 (June–July 1975): 210.
13 Klein, “By All Means Necessary”; The Arsenio Hall Show, Season 3, Episode 15, created by Arsenio Hall and Marla Kell Brown (Paramount Domestic Television, Sept 28, 1990), TV episode.
14 Tha Westside, directed by Todd Williams (2002; Niche Entertainment, 2002), DVD.
15 Brian Coleman, Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies (New York: Random House, 2007), 127; Cypress Hill, “Pigs,” Cypress Hill, album (Ruffhouse Records, 1991), vinyl, LP.
16 Sam Kashner, “Hollywood in the Hood,” Vanity Fair (September 2016), 222.
17 John Leland, “Droppin Science,” Spin, August 1, 1989, 48–52.
18 Jay-Z, Decoded (New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2010), 10, 16.
19 Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, “N.W.A.,” Rolling Stone, issue 972 (April 21, 2005): 90.
20 John Leland, “Rap as Public Forum on Matters of Life and Death,” New York Times, March 12, 1989, Section 2, 29; “Stone Cold Pimpin’: From L.A. Hustler to Worldwide Rap Star, Ice-T Gets the Power,” Vibe, August 2008, 95; King Tee, “The Coolest,” Act a Fool, album (Capitol Records, 1988), CD.
21 Push, “Niggers With Attitude: Street Hassle,” Melody Maker, August 5, 1989, 42–43.
22 The Arsenio Hall Show, Season 3, Episode 15.
23 Chuck Philips, “Beating the Rap of Concert Violence,” Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1991; Hochman, “Compton Rappers versus the Letter of the Law”; Mills, “Guns and Poses”; Harrington, “The FBI as Music Critic”; Pareles, “Outlaw Rock”; David Mills, “N.W.A. Flees Stage after Song Lyrics Incite Concert Police,” Washington Times, August 17, 1989.
24 Harrington, “The FBI as Music Critic”; Carol Motsinger and Cameron Knight, “Ice Cube Recalls Tense ’89 Stop in Cincy,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 6, 2016.
25 Hochman, “Compton Rappers versus the Letter of the Law”; Mills, “Guns and Poses”; Harrington, “The FBI as Music Critic”; Pareles, “Outlaw Rock”; David Mills, “N.W.A. Flees Stage after Song Lyrics Incite Concert Police,” Washington Times, August 17, 1989; Dave Marsh and Phyllis Pollack, “Wanted for Attitude,” Village Voice 34, no. 41 (October 10, 1989): 33–34.
26 Chester Higgins, “Harassment Suit Filed in Toledo,” New York Amsterdam News, August 27, 1988, 5; “Toledo Police Chief Rescinds His Order to Question Blacks,” New York Times, August 16, 1988, A25; Marsh and Pollack, “Wanted for Attitude.”
27 John Kifner, “As Crack Moves Inland, Ohio City Fights Back,” New York Times, August 29, 1989, 1, 9.
28 Stephen Franklin, “Murders Torment Detroit,” Chicago Tribune, January 13, 1987; Ze’ev Chafets, “The Tragedy of Detroit,” New York Times, July 29, 1990, 326.
29 Norris P. West, “Man Beaten by PG Police Gets $1.9 Million Award,” Baltimore Sun, March 18, 1993.
30 Debbie M. Price, “Blows Cited in Death of P.G. Suspect,” Washington Post, May 25, 1989.
31 Debbie M. Price, “P.G. Police Chief Caught in the Eye of the Storm,” Washington Post, September 25, 1989; John Feinstein and Eugene L. Meyer, “1976 Slayings by P.G. Police Squad Probed,” Washington Post, February 11, 1979.
32 Price, “P.G. Police Chief”; Matt Neufeld, “Lyrics Get Rap Group Cut from Cap Centre,” Washington Times, August 22, 1989.
33 Charles Baillou, “Why White Cops Kill Black People,” New York Amsterdam News, December 3, 1988, 3.
34 Peter Noel, “Prof Files $15M Police Brutality Suit,” New York Amsterdam News, June 3, 1987, 1.
35 Harold Jamison, “Assault on Woman Draws Pastor’s Anger,” New York Amsterdam News, January 14, 1989, 3.
36 Thomas Collins, “Donald Trump’s High-Priced Graffiti,” Newsday, May 3, 1989, 67; for an example of Donald Trump’s celebrity, see the May 1, 1984, issue of GQ magazine, which features Trump as its poster boy for millionaire risk-takers and a feature story entitled, “Donald Trump Gets What He Wants.”
37 Milt Ahlerich, letter to Priority Records, August 1, 1989, published as figure in Steve Hochman, “Compton Rappers versus the Letter of the Law, Los Angeles Times, August 5, 1989; Marsh and Pollack, “Wanted for Attitude.”
38 “The FBI Hates this Band, and Other Tales of Cultural Crackdown in the Age of Helms,” Village Voice 34, no. 41 (October 10, 1989), cover.
39 Ras Baraka, “Endangered Species: Ice Cube,” The Source no. 24 (September 1991): 34.
40 K Murphy, “Full Clip: Ice Cube Breaks Down His Entire Catalog,” Vice, October 8, 2010.
41 NWA: The World’s Most Dangerous Group.
42 Steve Hochman, “NWA Keeping Attitude Alive,” Musician, no. 149 (March 1, 1991): 58–61.
43 Chris Morris, “TV Host Barnes Pumps Out $23 Mil Suit against N.W.A.,” Billboard, July 13, 1991, 9; “Violence Is Reflected in Actions as Well as Words,” USA Today, June 21, 1991, 4D; Chris Morris, “N.W.A. Member Dr. Dre Pleads No Contest on Attack Charge,” Billboard, September 1991, 11; Martha Sherrill, “Guess Who’s Coming to Lunch? It’s Easy-E, Mixin’ with the GOP to Hear the Rap of the Commander in Chief,” Washington Post, March 19, 1991; Mark Blackwell, “Niggaz4Dinner,” Spin 7, no. 6 (September 1991): 55–57.
44 Pareles, “Outlaw Rock.”
45 Jon Pareles, “Rap: Slick, Violent, Nasty and, Maybe, Hopeful,” New York Times, June 17, 1990.
46 Gil Griffin, “Strong Words from Ice-T and N.W.A.,” Washington Post, June 12, 1991.
47 Chris Morris, “Minnesota to Musicland: No N.W.A. Album to Minors,” Billboard, August 10, 1991.
48 Paul Grein, “N.W.A. Album Charges onto Chart at No. 2,” Billboard, June 15, 1991; “The Billboard 200,” Billboard, July 6, 1991; Griffin, “Strong Words from Ice-T and N.W.A.”
49 James T. Jones, “N.W.A.’s Career Gets a Jolt from Lyrics’ Shock Value,” USA Today, June 21, 1991; Alan Light, “Beating Up the Charts,” Rolling Stone, August 8, 1991, 65.
50 Janine McAdams, “Low ‘Priority’: N.W.A.’s Chart-Topping Album; Violence, Misogyny Mar Un-Eazy-E ‘Efil4zaggin,’” Billboard, July 6, 1991, 23.
51 J. Andrea Penix-Smith, “2 Live Crew, Eazy-E, NWA Set for Compton Rapfest,” Los Angeles Sentinel, September 13, 1990, B10.
52 Jon Shecter, “Real Niggaz Don’t Die,” The Source, September 1991, 24.
53 Jon Pareles, “Should Ice Cube’s Voice Be Chilled,” New York Times, December 8, 1991.
54 Deborah Russell, “N.W.A. Displays a Winning Attitude; Stickered Album Is Nation’s Top Seller,” Billboard, June 22, 1991, 7.
55 Shecter, “Real Niggaz Don’t Die.”
56 Leland, “Droppin Science.”
57 “Public Enemy No. 2 Rapped,” Toronto Star, February 13, 1990, B1; “Record Chain Bans Rap Group’s Album,” Globe and Mail (Canada), February 13, 1990.
58 Lisa Barrett, “The Politics of Rap: Artists and Activists Sound Off and Speak Up,” Los Angeles Sentinel, October 24, 1991.
59 Patrick Goldstein, “Rappers Don’t Have Time for Newsweek’s Attitude,” Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1990.
60 Gregory Banks, “Violence in Rap: It’s Time to Draw the Line,” Los Angeles Sentinel, October 18, 1990, B9.
61 Marsh and Pollack, “Wanted for Attitude.”
62 Steve Hochman, “Police Don’t Give Rappers Bad Rap,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1989.
63 Linda Deutsch, “21 LAPD Officers Involved in Beating of Black Motorist,” Press Telegram (Long Beach), March 20, 1991, A1, in US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Records, the Vault, Rodney King, part 1 of 24, item 57, https://
64 “Doctor Lists Injuries of Beaten Man,” Star-News, March 9, 1991, A1, in FBI Records, the Vault, Rodney King, part 1 of 24, item 50.
65 Danny Pollock, “2 Local Victims React Differently to Police Brutality,” Star-News, March 21, 1991, 1, in FBI Records, the Vault, Rodney King, part 1 of 24, item 222.
66 “Civilians’ Video Cameras Undoing Rogue Officers,” Star-News, March 8, 1991, A8, in FBI Records, the Vault, Rodney King, part 1 of 24, item 46.
67 “Video Footage of Arrest by Los Angeles Police Officers on March 3, 1991,” in FBI Records, the Vault, Rodney King; Steve Padilla and Leslie Berger, “Cameraman’s Test Puts Him in the Spotlight,” Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1991; Kevin Uhrich, “It Turned My Stomach When I Saw It,” Star-News, March 8, 1991, 1, in FBI Records, the Vault, Rodney King, part 1 of 24, item 47.
68 Hector Tobar and Richard Lee Colvin, “Witnesses Depict Relentless Beating,” Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1991; Jennifer Lewis, “Tape Shocks Westside Police Commander,” The Outlook, March 8, 1991, 5, in FBI Records, the Vault, Rodney King, part 1 of 24, item 36; Pamela Medve, “Video Stirs Emotions, Controversy,” San Gabriel Valley Tribune, March 7, 1991, 1, in FBI Records, the Vault, Rodney King, part 1 of 24, item 37.
69 “Police Joked about Black’s Beating Los Angeles Officer’s Message Boasts of ‘Big-Time Use of Force,’” Toronto Star, March 19, 1991. For a full transcript of transmissions between squad cars and the watch commander’s office of the LAPD’s Foothill Division related to the Rodney King beating, see Tracy Wood and Sheryl Stolberg, “Patrol Car Log in Beating Released,” Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1991.
70 Janice Luder, “300 Protest Beating of Rodney King,” Star-News, March 10, 1991, A1, in FBI Records, the Vault, Rodney King, part 1 of 24, item 55; “Hundreds of Protesters Demand That Gates Resign,” Los Angeles Times, March 10, 1991.
71 Howard Gantman, “Bradley, Lawmakers Urge Probe of Brutality,” The Outlook, March 7, 1991, in FBI Records, the Vault, Rodney King, part 1 of 24, item 23–24; Elaine Woo, “Rev. Jackson Joins Call for Gates’ Ouster, Scolds Bradley,” Los Angeles Times, March 17, 1991; Wood and Stolberg, “Patrol Car Log.”
72 Ramona Ripston, “Chief Gates Must Step Aside,” Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1991; Tim Kenworthy and Jill Walker, “Lawmakers Ask FBI to Probe Los Angeles Police for Brutality; Chief Gates Urged to Resign over Beating of Black,” Washington Post, March 13, 1991; Yusuf Jah and Sister Shah-Keyah, Uprising: Crips and Bloods Tell the Story of America’s Youth in the Crossfire (New York: Scribner, 1995), 122, 132.
73 Jerry Seper, “Black Caucus Wants Action on Alleged Brutality in LA,” Washington Times, March 13, 1991; “Black Caucus Urges Broadened U.S. Inquiry into LAPD Beating Case,” Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1991; John Yang and Jill Walker, “4 L.A. Officers Reported Indicted in Taped Beating; U.S. to Widen Probe of Alleged Police Brutality,” Washington Post, March 15, 1991; “U.S. Widens Probe of Police Violence,” St. Petersburg Times (Florida), March 15, 1991.
74 Charles Leerhsen and Lynda Wright, “L.A.’s Violent New Video,” Newsweek, March 18, 1991.
75 Blackwell, “Niggaz4Dinner.”
76 NWA: The World’s Most Dangerous Group.
77 Gerrick Kennedy, “Ice Cube Reflects on the 25 Years since the Release of ‘Death Certificate,’” Los Angeles Times, June 30, 2017.
78 Baraka, “Endangered Species.”
79 Ice Cube, Death Certificate, album (Priority Records, 1991), CD; N.W.A., “Fuck tha Police”; John Leland, “Cube on Thin Ice,” Newsweek, December 2, 1991, 69; Pareles, “Should Ice Cube’s Voice Be Chilled.”
80 Richard Harrington, “War of Songs Escalates,” Washington Post, November 13, 1991.
81 Robert Christgau, “Review: Hard Again,” Village Voice, November 15, 1991; Public Enemy, “Fight The Power,” single (Motown, 1989), vinyl, 12”.
82 Editorial, Billboard, November 23, 1991, 8.
83 Paul Grein, “‘Certificate Accomplishes; Hammer Hits; Star Producers Shine Brightly on Hot 100,” Billboard, November 16, 1991.
84 Marsh and Pollack, “Wanted for Attitude”; Baraka, “Endangered Species.”
85 Dan Blackburn, Of Presidents and Predators (Page Publishing, 2018); Michelle Shocked and Bart Bull, “L.A. Riots: Cartoons vs. Reality,” Billboard, 104, no. 25 (June 20, 1992): 6.
86 “Charting the Hours of Chaos,” Los Angeles Times, April 29, 2002.
87 Rowan Scarborough, “Bush Mobilizes 4,500 Troops as Backup for Police,” Washington Times, May 2, 1992; Robert Reinhold, “Riot in Los Angeles: The Overview,” New York Times, May 3, 1992.
88 Max Robins, “Chopper Heaven in L.A. Hell,” Variety, May 4, 1992, 111.
89 Dennis McDougal, “Few L.A. Outlets for Live Coverage of King Trial,” Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1992.
90 Amy Wallace and David Ferrell, “Verdicts Greeted with Outrage and Disbelief: Reaction,” Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1992.
91 Johnathan Croyle, “Central New York Reacts to the Rodney King Verdict in 1992,” Syracuse.com, May 1, 2017.
92 David Mills, “Sister Souljah’s Call to Arms,” Washington Post, May 13, 1992, B1.
93 Russ Mitchell, “One Reporter’s Two Nights in the Slammer,” Business Week, May 18, 1992, 48, in Carton 37, Folder 1, Ronald T. Takaki Papers, Administration Papers, 1823–2009, Ethnic Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley.
94 “The Whole World Watches—and Reacts—to L.A. Riots,” Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1992.
95 Tom Mathews, “The Siege of L.A.,” Special Report, Newsweek, May 11, 1992, 30, in Carton 37, Folder 1, Ronald T. Takaki Papers Administration Papers, 1823–2009, Ethnic Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley.
96 Wallace and Ferrell, “Verdicts Greeted with Outrage and Disbelief.”
97 Mathews, “Siege of L.A.”
98 Mathews, “Siege of L.A.”
99 Wallace and Ferrell, “Verdicts Greeted with Outrage and Disbelief.”
100 David Whitman, “The Untold Story of the LA Riot,” U.S. News and World Report, May 23, 1993; Mathews, “Siege of L.A.”
101 Bryan Chan, “Photos: The 1992 Los Angeles Riots,” Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2012.
102 Carolyn Bingham, “City of the Stars under Siege and Occupation,” Los Angeles Sentinel, May 7, 1992, B3.
103 John Leland, “The Word on the Street Is Heard in the Beat,” Newsweek, May 11, 1992, 52, in Carton 37, Folder 1, Ronald T. Takaki Papers Administration Papers, 1823–2009, Ethnic Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley.
104 Ice Cube, “F— ’Em (Insert),” The Predator, album (Priority Records, 1992), CD.
105 NWA: The World’s Most Dangerous Group.
106 Sheila Rule, “Rappers Say the Riots Were No Surprise to Their Listeners,” New York Times, May 26, 1992; Jimmie Briggs, “Pop Recordings,” Washington Post, November 29, 1992; Kendrick Lamar, “N.W.A Told the Truth,” Billboard 127, no. 24 (August 22, 2015).
107 Phil McCombs and Megan Rosenfeld, “Putting the Riots on the Record,” Washington Post, May 5, 1992.
108 Stop The Violence Movement, “Self Destruction,” single (Jive, 1989), vinyl, 12”; The West Coast Rap All-Stars, “We’re All in the Same Gang,” single (Warner Bros. Records, 1990), vinyl, 12”.
109 Get The Fist Movement, “Get The Fist,” single (1992; Mercury, 1992), vinyl, 12”.
110 Ice-T, “Home Invasion,” Home Invasion, album (1993; Rhyme $yndicate Records and Priority Records, 1993), CD.
111 Richard Harrington, “Ice-T and the Invasion of White Suburbia,” Washington Post, March 24, 1993.
112 Kevin Zimmerman, “Live: Rap Music: Pop for the ‘90s?” Variety 341, no. 5 (November 12, 1990): 73–74.
113 Ice Cube, The Predator; Dr. Dre, The Chronic, album (Death Row/Priority/Interscope, 1992), vinyl, LP, cassette, and CD.
114 Ice Cube, The Predator.
115 Ice Cube, The Predator.
116 Ice Cube, The Predator.
117 Ernest Hardy and August Brown, “The L.A. Riots: 20 Years Later; Rhythm of the Street,” Los Angeles Times, May 2, 2012.
118 Kanye West, “The Immortals—The Greatest Artists of All Time: Dr. Dre,” Rolling Stone, April 21, 2005.
119 “Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek Talk Dr. Dre, Detox, Gangsta Rap, Aftermath,” Hard Knock TV, online music news program, Hardknock.TV, June 28, 2010, http://
120 Hardy and Brown, “The L.A. Riots.”
121 Havelock Nelson, “Rapping Up ’93: After Chronic Growing Pains, Hardcore Gains Easy Acceptance, Hip-Hop Takes a Flying Leap into the Mainstream,” Billboard, November 2, 1993; Eric Boehlert, “Rap’s Grip on Suburbs Loosens as Teens Turn to Modern Rock,” Billboard, June 3, 1995.
1 These cases include the deaths of Eric Garner, John Crawford, Michael Brown, Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray; in 2015, a mass shooting killed nine black parishioners inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a crime carried out by a twenty-three-year-old white supremacist; Jem Aswad, “Grammy Producer Ken Ehrlick Talks Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Provocative’ Performance, Smacks Down ‘All-White Tribute’ Criticism,” Billboard, February 15, 2016.
2 Micah Singleton, “Kendrick Lamar and the Grammys’ Hip-Hop Problem—Twice as Good Still Isn’t Enough,” The Verge, February 17, 2016.
3 Michael Eric Dyson, Between God and Gangsta Rap (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 185; Ta-Nehisi Coates, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy (New York: One World Publishing, 2017), 88; Chris Richards, “Kendrick Lamar Deserves the Pulitzer. Rap Is the Most Significant Music of Our Time,” Washington Post, blog post, April 16, 2018.
4 Ernest Hardy and August Brown, “The L.A. Riots: 20 Years Later; Rhythm of the Street,” Los Angeles Times, May 2, 2012.
5 EPMD, “Crossover / Brothers From Brentwood L.I,” single (Rush / Def Jam, 1992), vinyl, 12”.
6 Kevin Zimmerman, “Rap Music: Pop For the ’90s?” Variety 341, no. 5 (November 12, 1990): 73–74.
7 David Samuels, “Yo! MTV Un-Wrapped,” Spin 7, no. 6 (September 1, 1991), 44–45.
8 Zimmerman “Rap Music: Pop For the ’90s?”
9 EPMD, “Crossover / Brothers From Brentwood L.I.”
10 Mark Blackwell, “Niggaz4Dinner,” Spin, September 1991, 55.
11 Dennis Hunt, “The Rap Reality: Truth and Money,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1989, 80.
12 Mike Sager, “Cube,” Rolling Stone, issue 588, October 4, 1990, 78.
13 Andy Gill, “Record Reviews: Taking a Rap on the Knuckles,” The Independent, September 8, 1989.
14 NWA: The World’s Most Dangerous Group, directed by Mark Ford (2008; VH1 Rock Docs, 2008), TV broadcast.
15 For research on the impact of noneconomic issues, specifically crime, in voting in elections during the 1980s and 1990s, see Jeff Cummins, “Issue Voting and Crime in Gubernatorial Elections,” Social Science Quarterly 90, no. 3 (September 2009): 632–651.
16 Neil Best, “Ice Cube Recalls L.A. Raiders,” Newsday, May 5, 2010.
17 Ice Cube, “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted,” AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, album (Priority Records, 1990), vinyl, LP; N.W.A., “Fuck Tha Police,” Straight Outta Compton (Ruthless/Priority, 1988), vinyl, LP.
18 Chris Richards, “Kendrick Lamar Deserves the Pulitzer; Rap Is the Most Significant Music of Our Time,” Washington Post, April 16, 2018.
19 Lawrence W. Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1978), 222, 238; Jack Dolan, “Police in Six Southern California Counties Have Shot More Than 2,000 Suspects since 2004. Only One Officer Was Prosecuted—He Was Acquitted,” Los Angeles Times, February 19, 2016.
20 Dennis Hunt, “The Rap Reality: Truth and Money: Compton’s N.W.A. Catches Fire with Stark Portraits of Ghetto Life,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1989.
21 Ras Baraka, “Endangered Species,” The Source, September 1991, 34.
22 Hardy and Brown, “L.A. Riots: 20 Years Later.”