A guilty pleasure: The legal, social scientific and feminist verdict against rap

Ummni Khan

doi:10.1177/13624806211028274

Abstract

This article draws on governance theory, critical theory and cultural criminology to interrogate how legal, social scientific and feminist discourses converge to construct rap music as a pressing social problem. While each discourse has its own preoccupations, ideologies and internal contestation, the overarching message is that rap music is a potential source of danger that conveys anti-social attitudes. Suspicion is sometimes also cast on musicians themselves. While I compare three overlapping fields, the ultimate purpose is to problematize the supposedly progressive approach to interpreting and mobilizing against songs deemed harmful. Significantly, I argue that much of the social science scholarship and feminist activism that addresses hip hop music perpetuates anti-Black stereotypes and dovetails with repressive state apparatuses. Among other things, social science and feminist criticism of rap hermeneutically support the use of rap lyrics as evidence of criminality—a distinctly non-progressive, racialized legal practice.

Highlights

While hip hop currently dominates the music industry (Leight, 2019), it is highly problematized
My methodology is rooted in a cultural studies framework and is based on a comparative discourse analysis of social science, feminist and legal constructions of rap
As with much anti-rap public discourse, there is the suggestion that sexist songs will cause harm in the real world, creating, in her words, ‘a moral conundrum’ for DJs. Such stances reflect a moral panic and assert an empirical truth claim—that rap lyrics are bad for society— without having to deal with the complexity of data and analysis

Summary

Introduction

While hip hop currently dominates the music industry (Leight, 2019), it is highly problematized. Keywords Criminalization, feminist theory, governance theory, law, moral panic, racialization, rape culture, rap music, social sciences My methodology is rooted in a cultural studies framework and is based on a comparative discourse analysis of social science, feminist and legal constructions of rap.

Results

Conclusion