UC Irvine Profs Talk 'Rap On Trial,' Criminalization Of Black Art
By
Sameer Rao | July 11, 2021, 8:02 PM EDT
Like jazz before it, rap music spent several decades moving from the margins to pop culture's center, becoming a global economic and political engine in the process. The genres also share two other important and inextricable qualities: roots in disenfranchised African American communities, and constant targeting by the criminal justice system, say the authors of a new book looking at these roots.
Professors Charis E. Kubrin and Jack I. Lerner of the University of California, Irvine, are the authors of "Rap on Trial: A Legal Guide for Attorneys."