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Perhaps no figure so divides the American people like Ronald Reagan. Rap and Hip Hop culture has for decades cited the Reagan era as a decisive and dangerous turning point in modern American history, while conservative Republicans hail the late president as a sort of savior whose radical conservatism restored the country to strength. While Hip Hop culture and conservative Republicans disagree on t
#DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK
A recent focus by rappers on the Reagan Era and its aftermath renews the anti-Reagan critique so historically prevalent in Hip Hop. Kendrick Lamar’s album Section 80 is a meditation on the generation born in the 1980s, what he calls “children of Ronald Reagan.” Juelz Santana, too, plans an upcoming mixtape called The Ronald Reagan Era. Nearly eight years after his death, the president seems to fin
Whether it is rappers who came of age during the Reagan administration (e.g., Jay-Z, Scarface, Kanye) or those born during Reagan’s 80s (e.g., Wale, Kendrick, Juelz Santana), the consensus is that the Reagan Era constituted a watershed in American life, especially in the hood. Republicans, especially those in the Tea Party, agree. They too regard the Reagan era as epochal, the so-called “Reagan Re
We’ve been so overwhelmed by the story of Reagan’s unassailable greatness that the conservative narrative largely prevails. “The Reagan Era is when shit got great,” the story goes, and nearly the entire media establishment has adhered pretty faithfully to some version of that story. So why rappers’ beef with Reagan and his legacy? Why is the story of Reagan told by rappers so dramatically differen
Rap on Reagan:
— Jay-Z: “I blame Reagan for making me into a monster”
— Wale: “Shit ain’t been the same since Ronald Reagan” and, echoing Hov, “I just blame it on a man named Reagan.” Even the name of Wale’s label chief Rick Ross is due to Reagan, as is Freeway’s
— Scarface: “Reagan never planned for us to rise.”
— Kanye: “How we stop the Black Panthers? / Ronald Reagan cooked up an answer.”
— The Coup’s Boots Riley links Reagan to the genocidal crimes of Saddam Hussein
— Public Enemy’s Chuck D: “Reagan is bullshit.” In fact, Public Enemy’s birth was due directly to Reagan
— Jay-Z, Yaasin Bey (Mos Def) and Immortal Technique find little difference between Reagan’s clique and Osama bin Laden. Before there was bin Laden there was Reagan, says Jay-Z
— Pusha T: “The Ronald Reagan era was a tough time and a detrimental time to the black community,” especially due to the “Cocaine Ronald gave us.”
— Kendrick Lamar and Ab-Soul: “Blame Reagan”
— Brother Ali puts it bluntly: “Motherfuck Reagan.”
— The opening scenes of 1991’s Boyz n the Hood (Ice Cube’s acting debut) feature a Reagan/Bush reelection poster shot through ignominiously with bullet holes like a wild west “Wanted” poster. Peep how Tre’s friend stops to offer a personal “fuck you” to the president
The Reagan Cartel
Most of the Hip Hop critique of Reagan emerges out of the Iran-Contra Affair. The first Jay-Z line above continues, “I blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra.” Hov is referring to a web of shady-as-fuck activity in which Reagan’s administration ultimately facilitated the sale of tons of cocaine into the US inner-city at the height of the crack epidemic. A Los Angeles cocaine trafficker by the name of
So, when Kanye says, “Reagan cooked up an answer,” Jay-Z says “Ronald Reagan got Manhattan the blow,” or Brother Ali says, “I never sold base, motherfuck Reagan,”, they’re all referring to the Reagan team’s movement of cocaine into the hood
But why would Reagan’s administration do something as risky as facilitating a massive cocaine trafficking operation? Why would Reagan’s clique do that to American citizens, especially with the incipient crack epidemic ravaging the inner-city? Some have argued that the project was a sort of psychological and chemical warfare deployed to neutralize and weaken the hood and ward off urban rebellion. A
“Contras, the Shah and the CIA”
The cocaine trafficking was to fund an illegal war being prosecuted by the Reagan administration in Nicaragua, highlighted in the song “Watchout”, by Immortal Technique. That’s where the Contras come in. An illegal, undercover arms trade to Iran partially funded the Contras, and cocaine trafficking provided the rest: narcotrafficking and gun running. The Contra army was an illegal force put togeth
While the Sandinistas were considerably imperfect, they represented an incipient global revolution against a growing formation called the Washington Consensus, a world order governed by a wealthy corporate elite. Reagan represented a sort of global revolution, too—one of the corporations and banks against the globe’s people. The sort of economy that the Occupy movement fights against was just begi
Morning in America
Simultaneously, Reagan’s domestic policy agenda was a form of that which was being imposed on Latin America: lower and lower taxes on the wealthy and less and less government services for the poor and working-class. Reagan’s domestic policy agenda was driven by a fundamental ideological principle: the wealthy elite were not being taken care of and that was the reason for any and all economic ills.
All the social programs…were cut as a result of Reagan coming into office and greed just became a hobby. He was kind of the Moses of leading them to feeling good about being greedy white men
One of Reagan’s first accomplishments was to assault the tax code in favor of the elite. Upper marginal rates had been no lower than 70% (and often in the 80-90% range) since the 1940s. It was 70% the day Reagan entered the White House; by his second term it was 28%. Not surprisingly, there was suddenly less money for the programs that kept the least fortunate Americans hanging on. Social programs
The story told by Hip Hop ran entirely counter to that of Reagan. Emerging out of the South Bronx (pictured below), rap music announced to anyone with a record player that things were not as Mr. Reagan said. “Hip Hop has always been political,” reminds Hip Hop journalist and Bronx-born Davey D. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s 1982 classic “The Message” explained to everyone who was listen
Rappers who grew up during Reagan’s 80s—Jay-Z, 2pac, Biggie, Ice Cube and NWA, Scarface and Geto Boys, and others—offer rich insight into precisely how the new urban neglect affected families and communities. NWA’s Eazy E called rappers “underground reporters,” who were telling a story quite different from the evening news, which whitewashed Reagan’s damage. Rap listeners far from those struggles
Now a new generation of rappers continue the rebuke of Reagan and the ideology he represents. Joining them is the Occupy movement, which is nothing if not a protest of the 30+ years of continued Reaganism. Rap has become the music of resistance in the US and across the globe, and the alliance of Occupy Wall Street and Hip Hop is proving to be a potent force. Jay-Z, Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli, Bun B,
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