How Did African Americans Grow Up In The Drug Trade During The 1980s

Many artists who grew up in the drug trade during the 1980s would become labeled as veterans because it was the sole option they had to strive economically. And through this time period, hip hop will alter to a medium in response to a life of drug dealing, police brutality, violence, and incarceration. The effects of this period will lead to the mass incarcerations of African Americans and the lives of people being ruined, which will be further explored.

By the middle of the 1990s, the United States Incarceration rate surpassed the rest of the world, damaging a large portion of the African American community. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics Prisoners Series, a lineup of reports that contain prisoner data from the state and federal level, at the beginning of the 1980s, the prison population was just over 300,000 people

Hip-hop started to develop songs revolving around the actual selling and addiction of drugs. Moreover, many of the songs revolved around gang violence, police, and prison. Many songs coming from artists such as KRS One, Ice-T, Public Enemy, Kool G. Rap, and N.W.A. were a result of this time period. One example of the nature of this time can be illustrated by De La Soul’s “My Brother’s a Basehead” released in 1991 (Touré). The song discussed the story of rapper Posdunos’s brother who became a crackhead. The song explains how Pos’s brother was a very curious person, and that was how he got exposed to crack. As a consequence of his curiosity, the substance controlled his mind and body, and he was unable to stop despite everyone around him turning their backs. The song is a metaphor of how crack entered the African American community (Touré). Consequently, many more songs were in the first person due to how crack was everywhere in the community as a result of the unemployment and the crack