
RAP
The Reagans' War on Drugs
Although declared by his predecessor Nixon, former president Ronald Reagan is commonly credited with furthering the "war on drugs." The war on drugs was touted as the American government's attempts to minimize the illegal drug trade and use in the United States, and while Nixon's targets were largely heroin and marijuana, Reagan brought the focus to cocaine. Specifically, Reagan targeted crack cocaine--a more concentrated form of cocaine that was sold as rocks that are smoked rather than powder that is snorted. Despite there being no pharmacological difference between the two substances, a large part of the dialogue around crack cocaine was that it is significantly more dangerous than powder cocaine. Because crack cocaine is more concentrated than powder cocaine, it costs less for the same effects in the long run, because you need less of it to get the same result. It follows then that crack was used significantly more in lower income areas than higher income areas. These lower income areas tended to be predominantly occupied by racial minorities, especially Black Americans. President Reagan's wife, first lady Nancy Reagan, participated in the war on drugs as well. She started the "Just Say No" movement, sometimes associated with the D.A.R.E campaign because of their similarly oversimplified approaches to reducing drug use and general lack of success. The "Just Say No" movement essentially argued that drug abuse could be prevented if people just said "no" to using drugs, while ultimately refusing to acknowledge systemic issues associated with drug addiction and abuse.

President Reagan and Nancy Reagan at the Republican National Convention in Dallas Texas, 1984 from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library [Public Domain]
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80s "Say No" Ad from the U.S. Department of Education [Public Domain]
Racialized Drug Sentencing
Part of Reagan's war on drugs administration was the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. This law created minimum sentencing laws for possession of different illicit drugs. Notably, the law created a distinction between crack and powder cocaine. Possession of five grams of crack would result in a minimum of five years in federal prison; in order to receive the same sentencing, one would need to have over 500 grams of powdered cocaine. This led to skyrocketing numbers of Black Americans in federal prison and over-policing in Black neighborhoods, while there was little to no change in the incarceration rates of white people. Black defendants also received on average almost 50% longer drug sentences than white defendants.
Gangsta Rap
While rap had existed in the 70s, it was not used as a vehicle for social or political commentary until the 80s. The fun and easy lyricism of old school rap began to fade out as a new era of rap artists came to the scene, expressing contempt for the harsh circumstances many Black Americans were living in and giving an honest and realistic look at the lifestyles cultivated by the war on drugs. Gang violence, police brutality, and drug abuse and dealing were all topics addressed by rappers beginning in the mid-80s, in a genre now known as gangsta rap (although artists at the time referred to it as reality rap). Ice-T is regarded as a pioneer of the genre, with his song "Six in the Mornin'" (1986) often referred to as one of the first gangsta rap tracks. Gangsta rap didn't see much widespread commercial success until the group N.W.A released their album Straight Outta Compton (1988) which included the incendiary track "Fuck Tha Police," with lyrics protesting police brutality and racial profiling using a drug possession trial as a framing device. Other notable artists like 2Pac, Biggie, Snoop Dogg, and Nas continued to propel the genre forward throughout the 90s.