Liner Notes: February 15 at the Ford Foundation

Reasonable Doubts: Hip Hop Journalism and the War on Drugs

Moderator: Elizabeth Méndez Berry

Panelists: Barry Michael Cooper, Kim Osorio  and Donovan X. Ramsey 

Context

The relationship between hip hop journalism and the drug war is an essential and rarely discussed one. One of the most memorable works of art about selling drugs, Notorious B.I.G.'s "Ten Crack Commandments" was inspired by a 1994 column in The Source Magazine; The Source, like other hip hop publications, covered the drug war, the drug trade and criminal justice. Our panel illuminates that work and the confluence of community, culture and policy.

The panel features legendary writer Barry Michael Cooper, whose 1980s Village Voice pieces on the New York drug trade led to him writing legendary films like New Jack City, a film that inspired rappers such as Jay-Z and many more with its lucid account of the circumstances and consequences of the drug trade. He’s joined by Kim Osorio, former editor-in-chief of The Source Magazine, the key hip hop publication that consistently covered criminal justice issues and how they intersected with the culture. It also includes Donovan X Ramsey, author of 2023's acclaimed WHEN CRACK WAS KING, an intimate, revealing look at an epidemic that changed the country but was largely misunderstood.

The discussion will be moderated by Elizabeth Méndez Berry, who started her career at Vibe and Honey Magazines and then worked at the Drug Policy Alliance during the high-profile Rockefeller Drug Law negotiations involving Russell Simmons and other prominent members of the hip hop industry. Hip hop both critiqued users and glorified dealing; hip hop artists have been deliberately targeted by law enforcement and hip hop albums were bankrolled by cocaine (as Too Short noted on the podcast Louder than a Riot). This promises to be a fascinating conversation about how hip hop journalism covers and uncovers the drug war.

Sample credits:

 

Bonus tracks: