Gangsta Rap, the War on Drugs and the Location of African-American Identity in Los Angeles, 198892

Using Los Angeles between 1988 and 1992 as a model, this article examines the possibility that the racial identities of popular culture forms such as hip hop are spatialized in the conception, perception and representation of the city and its inhabitants. Gangsta rap places images of the black male already present in US/African-American popular culture within the spatial context of post-industrial Los Angeles. At the same time, LA's political and legislative structures absorb the gangsta as a representative of the city's black residents. Between 1988 and 1992, gangsta rap and the Los Angeles municipal structure struggled to represent and effectively control LA's black communities through the image of the gangsta, a battle that eventually engaged real and imagined residents of LA with the very real force of the Los Angeles Police Department.