MFDoom posted:
Rap snitches, tellin all their business
Sit in the court and be they own star witness
Do you see the perpetrator, yeah I'm right here
Fuck around and get the whole label sent up for years
A rap snitch, brought into the popular vernacular by the track "Rap Snitch Knishes," written by New York rapper Mf Doom in 2004, is a term which refers to rappers tendencies to catalogue their criminal exploits, real or made up, in the lyrics of their songs. This piece is a short reflection on the relevance of this as it effects black women's relationship with the criminal justice system in the United States. In particular, the author will focus on the tendencies of certain rappers, including GA and FL rappers Waka Flaka and Gunplay, to incriminate their mothers for involvement with storing their drugs (generally cocaine). In the wake of the controversy regarding Baton Rouge rapper Lil Boosie's lyrics being permitted into the courtroom in a case against him, this matter is especially topical.
One of the little mentioned effects of the drug war has been to greatly increase the incarceration rate of black women. Mothers, wives, sisters, cousins, and other black women often become the targets of police oppression not due to their involvement in criminal activity, but due to their proximity to illegal operations. The author once heard anthropologist and black radical professor and activist Joao Vargas describe the War on Drugs as in many ways being a "War on Black Women," and is inclined to agree with this statement. The War on Drugs, a front for the USAian government to exact crushing oppression over colored people, especially blacks, has used this strategy to harm not only young black men, but black women of all ages as well. The arrest of a person's mother for holding drugs or other contraband inside of her house, possibly against her will and done because she relies on her son for pecuniary support, is one tragic example of this pig strategy in effect.
It's well known that happenly speaking about criminal acts is often a foolhardy action, and this is in no small part due to the phenomenon of snitching. Whether paid informants, blackmailed to escape their own criminal charges due to the War on Drugs or other forms of pig oppression, or because they misguidedly think that their actions supporting the pig oppression of black people serve for the good of themselves or others, snitches play no small part in maintaining the panoptic totality of the genocidal USAian prison industrial system. One need only look at the tale of the infamous BMF, or Black Mafia Family, to see how snitching led to the incarceration of many more black men than would have been otherwise possible. For this reason, even a "rap snitch" could cause trouble for their mother or other relation, and is in many ways complicit in snitching.
It is for these reasons that I must state that I am categorically against rappers, not only writing lyrics about, but also keeping any keys, heaters, 'lade bought with drug money, etc... at their mom's, sister's, significant other's, etc...
Edited by EmanuelaBrolandi ()
Angela Y. Davis:What do you think about the "don't do drugs" message you hear over and over again in rap music? Do you think that it's having any effect on our community?
Ice Cube: Maybe, but it's message without action.
Angela Y. Davis: Message without action?
Ice Cube: We've got to start policing and patrolling our own neighborhoods. There's got to be a day when we go into the drug house and kick down the door. Snatch the drug dealer, take his drugs. Destroy his drugs. Take the money and put it into the movement. That's what we gotta do. We can't dial 911, call Sheriff Bill or Deputy Tom who don't care about the community or the drugs.
Angela Y. Davis: But where are the drugs coming from?
Ice Cube: Oh, it's coming from them.
Angela Y. Davis: So don't you think that Bill will always be able to find someone who will be able to do his dirty work?
Ice Cube: Yes, but there's got to be a time when we say: You can do your dirty work but you're not going to do it here. You are not going to occupy our court.