The moral Panic of Rap music: Looking into the media panic around Kendrick Lamar and his response to the criticism about his work

Rap, also referred to as Hip-Hop, has been a growing genre in America. In 2017, rap was recognized by Neilson Music’s 2017 end-year report as the biggest music genre in the U.S in terms of total consumption (Ryan 2018). Additionally following in 2020, according to the MRC Billboard year end 2020 report (55) hip-hop/ R&B had the highest percentage of total share and volume at 28.2%. The emerging genre also had the highest total on-demand streams (31.1%), on-demand audio streams (30.7%), and on demand video streams (33.9%). Proving its popularity from youth specifically, Statistica found that Hip-hop was tied as most popular amongst the age group 20-24 along with Pop music. What is interesting about these statistics is that rap demonstrates to be a consistently popular and growing genre of music within recent years. 2017, was the first year that hip-hop surpassed rock on the charts as most consumed. However, with this growing admiration, more light is shed onto this genre, but not always in a complimentary way. With its growing prevalence, there have also been those who have emerged to express their disapproval with hip-hop/rap, especially those in the news media. There has been a growing panic amongst news outlet groups over the impact and messages hip-hop and rap music has portrayed to its listeners and viewers, specifically its youth audience. One artist that has been heavily discussed in this panic over the flourishing genre is rapper, Kendrick Lamar, known for his acknowledgement of police brutality and racial injustices in America in his work.

Interact with the digital zine by exploring and clicking the different icons included in the image to find information about the rapper, Kendrick Lamar, his role in racial activism, and his contribution to his community

Cohen (2002) defines a moral panic as “a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians, and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or (more often) resorted to; the condition, then disappears, submerges, or deteriorates and becomes more visible (Cohen 1). Cohen’s definition brings to light the moral panic of hip-hop and rap and its controversial messages that some believe to influence violence, gang involvement, drug usage, and behaviors that pose a threat to youth and their innocence. Carney (2016) adds to Cohen’s explanation of a moral panic and explains how black girlhood is compromised by a moral panic that circulated social media about memes shaming Black women pop culture performers such as Beyonce and Nicki Manaj. Specifically, these memes poke at artists that are known to embrace sexual self-presentation which is a popular form of how black girlhood express themselves. Similar to how social media memes were shaming and putting down women rappers who embrace sexual self-presentation, the news media showed similar disapproval shaming and creating a deviant portrayal of Kendrick Lamar’s approach to address racism and police brutality in the U.S.

Kendrick Lamar released the album To Pimp a Butterfly in 2015. One of his most popular singles on this album was the song “Alright”. “Alright” was written and inspired after Kendrick Lamar’s trip to South Africa where he witnessed extreme cases of poverty and hardships. This hit was also written after the unfortunate tragedy of Tamir Rice after he passed due to police brutality and rap is very much a part of black culture. During the 2015 BET awards, Kendrick Lamar decided to perform this song with bold actions such as standing on top of a vandalized cop car while a large American flag waved on a screen behind him. These actions made a strong statement along with his lyrics of the song that address the harsh realities and struggles for people of color, specifically African- Americans, in the U.S. His song highlights hope for these groups that face the hardships of racism and still proved to be a motivator and light during the most recent 2020 Black Lives Matter movement.

Cohen (2002) describes “deviance” as a part of a moral panic and how it is created by society. Social groups create deviance by making rules of what constitutes deviance and its pairing behavior. This is then applied to groups or individuals and they are labeled as outcasts. Deviance is not something that someone commits but rather is a consequence of rules towards an “offender” of those rules. These deviant groups and individuals are referred to as Folk Devils and are seen as visible reminders of what people should not be or follow (Cohen 4). After Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 BET performance of “Alright”, there was much controversy from news media outlets such as Fox News that stated their deep disapproval of the performance and indication of their belief that deviant messages were being spread in his lyrics. A ​​news clip of multiple commentators on Fox News, including Geraldo Rivera, Eric Bolling, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, went viral when they discussed their joint agreement of disapproval of the artists performance and song “Alright”. Geraldo Rivera stated in this segment “This is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African-Americans than racism in recent years. This is exactly the wrong message…”. Rivera’s response to Kendrick Lamar’s performance not only highlighted the moral panic surrounding hip-hop to youth, specifically black youth, but also how Kendrick Lamar and his genre of music is seen as a Folk Devils. By using diction such as “damage” in order to describe Kendrick’s work towards young African Americans, Rivera paints a deviant picture of the rapper’s songwriting and his messages portrayed in his music. Additionally, Rivera’s stance of believing that Kendrick Lamar’s work is more harmful to young African Americans in the U.S than racism, also ignites the ideas in the segment’s viewers that rap music is something that needs to be monitored, controlled, and fixed over problems of racism in the country. This bold statement, again, provides evidence that Kendrick’s work and hip-hop in general is being painted as a problematic part of youth culture.

When Cohen (2002) explains Folk Devils, he utilizes the example of Mods and Rockers in which he explains was a rock group in Britain that newspapers and other forms of news media labeled as deviant due to the association that they (and their music genre, rock) had with drugs, alcohol, sex, and other rebellious behaviors (Cohen 3). Kendrick Lamar in this case, can be seen as a parallel to the Mods and Rockers because he is criticized and also portrayed as deviant by the news media for his intense outspokenness against racism and police brutality in his music. His act of standing on a vandalized cop car was not seen as a strong statement by Rivera and Fox News, but rather dangerous behavior that encourages violence. Rivera continues to express his disapproval and also references the rapper's lyrics “And we hate po-po/ Wanna kill us dead in the street, fo sho”. This is followed by discussing the death of Baltimore’s Freddie Gray and the 2015 Charleston church shooting, and Rivera states how inappropriate the message of the performance was after these events. By bringing in events of tragedy, viewers, specifically parents, are drawn to the idea that they need to protect their children from these “violent” acts. Rivera paints Kendrick as the “outcast” and Folk Devil in this case because he hints at the influence of increased violence from his performance and encourages people to disregard Kendrick’s messages in his music. Rivera paints a deviant picture to the news media and forgets to acknowledge that the majority of the recent deaths and injustices in the events he mentioned were against people of color in America and were tragic instances in the hands of police. Instead, he goes onto stating various cases of street crime and violence in the city of Baltimore, hinting that there is way more street violence against the police is occurring and backing his stance that rap is harmful to youth.

Rivera’s position in society as a news commentator hints that this situation is a specific type of moral panic around rap/hip-hop. Drotner (2016 fill in correct year), mentions the notion of a media panic and that “it may be considered a specification of the wider concept of moral panic,...the media is both instigator and purveyor of the discussion; the discussion is highly emotionally charged and morally polarised (the medium is either "good" or "bad") with the negative pole being the most visible in most cases; the discussion is an adult discussion that primarily focuses on children and young people; the proponents often have professional stakes in the subject under discussion as teachers, librarians, cultural critics or academic scholars;... (Drotner 596). Following Kendrick Lamar’s performance Rivera and the Fox News commentators (including the writers that approved of this segment), were the instigators and decided to televise the specific story about Kendrick Lamar’s performance. The act of televising and having this discussion in the public sphere allows this segment to have a wide-scale audience and creates emotional reactions to its viewers whether they agree or disagree. The commentators also decided to frame the medium–Kendrick Lamar and his performance— as a deviant object and describe his performance in a negatively polarized way. Drotner (2016) also points out that “John Reith, legendary first director of the BBC, professed that the aim of public service should be to “inform, educate and entertain” with programming having a decisive focus on the first two aspects well into the 1970s… In general, the panics through this century become institutionalised as various interest groups, political parties and professional societies are progressively accepted as the legitimate voices of public debate” (603). As professional news reporters, Rivera, Bolling, and Guilfoyle are accepted as the legitimate voices of public debate since their professions are news reporters and are also on a popular right-wing news media outlet. Their position alone and the platform used to address their concern about Kendrick Lamar and rap music, allows them to create a media and moral panic by having their discussions in the public sphere and calling attention to the problem on a platform with wide-scale audience. Additionally, the people involved in the discussion with Rivera are all also white, adult individuals that are focused on protecting the youth from hip-hop in general. Going back to Rivera’s quote about hip-hop creating more damage to young African American than racism, calls to other adult’s attention watching that the problem around hip-hop is something that needs to be monitored for the youth since it was a growing genre at the time. A commentator at the end of this clip also mentions that it wasn’t a person on cable news saying this and apologized after, she goes on to note that this was planned with hundreds of people involved and not one raised their hand to stop it. When focusing on the comment about no one “raising their hand” to stop this, is evidence that this segment is a call for a panic and action against the panic of the artist's performance. She and Rivera make clear to parents this rapper and his kind of music ignite violence and children must be protected. The women’s complaint about no action against Kendrick, hints that there should be action against him.

Kendrick had a poetic response to Fox News and the media panic surrounding rap music, in his single DNA. In the song DNA , Kendrick sheds light to the struggles that people of color face in America and how they are seen as a threat simply because of their culture. In the middle of DNA, a sample of Geraldo Rivera’s famous quote is used and the lyrics state:

“I got loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA (This is why I say that hip hop)

I got loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA (Has done more damage to young African Americans)

I live a better life, I'm rollin' several dice, f*ck your life (Than racism in recent years)

Kendrick’s action of utilizing Rivera’s Fox News sample can be argued as a form of Culture Jamming. Delaure and Fink (2017) generate the idea of Culture Jamming and mention that it has eight distinct characteristics. The characteristics state the following:

• It takes existing content, logos, slogans, etc. and transforms it into something (usually something contradicting the original message)

• It’s artful, the notion of artistry as a form of disruption

• It’s playful which makes it more inviting to other participants

• It is often anonymous

• It is participatory by engagement through creative strategies

• It is political and does political work by intervening

• It is serially, it is a series of related episodes

• It is transgressive that creates shock or amusement

The following characteristics can be applied to Kendrick’s response in his song DNA when he samples Rivera's Fox News segment. Kendrick takes an existing form of news content and transforms it in a mockery way into his rap song about people of color needing to stay loyal with each other with all of the injustices occurring in America. As the clip plays, he’s rapping over the words and showing his dominant stance. In this way, it is also artful because he completes his form of protest in a poetic way through his lyrics and music while also disrupting the original object. It’s also playful because he uses the original sample and Rivera’s actual words rather than just rapping about Fox News (even though he does do this in other hit singles on the album). Although this example is not anonymous, he is participating in activism and the encouragement of youth activism by calling out the racial disparities in the U.S through his creative work. He protests political social issues that have become steadily prevalent over the course of America’s history. People were also amused and shocked with Kendrick’s response as the album was released two years after the original comments from Fox News were made. Kendrick’s act of culture jamming the Fox News clip gained much attention and proved to be useful because it still stands to be his number three most popular songs on Apple music. In the remained of his albums, although he doesn’t utilize the tactic of culture jamming, he continues to call out Fox News in his lyrics during the song Yah and in his song XXX the rapper utilizes U2 and spreads yet another powerful message to his young listeners that America isn’t perfect for every person living here, only if you are a specific type of person. Forbes named Damn the seventh best-selling album in the world in the year 2017 and the four most listened four songs of Kendrick Lamar on apple music is from the album Damn, proving that Kendrick Lamar’s work is empowering, entertaining, and impactful amongst youth and all his listeners.

Kendrick Lamar is an incredibly impactful artist in this generation. Many rappers, such as Drake, tend to rap about love or less serious messages, but Kendrick Lamar utilizes his platform to create change and ignite activism in his youthful viewers against racial injustices in the U.S. I thought creating another form of a creative medium such as a zine would be appropriate in matching Kendrick’s unique form of expression– not many people are able to write poetic lyrics with a good beat and make it in the top charts of the year. In the class lecture about 'The Problems with Subcultural Theory', Zines were mentioned as a form of protest against dominating institutions. They tend to privilege amateurism over professionalism. And part of this is a celebration of access by young and poor people to these magazines. Zines reject the bourgeois or middle-class values of popular culture that they believe stifle creativity and authentic expression" (Lecture Video Three). I think that Kendrick Lamar demonstrates this greatly and also in his work, brings to light experiences of minorities that other people such as middle and upper class may not understand or realize is occurring. In my zine, I specifically focus on the theme of activism and Kendrick Lamar’s role in racial activism. In Clark-Parsons (2017) they state “Feminist zinesters often do the important work of making those encoded norms visible, cutting and pasting dominant images from commercial print media to critique them and offer alternatives, a vital form of countercultural production” (559). Kendrick Lamar represents many characteristics of this quote in his lyrics because he mentions dominant racial issues in society for people of color and cuts and pastes pieces of his thoughts on the issue and creates it into lyrics which then eventually transforms into his artworks of rap songs. With this zine, I wanted to do the same and cut and paste the different parts of the artists' participatory forms of activism to demonstrate to reader’s the involvement in racial justice issues Kendrick Lamar has in society.

Users can interact with my digital zine by clicking on the Icons of the piece and exploring different cases of activism. This is also to give more background and detail to users about the events that I have mentioned in my work since Kendrick Lamar is a very prominent figure involved in forms of activism. I wanted to specifically focus on Kendrick’s form of activism because I also wanted to pay tribute to the artist’s work. I thought a zine would be a positive form to do this because Bold (2017) states “there has been many criticisms that diversity in race, class, and age are underrepresented in the zine community. The developments in digital technology have enabled zines to extend into the online sphere: this increased access has resulted in increased participation (by readers and writers).” By creating an interactive zine about a famous rapper that highly contributes to racial activism in the U.S, I feel as though users will be exposed to the harsh realities that people of color face while highlighting Kendrick Lamar’s actions and work that counter these problems. It is also mentioned by Bold (2017) that “the participatory nature of alternative media democratizes and progresses the consumption and production of cultural content. Alternative media challenges the corporate realities and agendas [that the mainstream media portrays] by allowing the broader public to create their own versions of reality [13]. Additionally, participation in citizen media can encourage participation in activism” (217). The act of creating a zine, according to Bold, is a participatory act itself and I felt by encouraging and highlighting Kendrick Lamar’s work through this zine, I was able to add hints of my own creative ideas. After doing much research into Kendrick Lamar, his music, and his cases of activism, I was able to learn much about the artist’s contributions to his listeners, his community, and the U.S as a whole. By highlighting his works of activism, I hope that viewers of the zine also wish to participate in helping their community and countering acts of racism in the country. Many of his listeners are young, white youth who may not experience the same as Kendrick and children growing up in his community of Compton. By sharing his experiences, he also gives a light to those who can relate to him while also teaching those who do not experience the same and counter voices of the broader public in his lyrics. This is also similar to a zine’s purpose of challenging corporate realties and agenda.

Specifically, I chose to incorporate icons about the controversy between Kendrick and Fox News because they were the largest platform criticizing his work and found it most fascinating in the way he responded to them. I wanted users of the zine to have a clear sense of what occurred between the two and to create their own opinions on the matter based on what I provided in my zine. Kendrick Lamar and his work speak to many of the concepts studied throughout the year including his relation to the moral and more specifically, the media panic surrounding rap music. Additionally, his bold response of culture jamming and actively calling out Fox News was incredibly fascinating to research as well as creating a zine and being able to artistically express Kendrick Lamar’s contributions to racial activism. I was surprised by all the work he has done for Compton which is why I decided to bring light in one of the icons of my zine about his community service work. I urge all listeners of music to at least explore Kendrick Lamar’s music since I have realized after researching much about the rapper, that his lyrics are deeply embedded with important messages about the racial injustices in America.

Academic References

(note: that all non-academic sources are linked in-text)

• Carney, Hernandez, J., & Wallace, A. M. (2016). Sexual knowledge and practiced feminisms: On moral panic, black girlhoods, and hip hop. Journal of Popular Music Studies, 28(4), 412–426. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpms.12191

• Clark-Parsons. (2017). Feminist Ephemera in a Digital World: Theorizing Zines as Networked Feminist Practice: Feminist Ephemera in a Digital World. Communication, Culture & Critique, 10(4), 557–573. https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12172

• Kneer, & Ward, M. . (2020). With a rebel yell: Video gamers’ responses to mass shooting moral panics. New Media & Society, 23(3), 497–514. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819901138

• Kirsten Drotner (1999) Dangerous Media? Panic Discourses and Dilemmas of Modernity, Paedagogica Historica, 35:3, 593-619, DOI: 10.1080/0030923990350303 https://doi.org/10.1080/0030923990350303

• Marilyn Delaure and Moritz Fink. (2017). “Introduction.” In Marilyn Delaure and Moritz Fink (eds.), Culture Jamming: Activism and the Art of Cultural Resistance. New York: NYU Press, p. 1-35.

• Ramdarshan Bold. (2017). Why Diverse Zines Matter: A Case Study of the People of Color Zines Project. Publishing Research Quarterly, 33(3), 215–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-017-9533-4

• Stanley Cohen. (1976/2002). Folk Devils and Moral Panics (3rd edition). New York: Routledge. [Chapter One: Deviance and Moral Panics, pp. 1-15].