Keywords
censorship, police, protest, Detroit
Abstract
Thousands of hands clapped and cheered for the rap artists heralded as the rock stars of the age. Fans packed into Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena, chanting to hear the song they all wanted to scream. F*** the Police. T he rap group, N.W.A., toured America in the summer of 1989 and was contractually obligated to forgo performing that particular song. Scattered among the crowd were police officers ready to take action if the song started playing. N.W.A. called an audible, and DJ Yella projected the song from the speakers for thirty seconds before three sharp shots were heard. At the sound, the performers f led the stage in a hurry as the group’s bodyguards got physical with the police rushing the stage. The situation eventually diffused and no one got hurt, but the image that has since pervaded the news, culture, and film adaptations of the event is that the police were quick to take action to silence the voices of young black men, telling the truth about their lives in urban America.2
Recommended Citation
Van Katwyk, Rachel
(2024)
"Rap and Rhyme An Insider Look on African American Life in Urban America,"
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 53:
Iss.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol53/iss1/4
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