5 ms·

Dispatches from the Rap Wars

94 points by kawera 10y ago

6stringmerc 10y ago
Intriguing balance of sociology and standards of conduct / research to get access and some of the sympathetic elements of otherwise pretty dangerous and irresponsible behavior and attitudes. Definitely fits in to me with the "in order to assist or encourage change, understanding some of the roots as able is valuable" even as an outsider. Like one of the subjects point out, the horrible conditions are what drive interest, and another way out of the cycle isn't readily apparent...though certainly a hot subject.
- sevensor 10y ago
  It was interesting to me that the gang isn't even fighting over turf for lucrative drug sales -- the drug business doesn't make them any money to speak of.
  - ZeroGravitas 10y ago
    Another article posted here today makes the claim that in a study in Liverpool that gave drug addicts free drugs, there were less addicts, because drug addicts became dealers in order to afford their own drug habit drawing others into the same affliction. So perhaps looking for profit is the wrong measure, instead look to see what the street value of the drugs they consume is and see if they could afford that without dealing.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - bfuller 10y ago
    The ones making money dealing drugs don't want or need the publicity
    - nickpsecurity 10y ago
      This is partly true. It's a mix of people who do it flashy for image and long-term types who stay under radar. What the latter do in their networks is similar to friend-to-friend architectures in P2P. Just more face-to-face for better evaluation of trustworthiness.
psiconaut 10y ago
who was going to say people gets shot by popularity in the social media. this is, literally, the impact of the killer apps.
- futureisnow 10y ago
  I don't think popularity is exactly what gets them shot. It just happens that they're looking for popularity in the same way that they're struggling to control a territory. The 'war' is extended to the cyber realm, just jumping one dimension up.
youdontknowtho 10y ago
This smacks of the kind of "fear the inner city" black kid BS that we heard in the early 90's. I can just picture this reporter talking to one of the guys I grew up with listening to their bullshit and just eating it up with a spoon. It's not to say that the world isn't violent and screwed up, but the nexus of crime and youth culture is always over inflated to "national panic". It just keeps happening.
- pchristensen 10y ago
  He's a sociology professor at the University of Chicago, not some slack-jawed rube. Also, the point of the article is that success as gang rappers makes these boys targets for other gangs and their lives and options become limited, not that they're a danger to anyone outside of the gang territories. Chicago is a complicated city - the safe parts are among the safest of any American city, and the unsafe parts are so dangerous that it drags the citywide numbers down. See http://www.urbanophile.com/2013/08/12/the-growing-public-safety-inequality-gap-in-chicago-by-daniel-hertz/ http://www.urbanophile.com/2013/08/12/the-growing-public-saf... "Over the last twenty years, at the same time as overall crime has declined, the inequality of violence in Chicago has skyrocketed ... There have always been safer and more dangerous areas here, as there are everywhere; but the gap between them is way, way bigger now than it used to be ... In the early 90s, the most dangerous third of the city had about six times as many murders as the safest third. By the late 2000s, the most dangerous part of the city had nearly fifteen times more homicides than the safest third."
  - youdontknowtho 10y ago
    I just get really touchy when urban cultural stuff gets reported like a ritual from darkest Africa. That being said, you're right.
bumbledraven 10y ago
> The guys have a term for these kinds of fans: cloutheads. Really? Only 72 pages in Google's index contain this word, and none of them use it in the article's sense. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22clouthead%22&start=70 http://www.google.com/search?q=%22clouthead%22&start=70
- rezt 10y ago
  How does that prove anything? It could've been a colloquialism.

94 points by kawera 10y ago

Intriguing balance of sociology and standards of conduct / research to get access and some of the sympathetic elements of otherwise pretty dangerous and irresponsible behavior and attitudes. Definitely fits in to me with the "in order to assist or encourage change, understanding some of the roots as able is valuable" even as an outsider. Like one of the subjects point out, the horrible conditions are what drive interest, and another way out of the cycle isn't readily apparent...though certainly a hot subject.

sevensor 10y ago
It was interesting to me that the gang isn't even fighting over turf for lucrative drug sales -- the drug business doesn't make them any money to speak of.
- ZeroGravitas 10y ago
  Another article posted here today makes the claim that in a study in Liverpool that gave drug addicts free drugs, there were less addicts, because drug addicts became dealers in order to afford their own drug habit drawing others into the same affliction. So perhaps looking for profit is the wrong measure, instead look to see what the street value of the drugs they consume is and see if they could afford that without dealing.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- bfuller 10y ago
  The ones making money dealing drugs don't want or need the publicity
  - nickpsecurity 10y ago
    This is partly true. It's a mix of people who do it flashy for image and long-term types who stay under radar. What the latter do in their networks is similar to friend-to-friend architectures in P2P. Just more face-to-face for better evaluation of trustworthiness.

psiconaut 10y ago

who was going to say people gets shot by popularity in the social media. this is, literally, the impact of the killer apps.

futureisnow 10y ago
I don't think popularity is exactly what gets them shot. It just happens that they're looking for popularity in the same way that they're struggling to control a territory. The 'war' is extended to the cyber realm, just jumping one dimension up.

youdontknowtho 10y ago

This smacks of the kind of "fear the inner city" black kid BS that we heard in the early 90's. I can just picture this reporter talking to one of the guys I grew up with listening to their bullshit and just eating it up with a spoon. It's not to say that the world isn't violent and screwed up, but the nexus of crime and youth culture is always over inflated to "national panic". It just keeps happening.

pchristensen 10y ago
He's a sociology professor at the University of Chicago, not some slack-jawed rube. Also, the point of the article is that success as gang rappers makes these boys targets for other gangs and their lives and options become limited, not that they're a danger to anyone outside of the gang territories. Chicago is a complicated city - the safe parts are among the safest of any American city, and the unsafe parts are so dangerous that it drags the citywide numbers down. See http://www.urbanophile.com/2013/08/12/the-growing-public-safety-inequality-gap-in-chicago-by-daniel-hertz/ http://www.urbanophile.com/2013/08/12/the-growing-public-saf... "Over the last twenty years, at the same time as overall crime has declined, the inequality of violence in Chicago has skyrocketed ... There have always been safer and more dangerous areas here, as there are everywhere; but the gap between them is way, way bigger now than it used to be ... In the early 90s, the most dangerous third of the city had about six times as many murders as the safest third. By the late 2000s, the most dangerous part of the city had nearly fifteen times more homicides than the safest third."
- youdontknowtho 10y ago
  I just get really touchy when urban cultural stuff gets reported like a ritual from darkest Africa. That being said, you're right.

bumbledraven 10y ago

> The guys have a term for these kinds of fans: cloutheads. Really? Only 72 pages in Google's index contain this word, and none of them use it in the article's sense. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22clouthead%22&start=70 http://www.google.com/search?q=%22clouthead%22&start=70

rezt 10y ago
How does that prove anything? It could've been a colloquialism.