All language subtitles for Fight.the.Power.How.Hip.Hop.Changed.the.World.S01E03.720p.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV

In the first decision of its kind,
a federal judge in Florida

has ruled that a sexually explicit
record album is obscene.

REPORTER: The rap group 2 Live Crew
performed the original lyrics

from an album ruled obscene
by a federal judge.

Shortly after the concert,
county sheriffs' deputies

arrested lead rapper Luther Campbell
and one other member of the group

and charged them with breaking
the obscenity law.

What he was making was essentially
spring break music.

It was Playboy or Hustler magazine,
if you put that to music, right?

It was girls, it was some nudity.

But Luke got taken to court
and he fought it tooth and nail

to say that my First Amendment
rights are my rights,

they're the same rights that are
given to every American at birth,

which he won.

The censorship started off
with that.

The fact that rap music
also was becoming a language

that brought commonality across
the world was a problem.

Once hip-hop starts to
take a gangsta turn

in the early '90s,
thanks to N.W.A. and Dr Dre

and early Death Row,
the success of those records,

the sales, you know,
it's phenomenal.

But the misogyny just got huge.

The way that women were spoken
about, the way that women

were seen in videos,
the whole perception of women.

When the most important figure for a
woman in hip-hop was the video girl,

when she was more important
than the female MC,

it saddened me because some of
our greatest MCs are women.

For every song that came out
disrespecting women,

we had to then, like,
do the debriefing.

They say this, but look at us -
we're doing this.

# Come on and get down
Uh, uh

# Get, get, get, get, get

# Come on and get down
Uh, uh

# Get, get, get, get, get

# Come on and get down
Uh, uh

# Get, get, get, get, get

# Come on and get down

# Fight the power
Yes, yes, yes, yes, y'all

# Fight the power
Yes, yes, yes, yes, y'all

# Fight the power
Yes, yes, yes, yes, y'all

# Fight the power
Yes, yes, yes, yes, y'all

# Fight the power
Yes, yes, yes, yes, y'all

# Fight the power
Yes, yes, yes, yes, y'all

# Fight the power
Yes, yes, yes, yes, y'all

# Fight the power

# We've got to fight
the powers that be. #

Out here in Los Angeles,
you had the Rodney King incident.

When that happened and then
they acquitted the officers,

it was like, yo.

You know what? We trying to be
Americans here...

..and truth and justice
should be served,

and it hasn't.

I think 2,300 businesses were burnt.

63 lives was lost.

You couldn't breathe.

It was horrible.

It was so...

..sad that we had to
tear up our community...

..to hear us.

Uprising did a job.

We still trying to rebuild
from it 30 years later.

That's the price we pay as a society
when the criminal justice system

loses its legitimacy in the eyes
of many in the community -

all hell breaks loose.

And so that's what we
certainly saw there,

that those riots expressed that,

they expressed our rage at the
utter loss of moral credibility

and legitimacy when in
the criminal justice system.

The police were on the defensive now

and there had to be a way for
the police to grab the offensive

in this culture war
against police brutality.

REPORTER: Self proclaimed gangster
rapper Ice-T plays to raw emotion

and outrageous themes.

Today, a group of Texas
police officers condemned one

of his latest songs, Cop Killer,
as an invitation to commit murder.

I don't...I don't want somebody
going out, listening to these lyrics

and deciding they're
going to dust a cop.

The song was written
before the LA riots.

Ice-T says it was a warning
to abusive police officers

of simmering tension
in the black community.

And until these cops realise
that we're not just going to

continually get our butts kicked
in the street and we will retaliate,

they're not going to act
like human beings.

# Cop killer... #

HEAVY GUITAR RIFF

This song, Cop Killer,
it's not a hip-hop song at all.

It's actually a heavy metal song

created by a heavy metal group
called Body Count,

whose lead singer
happens to be Ice-T,

who is on other records an MC.

# Cop killer, better you than me

# Cop killer,
fuck police brutality... #

He launched his career
with this hip-hop song

called 6 'N The Mornin'.

But he wants to form a second act
and they create this album.

# Cop killer
I know your mama's grieving

# Fuck her

# Cop killer
But tonight we get even

# Yeah... #

My art mimics me.

So when you listen to my music,

you're getting all the facets
of Ice-T.

The dirty rhymes,
the political stuff,

heavy metal, the gangsta shit,
that was part of Ice-T.

# Fuck the police
For Daryl Gates

Fuck the police
For Rodney King

# Fuck the police
For my dead homies

# Fuck the police
For your freedom... #

GUNSHOTS

That's why heavy metal and hip-hop
have a lot of affinity.

A lot of it has to do with
exaggeration and overstatement

and political speech.

Cop Killer is a song to just allow
people to understand the rage...

..of a person and how far it can go.

The record is not a call
to murder police.

It's just a way of saying,
this is how angry we are.

Nobody got killed over my record.
Nobody.

Ain't no record make you
go want to hurt somebody.

Situations and issues make you
go want to hurt somebody.

What Ice-T was talking succinctly
about - bad cops, abusive cops,

one-sided policing, the Fraternal
Order of Police just thought that,

"What the hell?

"This cat got so much influence."

The song goes on, "I got my brain
on hype, tonight'll be your night,

"die, die, die, pig, die."

Catchy little number, isn't it?

Gangster rap... Gangster rap...
Gangster rap...

That's more graphic than
the evening news.

Critics call their music insulting.

Why did they get mad at it?
You ready?

It's the little white daughter
sitting at a table,

her father saying,
"Oh, look at those niggers in LA.

"They're rioting." She says,
"They're not niggers, Dad,

"and the police have been doing
this and that for this many years",

and she addresses all our problems
and he doesn't realise...

..she's listening to Ice-T
and Public Enemy. Home invasion.

That's the fear.

REPORTER: The police here in Texas
were the first to call for a boycott

of Ice-T and Time Warner last week.

The effect? Sales of his album
have tripled in Houston,

doubled in three other cities.

This happened in 1992,

not coincidentally,
a presidential election year,

where George Bush,
the incumbent president,

is being challenged by Bill Clinton,

the Democratic insurgent.

And this song will become...

..a lightning rod in this campaign.

APPLAUSE

It is sick.

It is wrong for any company
to issue records

that approve of killing
a law enforcement officer.

It was a way for Bush to solidly
position himself as tough on crime.

Which really helps with white voters
who are particularly...

..predisposed to think
of black folks

as the threat to their existence.

It was an awful time...

..and hip-hop became
the sort of punching bag

in this presidential election.

CHEERING

Eight years of Reagan,
four years of Bush...

..and the country was going
through the ending of R&B,

that was Reagan and Bush, with
the hope that we were clearing out

of the swamp and out of the muck
with a Bill Clinton nomination.

Give us a job!

4,000 Democratic Party delegates
are in New York today

for the start of their convention
at Madison Square Garden.

It will end on Thursday
with the formal nomination

of Bill Clinton
as the party's candidate

in November's presidential election.

In the name of the hard working
Americans

who make up our forgotten
middle class,

I proudly accept your nomination
for President of the United States.

CHEERING

Bill Clinton, who is the governor
of Arkansas at the time,

enters the presidential stage
as a candidate.

Bill was interesting cos we saw
Bill Clinton on Arsenio Hall's show.

Something as simple as that

really kind of made Bill Clinton
appeal to us.

You know, playing his music,
he hung out with black folks,

he, you know, spoke in this
kind of charming Southern accent.

He was from down-home Arkansas.
He was one of us.

But there was a sense that
Bill Clinton was going to be

someone who responded to the issues
we were having in our community.

APPLAUSE

White racism may be
black people's burden

but it's white people's problem.

We must clean our house.

APPLAUSE

He decides that he is going to
engage civil rights leaders.

So he speaks at Jesse Jackson's
Rainbow Coalition Convention

in 1992.

But it's there that
Bill Clinton decides

he's going to take on hip-hop.

Namely, the activist component
in the form of Sister Souljah.

It's definitely a warning about
the fact that we are under

a police state, we are under
military domination in this country,

and that we have
a criminal justice system

that absolutely does not work
for African people.

Clinton had been closely associated
in the minds of many people,

many white Americans,
with black folk.

CHEERING

It becomes, "How can I demonstrate
that I'm not beholden

"to these, um, African-American
activists?"

By then critiquing this rap artist.

I defend her right to express
herself through music.

But her comments before
and after Los Angeles

were filled with the kind of hatred
that you do not honour.

She told The Washington Post
about a month ago,

and I quote, "If black people
kill black people every day,

"why not have a week
and kill white people?"

I know she is a young person

but she has a big influence
on a lot of people.

We met Sister Souljah,
Lisa Williamson,

as an organiser and an activist.

We in Public Enemy thought
that, like, what can we do?

She doesn't rap but we could
include her voice - a dynamic...

Probably one of the most
dynamic speakers ever.

# We are at war
Come on!

# Black man, where is your army?
Come on!

# The black man is so dope
there's no reason we can't win

# Everybody's going to
have to get serious

# Terminator X

# I try to teach and reach
I drop bombs... #

They used it as, "Oh, look
what she's talking about.

"She's being divisive. She's really
kind of, like, charging up

"these disenfranchised troops
of hers to make them think that,

"you know, that they got to come
forward with the uses of violence

"in the United States of America,"
and that was just bullshit.

They used it as campaign fodder.

She's talking to the black community
and the gang bangers,

like, "Listen,
don't kill yourselves," right?

You know, "be able to understand

"that there's somebody bigger than
you that wants to kill you."

Sister Souljah was used
as a vehicle,

like black victims of racism.

A poor excuse for an agenda-less
candidate.

What is your relationship to black
youth beyond the patronising gesture

of picking up black babies
and patting them on their heads?

It was a way for Bill Clinton
to position himself.

"See? I'm a Democrat and I support
liberal social policies...

"..but I'll protect white voters
against the 'them'."

In the end, Clinton wins.

In just 11 weeks, the presidency
of the United States

will change hands from George Bush
to Bill Clinton.

CHEERING

The American people have voted
to make a new beginning.

And perhaps most important of all,
to bring our people together

as never before
so that our diversity

can be a source of strength in
a world that is ever smaller,

where everyone counts and everyone
is a part of America's family.

CHEERING

Not only did we have a new president
sworn in in the early '90s,

but a whole new sound was
coming out of the West Coast.

It would change hip-hop forever.

We have our own way
that we sound in the West.

I'm born in Oakland, raised in LA.

We have our own tone of voice.

We have our own energy.

The West Coast is a car culture.

Right? When you think about LA
and Oakland. That's significant.

If you're a proper California girl,
you are checking out cars

more than the guys sometimes.

I used to see Ice-T...

..driving around LA,
specifically up and down Crenshaw,

in these amazing cars.

See, the difference in LA
and East Coast music

is East Coast is the train.

Like, "Arrrgh".

Which is more erratic.

LA is lowriders, so it's smoother.

Hey. Matt.
What up, Matt? What up, Matt?

Dr Dre went from
his N.W.A. persona,

which was by and large forceful,
muscular, aggressive,

angry and in-your-face,

to a much more kind of chill...

Like, he sounded,
"Yeah, it's the next episode."

You know, he was...chill.
He was relaxed.

Maybe they smoked a lot of chronic.

Name that tune.

Dr Dre just sonically hit hip-hop
where it needed to be.

# Look at me now
and tell me what you see

# I am what I am, it's only me

# Little ghetto boy

# Playing in the ghetto street... #

Aesthetically and musically,
The Chronic...

..was once again the genius
of Dr Dre looking at

the total array of hip-hop
and rap music.

Dre slowed hip-hop down.

# 27 years old, up for parole... #

You know? And he happened to find
a person that could ride

that slow beat.

Guy by the name
of Snoop Doggy Dogg.

# But now they blast, right

# Wake up, jumped out my bed

# I'm in a two-man cell
with my homie Lil 1/2 Dead

# Murder was the case
that they gave me

# Dear God, I wonder
Can you save me? #

The power of The Chronic
was not only in the production,

but he just debuted so many people.

It was almost like
a compilation album.

He really put a stamp on what
West Coast music sounded like.

# Throwing them dogs,
getting that rep as a young hog... #

Dre, to me the number one
producer in the world.

He's our Quincy Jones.

# Since I did the crime
I gots to do my time

# Them say me grow up to be
nothing, look at me now

# And tell me what you see
I am what I am, it's only me... #

I think the difference between
The Chronic and all the rest

of the records that came out
was how clean it sounded.

Because you're used to hip-hop
being, like, super...dirty.

But it sounded amazing.

He really told other producers
to step up your game.

# Now I'm holding a dub... #

He was my step-brother.

We built the chemistry between us.

Me and Snoop and Nate and us
was living with Dre.

We had parties everywhere.

We would drink our beer,
smoke a joint here and there.

It was just fun, and creating music

and just feel...just feel free.

Whattup?!

Get your ass outta here.

# Playing in the ghetto street

# What you gonna do
when you grow up? #

People in Texas,
people in the Midwest,

you know, they listen to those Snoop
and them Dre records,

it's a little different,
you know what I'm saying?

So it's like, that was dope, to
hear that new frame of reference,

to hear new people saying
new shit, a new way,

you know,
with new musical influences.

It was great. Amazing.

# No needing being calm
if you pack right

# And learning just enough
to keep your sack right

# Late nights, I wonder
what they getting for

# Early morning on the corners
What they hitting for? #

Lyrically, it's still X-rated raps,

but it's just said over a beat
that feels and sounds better.

And that was a watershed moment
in the sense that

you could take music that was very
abrasive and very confrontational,

change the sound of the music,

and all of a sudden,
a lot of people that for years

had been disparaging rap,
and now, all of a sudden,

"Oh, this is the greatest thing
ever."

# Cos you's a hustlin'-ass youngster
Clocking your grip

# Playing in the ghetto street... #

In ten years, rap music
has gone from ghetto streets

to main street USA.

Sales last year reached
an estimated $5 billion.

Hip-hop was really becoming
an industry.

The whole scene had matured.

The ascendancy of
the gangsta rap scene.

You also had a lot
of the major labels

really starting to get
much more invested.

You had, you know, magazines
that were dedicated

to hip-hop.

It meant a lot to me to become
editor in chief of Vibe.

Because rap was hot,
we didn't have enough pages

to cover all the people
that we wanted to cover.

It just felt like hip-hop
was taking over.

REPORTER: 72% of the rap records in
Los Angeles are sold to white kids.

Here comes hip-hop.

White kids, black kids
liking the same music.

White kids love hip-hop.

Just a different lifestyle

and they just tell us
how they think.

It's not really so offensive
as it is eye opening, you know?

When I was watching as a kid,
you'd see MTV Raps

and you'd see somebody in an
interview saying that, you know,

we're just basically reporting
to you what's happening

on the streets where we live.

You know what I'm saying?

Um, my education
is from hip-hop, honestly,

because that's... I look to rappers
to know what's going on,

you know what I'm saying? And...

It just felt like rappers, certain
rappers, were just talking to me,

you know?

A lot of people,
especially young white kids,

very quickly learned that,
unfortunately,

a lot of the music was based on what
was happening in the United States.

Have you ever been shot at? Yeah.
What happened?

Nothin'. I got away.

People wanted to hear these stories
because they're authentic.

It's like a tour guide
through the streets.

I don't have to ride down Crenshaw
to find out what's really going on.

I can buy me a gangsta tape.

But the white establishment
didn't like it

cos you had these articulate,
angry black men

exposing some of the ugly truths

of the United States.

And that was intimidating, dangerous
and frightening to a lot of people,

because now these guys
do have a voice.

Now they have the microphone.

In the '90s, you know, a lot
of things were escalated, and...

..things were getting worse because
we had more police brutality.

A lot of gang activity at the same
time, as far as a lot of drive-bys.

SIREN BLARES

POLICE RADIO CHATTER

One of the things that it's
important to understand is...

..crime as a whole,
and particularly violent crime,

had been increasing for 20 years.

SIREN BLARES

He's got his gun out!

REPORTER: Anger and tension
exploding here,

as in so many cities.

A feeling that crime
is out of control.

Watching brothers get killed,
I mean, it can take a toll

on your life, it can take
a toll on your mind.

Urban communities, African-American
communities, Latino communities,

are under assault.
They are under siege.

What this is
is this is a search warrant.

They are being ravaged
by drugs and by crime

and by poverty and inequality.

We're coming off
this erroneous belief

that Democrats are soft on crime.

REPORTER: This is a special report.

President Clinton's
State of the Union Address

to a joint session of Congress.

Thank you very much.

Bill Clinton is leaning into...

..sort of, "We've got
to be tough on crime,"

because Bill Clinton is trying
to save his presidency

after losing the midterm election.

Bill Clinton feels the pressure

to prove that he can be just
as harsh

and just as punitive as Republicans

on the issue of law and order
and crime.

In our toughest neighbourhoods,
on our meanest streets,

we have seen a stunning
and simultaneous breakdown

of community, family and work.

This has created a vast vacuum

which has been filled by violence

and drugs and gangs.

The Congressional Black Caucus

approach the President
of the United States

and they say, "Look,
our constituents are telling us

"we need to do something.
We have to fix this."

It's a shame that we can't
walk outside today.

I'm scared for my children to come
outside because of the gangs.

There are black people who are
represented by these people

who live in these neighbourhoods
who wanted something to happen.

They wanted people who
were repeat offenders

to go to jail for a while.

They wanted to have people
stop shooting guns...

..freely in their neighbourhoods.

I encourage all my colleagues
to vote for

the bipartisan crime bill.

One step is you must take back
the streets,

and you take back the streets
by more cops, more prisons,

more physical protection
for the people.

It doesn't matter whether or not
they're the victims of society.

The end result is they're about
to knock my mother on the head

with a lead pipe, shoot my sister,
beat up my wife, take on my sons.

So I don't want to ask
what made them do this.

They must be taken off the street.

APPLAUSE

When this bill is law, we will
have 100,000 police officers

on the street - a 20% increase.

It will be used to build prisons
to keep 100,000 violent criminals

off the street.

We will have the means
by which we can say

punishment will be more certain.

The weapons of mass distraction
have always been in play.

People follow their sports teams
more than they follow

the things that's going to
affect them every day,

so a lot of times bills are passed
and politicians go back and forth

and all of a sudden you turn around
and there's a crime bill

that not only affects your present

but really seriously affects
your future.

Clinton passed a crime bill...

..which allowed now 14-year-olds
to be tried as adults,

more prisons being built.

The impact of the crime bill
is devastating

and felt almost immediately.

For example, the three strikes law.

This idea that if you
have three offences,

that you're out of here.

Like, you go away. It increases
your sentencing dramatically.

That is embedded
into the crime bill.

BILL CLINTON:
..violent crimes should be told,

when you commit a third
violent crime,

you will be put away
and put away for good.

Let's go!

What were you guys doing?
Nothing at all, boss.

Nothing at all.

In fact, we have seen
sentencing discrepancies

when it comes to drugs.

Cocaine versus crack.

Crack and cocaine.

Cocaine versus crack cocaine.

The penalty for possession
of 5g of crack cocaine,

the drug used and sold by many young
blacks, is five years in prison.

The penalty for possession
of 5g of powdered cocaine,

the drug favoured by the white
middle class, is probation.

Who in here has been
in prison before?

And that's why so many people who
got caught with very small amounts

ended up doing really major time.

Do you think you'll be coming
back here again?

That's hard to say.

As a result of the Clinton
administration policies,

you had one in three black males

caught up in the criminal justice
system, with the numbers climbing.

These communities were asking
for help.

We know that they were like,
"We have problems."

But what they were asking for

was to get to the root
of the problem.

So that doesn't mean locking up
a generation of African-Americans

or labelling every black man
who walks out of his house

a gang banger.

We can't really measure
the affect and impact

that it has on us as a community

cos it's impossible
to reverse the damage.

I've got friends who got
sentenced to decades

and because they were in prison,
they couldn't provide

for their families.

We don't know if they would have
possibly married

and created families of their own.

We don't know who they would
have grown up to become.

Oh, man, I've got friends now
that if they're caught

with a butter knife,
they'll be doing life in jail.

It's incredible.

It really hurt the community.

After a few years,

I didn't know a black family that
didn't have a family member that

had been in jail and incarcerated
for a long period of time.

A lot of men were being swept away
and, you know,

the pipeline to penitentiary was
just heavy, put into place and thick

and men were getting swept up
off the streets

for low-level marijuana crimes.
Let's just start there.

# It ain't easy being me

# Will I see the penitentiary
or will I stay free?

# It ain't easy being me

# Will I see the penitentiary
or will I stay free?

# It ain't easy... #

And a lot of people who got out
of the joint in the '90s

ended up in hip-hop.

# Wake up sweaty and screaming
cos I can hear them... #

You know, it's in these records,

talking about guys
who hit the bricks.

There's a lot of references
to jail culture.

# Lookin' out for these killer kids
cos they wild

# Bill Clinton can you recognise
a nigga representin'

# Doin' 20 to life in San Quentin

# Gettin' calls from
my nigga Mike Tyson

# Ain't nothing nice - "Yo 'Pac, do
somethin' righteous wit' ya life"

# And even though you innocent,
you still a nigga

# So they figure... #

Tupac Shakur wrote It Ain't Easy
in the mid 1990s

when he was facing jail time
of his own.

# No, it ain't easy... #

He was speaking directly
to the hearts and issues

of young black men at the time.

# It ain't easy... #

'Pac was able to, like,
take the everyday life

that he was even in the middle of

and be able to come up
with a great song.

# Keep an eye on the cops
while D-Boys slang rocks

# It's the project kid
without a conscience... #

Tupac was a social commentator,

but he was also
a skilled rapper, MC,

and had that revolutionary spirit.

Are you rolling, Eddie?
OK. My name is Tupac Shakur.

I think I'm growing up good,
in all sense of the word.

I think I'm growing up
and learning about

responsibilities and everything.

My mother was a Black Panther
and she was really involved

in the movement, you know,

just black people bettering
themselves and things like that.

She could have chose
to go to college

and got a degree in something
and right now been well off,

but she chose to analyse society

and fight and do things better.

When we think about Tupac,
you can't...

..understand Tupac as an artist,
as a person,

without understanding, sort of,
where he comes from.

This is a child
of East Coast Panthers.

ALL: Power to the people!

We're going to...

They embraced a revolutionary
critique of American society.

Tupac coming out of that tradition,

we see the critique of capitalism
and the structures around us.

We have to be supportive,
we have to be together

as we move forward in this world.

Tupac was a person
that fearlessly said,

you know, I'm going to take
all of my attributes

and all of my skill-sets
that I've learned

and see if I can
incorporate this into...

..my arts as an artist and an
activist and make it all work.

And, um...

..that he did.

He's going to be so diverse,

he's going to talk about single
mothers in Brenda's Got A Baby.

He's got a touch in there
that's like, whoa!

Brenda's Got A Baby, which I think
is one of the more political songs

in the history of rap, especially
with regard to black women.

And it's wild that it's coming
from a black man, but it did.

It didn't matter.
The politics were always there.

He rapped about how Brenda's got
a baby and threw her in the trash

and what a horrible
situation this is.

He only did that because
he knew of these stories

and he knew of these realities
and he wanted to change that.

Tupac made the hardest records
ever to do,

that people were afraid to touch.

You know, Keep Ya Head Up.

And Dear Mama.

Come on, man. Greatest rap,
hip-hop songs of all time.

Tupac represented a lot of things
to a lot of people.

On the one hand,
he was very thoughtful

and supportive of women.

On the other hand, he had a lot
of songs disparaging women.

# Take money
West side... #

On the other hand, he had
a lot of political songs

and he had a lot of songs about how
he wanted to shoot and kill people

in the streets.

People don't want to hear your
righteous side any more or as much

because they're not looking
at you like that.

They're like, "Nah, he's raw,
he's from the streets,

"he's hardcore, he's a gangster."

# Plus Puffy tryin' to see me weak,
hearts I rip... #

So, when people think about 1994,
people tend to think about the fact

that that was the year that Tupac
was shot five times.

# You know the rules,
Lil' Caesar... #

That was the year
that he was found guilty

of sexual abuse and sent to jail.
Like, that was a huge year.

Mr Shakur, can we get a comment from
you at all? Hell, no. Thug life.

Pardon me? Thug life. Thug life.
That's my comment.

What does that mean?
I don't understand.

Tupac's persona blew up.

Yes, I am going to say
that I'm a thug.

That's because I came from
the gutter and I'm still here.

I'm not saying I'm a thug
because I want to rob you

or rape people and things.

Was that everything that he was?
No, it was a slice of what he was.

As you came at him,
he came at you the same way.

# The clique you claim,
Westside... #

You come with the attitude of,
"Yeah, fuck you",

he's on, "Fuck you, too."

HE LAUGHS

I think the general public
lost touch with Tupac.

# You keep on coming... #

They wanted to gravitate to
Hit 'Em Up and to the violence

and to the rivalries.

# Cut your young ass up,
leave you in pieces... #

The fact that he had all
these other layers to him

and some of the political stuff
just gets thrown by the wayside,

unfortunately, because,
one, his life was so short,

but then, two,
toward the end of his life,

it was consumed by chaos
and tumult.

# See?
Grab ya...when you see Tupac

# Call the cops when you see Tupac

# Who shot me,
but you punks didn't finish

# Now you 'bout to feel the wrath
of a menace... #

It started to feel like
hip-hop was losing its way.

You know, the music was changing,

the morals were changing.

You know, the streets were
becoming very dominant.

It was the "keep it real" era,

and keeping it real was going
very wrong in a lot of ways,

especially when you talk about
losing two of the biggest artists

in the genre at the time.

# When I'm serving ya... #

We lost Biggie and 'Pac...

# Guard your rank cos I'mma
Take money... #

..'96, '97,

and I feel like the genre in itself
was at a huge turning point.

# First off...
and the clique you claim

# Westside when we ride
come equipped with game

# You claim to be a player
but I...your wife

# We bust on Bad Boy...
for life

# Plus Puffy tryin' to
see me weak... #

Sure, 'Pac aggravated some people,
no doubt about that.

Tupac and other artists like
Snoop and Dre became targets

in the debate over
censoring hip-hop,

so it pissed a lot of people off,

the way that they delivered
their rap content.

They just looked at rap music as,
like, yo, you guys are talking

murder, mayhem, gangs, sex, drugs,
rock and roll, that type of thing.

This was seriously
a black urban angst

that was delivering
a hell of a lot of words.

# Fuck wit' me and get
your caps peeled

# You know, see

# Grab ya Glocks
when you see Tupac... #

And some of the words were, like,
naughty in the English language.

# Fuck you, too
All you motherfuckers

# Fuck you, too
Take money... #

We will begin the press conference.
Marilyn.

Our crusade is against
gangster rap -

rap that glorifies and promotes
violence with guns,

knives or drugs.

Dr C Delores Tucker
was a powerful voice

standing against
the hip-hop movement.

She is someone who had been
involved in politics.

She had participated in
the Selma to Montgomery march.

She took a stand against
misogyny in hip-hop

and that was a huge statement.

Gangster rap is not gangster rap.

Much of it is just plain
old pornography, period.

It is unfortunate that these
negative gangster rappers

have learned to have
such low respect for women,

especially African-American women.

If you go back now
and you listen to the lyrics

and then you look at her stance,
she was right.

The music was misogynistic.

It did misalign and misappropriate
the ways in which women

show up in the space.

The music was very, very dangerous
in the ways in which people respond

to black women.

And for some reason it was OK?

She was one of the few voices
that said it was not OK.

The corporate gangsters in
their entertainment suites,

the true cause and propagators
of this filth,

not the young gangsters in
the streets who are exploited,

are merely the victims of the
converging, malevolent forces.

She said, listen,
this ain't playing out well.

What I see is the corporations
that are pimping these kids

and they...and they dangling them.

Nobody out here wants
to look at the conditions

and try to change them.

Change the conditions and then
perhaps our music will change.

There's a rift that develops
between the younger

and older generation
in black communities.

It's so wrong.

As a black woman, I am not a dog
and I refuse to be called a dog.

A rapper who changes
from positive to negative

just to get a record deal
is just like a black man

who will pimp his sisters
on the street just to make money.

There are young folks
who are making these records.

They're selling them out of
the trunk of their cars.

And then you have
the older generation,

somewhat more conservative.

Religious figures
like Calvin Butts.

Recognise that this poison kills.

It kills young men and women.
It kills old men and women.

It promotes violence and sexism
in our communities.

It's dangerous to our
police officers.

It is just wrong.

It didn't have to be
the Reverend Calvin Butts

running over CDs in Times Square.

It didn't have to be Delores Tucker
or any of these people

that were just against rap,
against rap.

It was a constant battle
and a constant fight.

You have the misunderstanding
trying to govern misunderstood,

and so it was, like,
eff all rap music, you know?

There was a cultural division.

We hope to create a climate
in our community

that we believe once existed,
where this kind of thing

is so intolerable that people
would dare not suggest

that a black woman is a bitch
or any woman is a female dog.

MUSIC: Gin and Juice
by Snoop Dogg

# With so much drama... #

In to C Delores' office
comes Dionne Warwick

holding Snoop Dogg's new album

Doggystyle.

# Every single day... #

They feel that this represents
a nadir in hip-hop of misogyny,

and as black women, they vow
to do something about it.

# In the livin' room
gettin' it on

# And they ain't leavin'
till six in the mornin'

# So what you wanna do?

# Shit, I got a pocket full of
rubbers and my homeboys do, too... #

This is our responsibility.

It's not my responsibility,
it's not her responsibility,

it's not her responsibility,
it's our... Our! ..responsibility.

APPLAUSE

# Sippin' on gin and juice
Laid back

# With my mind on my money
and my money on my mind

# Rollin' down the street,
smokin' indo

# Sippin' on gin and juice
Laid back

# With my mind on my money
and my money on my mind... #

Gangster rappers don't seem to
care if radios ban their music.

Snoop Doggy Dogg's album
is already number one.

Look at the people before me
that was black

and successful and powerful
with words.

Where they at now? Where's Martin
Luther King? Where's Malcolm X?

I know rappers will always get
attacked by politicians though.

A lot of it was just to
push buttons regardless.

And for you to take a lot of
these lyrics seriously is like,

you're a fucking idiot.

C Delores Tucker seizes
on this moment.

She gets Congress to hold the first
hearings ever on rap lyrics.

Our first panel today...

..will be Dr C Delores Tucker.

As I see it simply, there are three
things that prevent gangster rap

from being a freedom-of-speech
issue.

Number one, it is obscene.
Number two, it is obscene.

And number three, it is obscene.

Thank you very much.

Whether it was misogynistic
lyrical content

or gangster, you know,

it would have been unrealistic
to think that

there wasn't going to be pushback.

But there was a feeling that
we didn't want to be policed.

The issue here for hip-hop
is that...

..this fight is coming from folks
outside of hip-hop

who don't appreciate
any part of the culture,

and then there are folks who defend
hip-hop against this attack...

..and so they are literally
fighting a culture war.

Mr Nelson George,
who's a journalist.

A lot of people didn't like this
music and felt offended by it

and thought it was, you know,
bringing black people down.

But there were many conflicting
agendas that were at play.

For me, the question of
gangster rap's role in America

is not a question of the chicken
or the egg.

The egg in this case is the
economic and social breakdowns

that have taunted our cities since
at least the riots of the 1960s

and that shows few signs
of really being addressed.

The chicken is the culture
of cynicism of our government

and verbal rebellion
that rap represents.

If tomorrow every offensive
gangster rap record was removed

from our stores, our airwaves
and our video shows,

there would still be random
violence, teenage unemployment,

teen pregnancy
and drug trafficking.

The only difference is that
the musical backing for our youth

would change, but the conditions
that frighten our nation

and the Congressional hearings
on rap would continue.

The hearings didn't amount to much.

Hip-hop wasn't stripped
of its voice.

This macho thing that black men
primarily brought out

in hip-hop and rap that,
"Well, I'm being obscured,

"so I'm coming out and not only
that, I'm going to be loud,

"I'm going to be me,

"and I'm going to be super
black male from my point of view.

"And whether you all like it
or not, go eff yourself."

The culture just was very masculine.

It was almost like there wasn't room
for any level of femininity.

It was difficult for women to find
their place and their footing,

especially when the guys that
were out were so strong and loud.

Even some women, you know,
dived in...

..with a...a masculine manner.

The good news is there were people
such as Roxanne Shante.

CHEERING

We came here tonight
to get started,

to go at them or get retarded.

I was participating in a all-out
Battle For World Supremacy.

You would get this big belt that
says you are the best in the world.

And I'm the only female, the only
girl, and these are all...

..MCs and men.

I must have rhymed all day long,

until we got down to
the last two people.

And it was myself and...

..it was Busy Bee, another MC.

I'm seeing, like, "Wow, I'm getting
ready to be the best

"in the world and the world
is going to know I'm the best."

And we got to the last battle,

everybody takes their numbers

and turns them up...
Nine, ten...

Ten...

Nine...

Ten...

Four...

Four?

And the crowd went crazy.

Like...

It was just, like, pandemonium,
people wanted to fight,

I wanted to fight...

I just walked out, and I never
looked at hip-hop the same,

ever again.

She won that battle,

and she was deprived of
the World Supremacy title.

Years later, I remember,
one of the judges,

and he said,

"The reason why I gave you four
is because we...

"..were just starting to be
respected as a genre of music.

"If they thought the best
in the world of this new genre

"of music, the one that no-one can
beat,

"is a black, 14-year-old girl...

"..there's just no way
they would have accepted it."

He said, "So, I had to let you
lose in order for hip-hop to win."

This is why I respect people
like Roxanne Shante so much

and some of the other girls,
and it's because

regardless to how many setbacks
they were faced with,

they still continued
and I'm glad they did,

because that knocked down doors
and that made room for the next set

of women to come after them.

What video do you want to see right
now, Freddy, on Video Music Box?

Well, it would have to be the
latest video that I directed,

which is Ladies First by
Queen Latifah, featuring Monie Love.

# Ooh, ladies first, ladies first

# Ooh, ladies first,
ladies first... #

Latifah, she was really a pioneer,
very early on.

Ladies First had an enormous impact.

It was a record that influenced
multiple generations of women.

You know, it's funny,
when you're doing it,

you don't necessarily think about,

"Well, this is going to be a
feminist statement for all time!"

# Who said the ladies couldn't
make it, you must be blind

# If you don't believe, well,
here, listen to this rhyme

# Ladies first, there's no
time to rehearse

# I'm divine and my mind expands
throughout the universe

# A female rapper
with a message to send... #

That video was a huge part
of making that statement.

# Throwing down the sound

# Totally a yes let me state
the position

# Ladies first, yes? #
Yes.

Monie at her side
and it was a great video,

it had all of the fantastic images
of powerful black women.

# Some think that we can't flow
Can't flow

# Stereotypes, they got to go
Got to go

# I'mma mess around

# And flip the scene into reverse
With what?

# With a little touch of
Ladies First... #

I thought she was very important,
as a powerful black woman,

who stood with a straight spine,
as she wore that African garb,

and celebrated her history
and where she came from.

We needed that kind of messaging
as kids, and I think especially

black women, young girls, needed
to see the Queen Latifahs.

People like Queen Latifah
was able to cut through the noise,

to kind of demand that women
have a space at the table

in ways that they hadn't before.

"We belong here, we take the stage,
we're speaking back,

"we're not going to be sidelined,

"we're not going to be
disrespected."

She was doing a direct talkback
to some of the lyrics

that were coming up at that time.

And, "Who are you calling
the B-I-T-C-H?"

And, "Are you respecting me?"

Queen Latifah changed the game.

# Who you callin' a bitch?

# U-N-I-T-Y
You gotta let him know

# U-N-I-T-Y
Come on, here we go, uh

# U-N-I-T-Y
You gotta let him know

# Love a black woman from...

# You ain't a bitch
or a ho, here we go, U-N-I-T-Y

# You gotta let him know

# U-N-I-T-Y, come on, come on... #

She told a story about a girl

who's walking down the street,
guy hollers at her,

she doesn't want to speak, and
because she doesn't want to speak,

she's automatically
then deemed a bitch.

It's not cool to do that.

# You know all of that gots to go

# Now everybody knows there's
exceptions to this rule... #

I really think it had an impact.

Because I felt like I got a lot
less male ego that gets turned down,

calling me a
B-word...after that song,

I think because they felt stupid,
perhaps,

because Latifah called them
out on record.

# One of 'em felt my
booty, he was nasty

# I turned around red, somebody was
catchin' the wrath

# Then the little one said... #
"Ha-ha! Yeah, me, bitch"
# And laughed!

# Since he was with his boys,
he tried to break fly, huh

# I punched him dead in his eye

# And said, "Who you callin'
a bitch?" #

The nominees were announced today
for the 37th annual Grammy awards.

The Grammys will be held
in Los Angeles on March 1st.

Queen Latifah...

She was up against all men.

Coolio...

Snoop...

Warren G...

Craig Mack...
# The silent type, yeah

# Ain't none of this worth gettin'
your face sliced

# Cos that's what happened
to your homegirl, right?

# Barking with no bite!
She got to wear that for life... #

Queen Latifah won Best Rap Solo
performance.

# U-N-I-T-Y
Come on, here we go

# U-N-I-T-Y... #

She became the first woman
to win this category.

I think, when she won that Grammy,

a lot of people were in shock.

They just said, you know, "That's
overdue, and that's Latifah."

When Latifah won at the Grammys,

hip-hop still wasn't a respected
genre within the Grammy association,

at that time, and she
received her accolade,

or what have you, during an
untelevised portion of the Grammys.

Hip-hop still wasn't at the level of
respect that it should have been.

And then, on top of that,
she's a woman.

Even to this day,

I'll meet women who were growing up

and they'll say, "Oh, man, that
first Queen Latifah album...

"That really...inspired me."

Now, there's a lot of
female players in the hip-hop game,

Lauryn Hill, a brilliant MC...

Missy Elliott broke through in
such a huge way.

Megan...

The success of Cardi...

Doja Cat...

City Girls...

To a lot of female artists, she
really had a tremendous influence.

Queen Bee is Queen Latifah,
she's always been the Queen Boss.

SHE WHISTLES

She is one of those people that...

..people never really looked at
as, like, just a female rapper.

As powerful as any male
there ever was in hip-hop.

Even more so.

SHE HUMS

A lot of rappers who
had that conundrum...

"I got one foot in the hood
and one in the boardroom.

"Where should I be?
I'm straddling both."

When you got power,
then comes responsibility.

What are you going to do with it?

It's gon' take a black president
to stand up, that has gone through

all of that pain
and heartache and turmoil

in their lives, and struggle,

to be able to set things right
and balance the world out.

Obama is the first
hip-hop president.

What does it mean to have
a black president

if the streets are on fire?
Our folk are dying! Wake up!

Black Lives Matter got
pushed off the front page

with the presidency of Donald Trump.

The way that he
had divided the country,

some of the things that were coming
out of his mouth...

I don't know.

The headlines this morning belong
to Eminem

who released a scathing cipher
directly at Donald Trump.

Sometimes you might need to take
a stand and say certain things...

Why are African-Americans still
dying at the hands of

law enforcement in this country?
And so are white people.

So are white people!

More white people, by the way,
MORE white people.

You see something
that's an atrocity...

It's going to get a hip-hop
response.

ALL CHANT: George Floyd!

All we gotta do is congregate.

We're going to posse up,
we're going to build up to it.

That's what surprised
the hell out of many.

They didn't think that
the world would posse up.

# 19...
89, the number, another summer

# Get down

# Sound of the funky drummer

# Music hittin' your heart
cos I know you got soul!

# Brothers and sisters!
Hey, hey!

# Listen if you're missin', y'all

# Swingin' while I'm singin'
Hey!

# Givin' whatcha gettin',
knowin' what I know

# And while the Black band's
sweatin'

# And the rhythm-rhyme
Rollin'!

# Got to give us what we want
Uh!

# Got to give us what we need!
Hey!

# Our freedom of speech
is freedom of death

# We've gotta fight the powers
that be. #