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Rap vs. Ronald Reagan | Rap Genius Blog
Perhaps no figure so divides the American people like Ronald Reagan. Rap and Hip Hop culture has for decades cited the Reagan era as a decisive and dangerous turning point in modern American history, while conservative Republicans hail the late president as a sort of savior whose radical conservatism restored the country to strength. While Hip Hop culture and conservative Republicans disagree on the effect of Reagan and his administration’s policies on the country, both agree that Reagan transformed the country and set the course on which the nation remains. The Eighties may be over, but we continue to live in the Age of Reagan
A recent focus by rappers on the Reagan Era and its aftermath renews the anti-Reagan critique so historically prevalent in Hip Hop. Kendrick Lamar’s album Section 80 is a meditation on the generation born in the 1980s, what he calls “children of Ronald Reagan.” Juelz Santana, too, plans an upcoming mixtape called The Ronald Reagan Era. Nearly eight years after his death, the president seems to finding his way more and more into rap lyrics. Wale has mentioned Reagan multiple times in songs. Das Racist’s Kool AD returns to Reagan (and wife Nancy) even more often. Brother Ali and Jake One are currently prepping the release of Mourning in America, the title of which is an ironic play on Reagan’s “Morning in America” campaign slogan.
Whether it is rappers who came of age during the Reagan administration (e.g., Jay-Z, Scarface, Kanye) or those born during Reagan’s 80s (e.g., Wale, Kendrick, Juelz Santana), the consensus is that the Reagan Era constituted a watershed in American life, especially in the hood. Republicans, especially those in the Tea Party, agree. They too regard the Reagan era as epochal, the so-called “Reagan Revolution.” Reagan “made American great again.” The late president is held up as a sort of prophet or saint. He’s like Pac, Biggie, Dilla and Pun rolled into one. He’s become even more venerable in death, and it’s not surprising to hear him invoked dozens of times at Republican debates. And with good reason: Reagan changed the country into what conservatives envisioned. He was so successful that every president since him (including Obama) has largely stuck to the script. It is almost impossible to overstate the late president’s influence on the Republican Party and the direction of the country over the past thirty years
Most of the Hip Hop critique of Reagan emerges out of the Iran-Contra Affair. The first Jay-Z line above continues, “I blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra.” Hov is referring to a web of shady-as-fukk activity in which Reagan’s administration ultimately facilitated the sale of tons of cocaine into the US inner-city at the height of the crack epidemic. A Los Angeles cocaine trafficker by the name of “Freeway” Ricky Ross (sound familiar?) served as one of the main conduits through which cheap cocaine flooded the hood. Ross is said to have developed a distribution chain spanning all the way to the East Coast. In the end, the operations stretched from Colombia to Panama and Honduras to Miami and throughout the United States. Honduras’ General Jose Bueso-Rosa—known by the US Government to head “the most significant case of narcoterrorism yet discovered”—was contracted and protected by Reagan’s point man Oliver North, as well as Panamanian President Manuel Noriega (the real Noriega), then known to be a significant player in Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel. Though of course not entirely due to the Reagan administration’s assistance, the kilo price fell dramatically from $60,000 to a mere $9,000 during the Reagan Era, due to the fantastic increase in supply from Central and South America.
Simultaneously, Reagan’s domestic policy agenda was a form of that which was being imposed on Latin America: lower and lower taxes on the wealthy and less and less government services for the poor and working-class. Reagan’s domestic policy agenda was driven by a fundamental ideological principle: the wealthy elite were not being taken care of and that was the reason for any and all economic ills. Alternately called “supply-side” or “trickle-down” economics, the theory was that benefits given to the wealthy and corporations would trickle down to the rest of us. Comedian D.L. Hughley explains what “trickle-down” looked like to a young Black male in inner-city Los Angeles:
"All the social programs…were cut as a result of Reagan coming into office and greed just became a hobby. He was kind of the Moses of leading them to feeling good about being greedy white men."
Rap vs. Ronald Reagan | Rap Genius Blog
Perhaps no figure so divides the American people like Ronald Reagan. Rap and Hip Hop culture has for decades cited the Reagan era as a decisive and dangerous turning point in modern American history, while conservative Republicans hail the late president as a sort of savior whose radical conservatism restored the country to strength. While Hip Hop culture and conservative Republicans disagree on the effect of Reagan and his administration’s policies on the country, both agree that Reagan transformed the country and set the course on which the nation remains. The Eighties may be over, but we continue to live in the Age of Reagan
A recent focus by rappers on the Reagan Era and its aftermath renews the anti-Reagan critique so historically prevalent in Hip Hop. Kendrick Lamar’s album Section 80 is a meditation on the generation born in the 1980s, what he calls “children of Ronald Reagan.” Juelz Santana, too, plans an upcoming mixtape called The Ronald Reagan Era. Nearly eight years after his death, the president seems to finding his way more and more into rap lyrics. Wale has mentioned Reagan multiple times in songs. Das Racist’s Kool AD returns to Reagan (and wife Nancy) even more often. Brother Ali and Jake One are currently prepping the release of Mourning in America, the title of which is an ironic play on Reagan’s “Morning in America” campaign slogan.
Whether it is rappers who came of age during the Reagan administration (e.g., Jay-Z, Scarface, Kanye) or those born during Reagan’s 80s (e.g., Wale, Kendrick, Juelz Santana), the consensus is that the Reagan Era constituted a watershed in American life, especially in the hood. Republicans, especially those in the Tea Party, agree. They too regard the Reagan era as epochal, the so-called “Reagan Revolution.” Reagan “made American great again.” The late president is held up as a sort of prophet or saint. He’s like Pac, Biggie, Dilla and Pun rolled into one. He’s become even more venerable in death, and it’s not surprising to hear him invoked dozens of times at Republican debates. And with good reason: Reagan changed the country into what conservatives envisioned. He was so successful that every president since him (including Obama) has largely stuck to the script. It is almost impossible to overstate the late president’s influence on the Republican Party and the direction of the country over the past thirty years
Most of the Hip Hop critique of Reagan emerges out of the Iran-Contra Affair. The first Jay-Z line above continues, “I blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra.” Hov is referring to a web of shady-as-fukk activity in which Reagan’s administration ultimately facilitated the sale of tons of cocaine into the US inner-city at the height of the crack epidemic. A Los Angeles cocaine trafficker by the name of “Freeway” Ricky Ross (sound familiar?) served as one of the main conduits through which cheap cocaine flooded the hood. Ross is said to have developed a distribution chain spanning all the way to the East Coast. In the end, the operations stretched from Colombia to Panama and Honduras to Miami and throughout the United States. Honduras’ General Jose Bueso-Rosa—known by the US Government to head “the most significant case of narcoterrorism yet discovered”—was contracted and protected by Reagan’s point man Oliver North, as well as Panamanian President Manuel Noriega (the real Noriega), then known to be a significant player in Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel. Though of course not entirely due to the Reagan administration’s assistance, the kilo price fell dramatically from $60,000 to a mere $9,000 during the Reagan Era, due to the fantastic increase in supply from Central and South America.
Simultaneously, Reagan’s domestic policy agenda was a form of that which was being imposed on Latin America: lower and lower taxes on the wealthy and less and less government services for the poor and working-class. Reagan’s domestic policy agenda was driven by a fundamental ideological principle: the wealthy elite were not being taken care of and that was the reason for any and all economic ills. Alternately called “supply-side” or “trickle-down” economics, the theory was that benefits given to the wealthy and corporations would trickle down to the rest of us. Comedian D.L. Hughley explains what “trickle-down” looked like to a young Black male in inner-city Los Angeles:
"All the social programs…were cut as a result of Reagan coming into office and greed just became a hobby. He was kind of the Moses of leading them to feeling good about being greedy white men."