♪ Chuck D, voice-over: All through the nineties, the fact that rap music was becoming a language that brought commonality across the world was a problem.

Rodney Carmichael, voice-over: Once hip-hop starts to take the gangster turn in the early nineties thanks to N.W.A and Dr. Dre and early Death Row, the success of those records, the sales, you know, just phenomenal.

But the misogyny just got huge.

The way that women were spoken about, the way that women were seen in videos.

The whole perception of women.

♪ Roxanne Shante, voice-over: When the most important figure for a woman in hip-hop was the video girl, when she was more important than the female MC, it saddened me, because some of our greatest MCs are women.

For every song that came out disrespecting women, we had to then, like, do the debriefing.

They say this, but look at us.

We're doing this.

♪ ♪ Get it, get-- get--get--get it ♪ ♪ Get down ♪ Come on, get down ♪ ♪ Get it, get-- get--get--get it ♪ ♪ Get down ♪ Come on, get down ♪ ♪ Get it, get-- get--get--get it ♪ ♪ Get down ♪ Come on, get down ♪ ♪ Get it, get-- get--get--get it ♪ ♪ Get down ♪ Come on, get down ♪ Chuck D and Flavor Flav: ♪ Fight the power ♪ Get it, get it, get it, get it, y'all ♪ ♪ Fight the power ♪ Get it, get it, get it, get it, y'all ♪ ♪ Fight the power ♪ Get it, get it, get it, get it, y'all ♪ ♪ Fight the power ♪ Get it, get it, get it, get it, y'all ♪ ♪ Fight the power ♪ Get it, get it, get it, get it, y'all ♪ ♪ Fight the power ♪ Get it, get it, get it, get it, y'all ♪ Flavor Flav: ♪ Fight the power ♪ Get it, get it, get it, get it, y'all ♪ Chuck D and Flavor Flav: ♪ Fight the power ♪ We've got to fight the powers that be ♪ ♪ Chuck D, voice-over: Out here in Los Angeles, you had the Rodney King incident.

♪ When that happened and then they acquitted the officers, it was like "Psh, yo, you know what?

"We're trying to be Americans here and truth and justice should be served, and it hasn't."

♪ Shinese Harlins-Kilgore, voice-over: I think 2,300 businesses were burnt.

63 lives was lost.

♪ You couldn't breathe.

It was horrible.

♪ It was...ooh.

Sad that we had to tear up our community to hear us.

Uprising did a job.

We're still trying to rebuild from it 30 years later.

[Camera's shutter clicking] Dr. Jody Armour, voice-over: And that's the price we pay as a society.

When the criminal justice system loses its legitimacy in the eyes of many in the community, all hell breaks loose, and so, that's what we certainly saw there, that those riots expressed that.

They expressed our rage at the utter loss of moral credibility and legitimacy within the criminal justice system.

Dan Charnas, voice-over: The police were on the defensive now and there had to be a way for the police to grab the offensive in this culture war against police brutality.

Reporter: Self-proclaimed gangster rapper Ice-T plays to raw emotion and outrageous themes.

Today, a group of Texas police officers condemned one of his latest songs, "Cop Killer," as an invitation to commit murder.

Man, voice-over: I don't want somebody going out and listening to these lyrics and deciding they're gonna dust a cop.

Reporter: The song was written before the L.A. riots.

Ice-T says it was a warning to abusive police officers of simmering tension in the Black community.

Ice-T, voice-over: And until these cops realize that we're not just gonna continually get our butts kicked in the street, and we will retaliate, they're not gonna act like human beings.

♪ Cop killer Charnas, voice-over: This song, "Cop Killer," it's not a hip-hop song at all.

It's actually a heavy metal song created by a heavy metal group called Body Count whose lead singer happens to be Ice-T, who is, on other records, an MC.

Ice-T: ♪ Cop killer, better you than me ♪ ♪ Cop killer, police brutality Charnas, voice-over: He launched his career with a hip-hop song called "6 'N the Mornin'," but he wants to form a second act, and they create this album.

Ice-T: ♪ Cop killer, I know your mama's grieving ♪ ♪ Cop killer, but tonight we get even, yeah!

♪ Ice-T, voice-over: My art mimics me.

So, when you listen to my music, you're getting all the facets of Ice-T.

The dirty rhymes, the political stuff.

Heavy metal, the gangster [beep].

That was part of Ice-T. ♪ Charnas, voice-over: It's like heavy metal and hip-hop have a lot of affinity.

A lot of it has to do with exaggeration and overstatement and political speech.

[Applause] Ice-T, voice-over: "Cop Killer" is a song that just allows people to understand the rage of a person and how far it can go.

♪ The record is not a call to murder police.

It's just a way of saying, "This is how angry we are."

Nobody got killed over my record.

Nobody.

Ain't no record make you go want to hurt somebody.

Situations and issues make you go want to hurt somebody.

♪ Chuck D, voice-over: What Ice-T was talking succinctly about, bad cops, abusive cops, one-sided policing.

And the Fraternal Order of Police just thought that, "What the hell?

This cat got so much influence."

The song goes on.

"I got my brain on hype.

Tonight'll be your night.

Die, die, die, pig, die."

Catchy, little number, isn't it?

Gangster rap.

Woman: Gangster rap.

Man: Gangster rap.

It's more graphic than the evening news.

Critics call their music insulting.

♪ Why did they get mad at it?

You ready?

It's the little white daughter sitting at her table, father's saying, "Ah, look at those ?

*#?*#?*#?

* in L.A.--they're rioting," and she says, "They're not ?

*#?*#?*#?

*, Dad, "and the police have been doing this and that for this many years," and she addresses all our problems and he doesn't realize she's listening to Ice-T and Public Enemy.

"Home Invasion."

That's the fear.

Reporter: The police here in Texas were the first to call for a boycott of Ice-T and Time Warner last week.

The effect--sales of his album have tripled in Houston, doubled in 3 other cities.

♪ Charnas, voice-over: This happened in 1992.

Not coincidentally, a presidential election year where George Bush, the incumbent president, was being challenged by Bill Clinton, the Democratic insurgent, and this song will become a lightning rod in this campaign.

[Applause] Bush: It is sick.

It is wrong for any company to issue records that approve of killing a law enforcement officer.

[Applause] Charnas, voice-over: It was a way for Bush to solidly position himself as tough on crime.

Which really helps with white voters, who are particularly predisposed to think of Black folks as the threat to their existence.

It was an awful time.

And hip-hop became the sort of punching bag in this presidential election.

[Crowd cheering] 8 years of Reagan.

4 years of Bush.

And the country was going through the ending of R&B, that was Reagan and Bush, with the hopes that we were clearing out of the swamp and out of the muck with a Bill Clinton nomination.

Crowd: Give us our jobs.

Reporter: 4,000 Democratic party delegates are in New York today for the start of their convention at Madison Square Garden.

It'll end on Thursday with the formal nomination of Bill Clinton as the party's candidate in November's presidential election.

[Crowd cheering] Clinton: In the name of the hardworking Americans who make up our forgotten middle class, I proudly accept your nomination for President of the United States.

[Crowd cheering] Leah Wright Rigueur, voice-over: Bill Clinton, who is the Governor of Arkansas at the time, enters the presidential stage as a candidate.

♪ Sway Calloway, voice-over: Bill was interesting, 'cause we saw Bill Clinton on Arsenio Hall's show.

[Crowd cheering] Something as simple as that really kind of made Bill Clinton appeal to us.

♪ Dr. Kaye whitehead, voice-over: Bill playing his music.

He hung out with Black folks.

You know, spoke in this kind of charming Southern accent.

He was from down-home Arkansas.

He was one of us.

But there was a sense that Bill Clinton was going to be someone who responded to the issues we were having in our community.

[Applause] Clinton: White racism may be Black people's burden but it's white people's problem.

We must clean our house.

[Applause] ♪ He decides that he is going to engage civil rights leaders.

[Applause] ♪ So, he speaks at Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition Convention in 1992.

But it's there that Bill Clinton decides he's gonna take on hip-hop.

[Camera's shutter clicks] Namely, the activist component in the form of Sister Souljah.

Sister Souljah, voice-over: It's definitely a warning about the fact that we are under a police state, we are under military domination in this country, and that we have a criminal justice system that absolutely does not work for African people.

♪ Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, voice-over: Clinton had been closely associated in the minds of many people, many white Americans with Black folk.

[Cheering and applause] It becomes, "How can I demonstrate "that I'm not beholden to these African American activists?"...

♪ by then critiquing this rap artist.

Clinton, voice-over: I defend her right to express herself through music.

But her comments before and after Los Angeles were filled with the kind of hatred that you do not honor.

She told the "Washington Post" about a month ago, and I quote, "If Black people kill Black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?"

I know she is a young person but she has a big influence on a lot of people.

♪ [Camera's shutter clicks] Chuck D, voice-over: We met Sister Souljah, Lisa Williamson, as a organizer and a activist.

We in Public Enemy thought that, like, "What can we do?"

She doesn't rap, but what we can--include her voice.

A dynam---probably one of the most dynamic speakers ever.

Sister Souljah: ♪ We are at war!

Man: ♪ Come on Sister Souljah: ♪ Black man, where is your heart?

♪ Man: ♪ Come on Sister Souljah: ♪ The Black man is ♪ So strong there's no reason we can't win ♪ ♪ Everybody's gonna have to get serious ♪ Man: ♪ Terminator X... Chuck D: ♪ I try to teach and reach ♪ ♪ I drop bombs with a little flow... ♪ They used it as "Oh, look what she's talking about.

"She's being divisive.

"She's really kind of, like, "charging up these disenfranchised troops of hers "to make them think that, you know, "that they gotta come forward with the uses of violence in the United States of America," and that was just bull[beep].

They used it as a-- as a campaign fodder.

[Camera's shutter clicks] She's talking to the Black community and the gangbangers like, "Listen, don't kill yourselves," right?

You know, "Be able to understand that there's somebody bigger than you that wants to kill you."

Sister Souljah, voice-over: Sister Souljah is used as a vehicle like Black victims of racism.

A poor excuse for an agenda-less candidate.

What is your relationship to Black youth beyond the patronizing gesture of picking up Black babies and patting them on their heads?

♪ Charnas, voice-over: It was a way for Bill Clinton to position himself, see.

"I'm a Democrat and I support liberal social policies."

♪ "But I'll protect you white voters against the 'them.'"

♪ [Indistinct chatter] In the end, Clinton wins.

In just 11 weeks, the presidency of the United States will change hands from George Bush to Bill Clinton.

[Crowd cheering] The American people have voted to make a new beginning and perhaps most important of all, to bring our people together as never before so that our diversity can be a source of strength in a world that is ever smaller, where everyone counts and everyone is a part of America's family.

[Cheering and applause] ♪ ♪ Chuck D, voice-over: Not only did we have a new president sworn in the early nineties, but a whole new sound was coming out of the West Coast.

It would change hip-hop forever.

♪ Danyel Smith, voice-over: We have our own way that we sound in the West.

♪ And I'm born in Oakland, raised in L.A. ♪ We have our own tone of voice.

We have our own energy.

♪ Jeffries, voice-over: The West Coast is a car culture, right?

We think about L.A. and Oakland.

That's significant.

♪ Smith, voice-over: If you're a proper California girl, you are checking out cars more than the guys sometimes.

♪ I used to see Ice-T driving around L.A., specifically up and down Crenshaw, in these amazing cars.

♪ Ice-T, voice-over: See, the difference in L.A. and East Coast music is East Coast is the train.

[Imitates train rumbling] Which is more erratic.

L.A. is low riders, so it's smoother.

Man: Hey.

Dr. Dre: Matt.

What up, Matt?

What up, Matt?

♪ Soren Baker, voice-over: Dr. Dre went from his N.W.A persona-- which was, by and large, forceful, muscular, aggressive, angry, and in your face-- to a much more kind of chill like, he sounded "Yeah, it's the next episode."

You know, he was chill.

Ha ha!

He was relaxed.

Maybe they smoked a lot of chronic.

Name that tune.

Ice-T, voice-over: Dr. Dre just sonically hit hip-hop where it needed to be.

Daz Dillinger: ♪ Look at me now and tell me what you see ♪ ♪ I am what I am, it's only me Donnie Hathaway: ♪ Lil' ghetto boy ♪ Playing in the ghetto street... ♪ Aesthetically and musically, "The Chronic," once again, the genius of Dr. Dre looking at the total array of hip-hop and rap music.

Dre slowed hip-hop down.

Dr. Dre: ♪ 27 years old, up for parole, stroll... ♪ Chuck D, voice-over: Then he happened to find a person that could ride that slow beat, guy by the name of Snoop Doggy Dogg.

Dr. Dre: ♪ But now they blast, right?

Snoop Dogg: ♪ Wake up, jumped out my bed ♪ ♪ I'm in a two-man cell with my homie Lil Half Dead ♪ ♪ Murder was the case that they gave me ♪ ♪ Dear God, I wonder can you save me... ♪ Ice-T, voice-over: The power of "The Chronic" was not only in the production, but he just debuted so many people.

It was almost like a compilation album.

It really put a stamp on what West Coast music sounded like.

Snoop Dogg: ♪ Throwing them dogs, getting that rep ♪ ♪ As a young hog... Ice-T, voice-over: Dre, he's the number-one producer in the world.

He's our Quincy Jones.

Snoop Dogg: ♪ Handle mine since I did the crime ♪ ♪ I gots to do my time Daz Dillinger: ♪ Them say me grow up to be nothing ♪ ♪ Look at me now And tell me what you see ♪ ♪ I am what I am, it's only me... ♪ will.i.am, voice-over: I think the difference between "The Chronic" and all the rest of the records that came out was how clean it sounded.

Because you were used to hip-hop being, like, super dirty.

But it sounded amazing.

He really told other producers to step up your game.

Donny Hathaway: ♪ Playing in the ghetto street ♪ Whatcha gonna do when you grow up?

♪ LL Cool J, voice-over: People in Texas, people in the Midwest, they listen on Snoop and on Dre records, it's a little different, you know what I'm saying?

So, it's like, that was dope, to hear that new frame of reference, to hear new people saying new [beep], new way.

You know, with new musical influences.

It's great.

Really.

Snoop Dogg: ♪ No needing being calm if you pack right ♪ ♪ And learning just enough to keep your sack right ♪ ♪ Late nights, I wonder what they getting for ♪ ♪ Early morning on the corners, what they hitting for... ♪ Baker, voice-over: Lyrics were still X-rated raps, but it's just said over a beat that feels and sounds nice, and that was a watershed moment in the sense that you could take music that was very abrasive and very confrontational, change the sound of the music, and all of a sudden, a lot of people that for years had been disparaging rap now all of a sudden, "Oh, it's the greatest thing ever."

Snoop Dogg: ♪ 'Cause you's a hustling-ass youngsta ♪ ♪ Clocking your grip Donny Hathaway: ♪ Playing in the ghetto street... ♪ In 10 years, rap music has gone from ghetto streets to Main Street, USA.

Sales last year reached an estimated $5 billion.

Monica Lynch, voice-over: Hip-hop was really becoming an industry.

The whole scene had matured.

♪ The ascendancy of the gangster rap scene, you also had a lot of the major labels really starting to get much more invested.

You had, you know, magazines that were dedicated to hip-hop.

♪ Smith: Meant a lot to me to become editor-in-chief of "Vibe," because rap was hot.

We didn't have enough pages to cover all the people that we wanted to cover.

It just felt like hip-hop was taking over.

Reporter: 72% of the rap records in Los Angeles are sold to white kids.

♪ Ice-T, voice-over: Here comes hip-hop, White kids, Black kids liking the same music.

White kids love hip-hop.

Woman: It's just a different lifestyle, and they just tell us how they think.

Man: It's not really so offensive as it is eye-opening, you know.

♪ Eminem, voice-over: When I was watching as a kid, you'd see "MTV Raps" and you'd see somebody in an interview saying that, you know, "This is--we're just basically "reporting to you what's happening on the streets where we live."

You know what I'm saying?

♪ My education is from hip-hop, honestly, because that's--that's-- I look to rappers to know what's going on, you know what I'm saying, and... it just felt like rappers, certain rappers were just talking to me, you know.

♪ Baker, voice-over: A lot of people, especially young white kids, very quickly learn that unfortunately, a lot of the music was based on what was happening in the United States.

♪ Man: Have you ever been shot at?

Yeah.

What happened?

I got away.

♪ Baker, voice-over: People wanted to hear these stories because they're authentic.

♪ Man: It's just like a tour guide for the streets.

I don't have to ride down Crenshaw to find out what's really going on.

I can buy me a gangster tape.

♪ Baker: voice-over: But the white establishment didn't like it 'cause you had these articulate, angry Black men exposing some of the ugly truths of the United States.

And that was intimidating, dangerous, and frightening to a lot of people because now these guys do have a voice.

Now they have the microphone.

Warren G, voice-over: In the nineties, you know, a lot of things were--were escalating and things were getting worse because we had more police brutality.

A lot of gang activity at the same time as far as a lot of drive-bys.

[Siren wailing] ♪ Jeffries, voice-over: One of the things that is important to understand is crime as a whole, and particularly violent crime, had been increasing for 20 years.

[Siren wailing] Woman: He got his gun out!

Reporter: Anger and tension exploding here as in so many cities.

A feeling that crime is out of control.

Man: Watching brothers get killed.

I mean, it can take a toll on your life, take a toll on your mind.

♪ Wright Rigueur, voice-over: Urban communities, these African American communities, these Latino communities are under assault.

They are under siege.

What this is, is this is a search warrant.

Wright Rigueur: They are being ravaged by--by drugs and by crime and by poverty and inequality.

♪ [Dog barking] We're coming off this erroneous belief that Democrats are soft on crime.

♪ Reporter: This is a special report.

President Clinton's State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.

Thank you very much.

Jeffries, voice-over: Bill Clinton is leaning into sort of "We gotta be tough on crime" because Bill Clinton is trying to save his presidency after losing the midterm election.

Wright Rigueur, voice-over: Bill Clinton feels the pressure to prove that he can be just as harsh and just as punitive as Republicans on the issue of law and order and crime.

Clinton, voice-over: In our toughest neighborhoods, on our meanest streets, we have seen a stunning and simultaneous breakdown of community, family, and work.

This has created a vast vacuum which has been filled by violence and drugs and gangs.

♪ Wright Rigueur, voice-over: Congressional Black Caucus approach the President of the United States and they say, "Look, our constituents are telling us "we need to do something.

We have to fix this."

♪ [Siren wailing] Woman: It's a shame that we can't walk outside today.

I'm scared for my children to come outside because of the gangs.

Nelson George, voice-over: There are Black people who are represented by these people who live in these neighborhoods who wanted something to happen.

♪ They wanted people who were repeat offenders to go to jail for a while.

They wanted to have people stop shooting guns freely in their neighborhoods.

Susan Molinari: I encourage all my colleagues to vote for the bipartisan crime bill.

One step is you must take back the streets.

And you take back the streets by more cops, more prisons, more physical protection for the people.

It doesn't matter whether or not they're the victims of society.

The end result is they're about to knock my mother on the head with a lead pipe, shoot my sister, beat up my wife, take on my sons.

So, I don't want to ask what made them do this.

They must be taken off the street.

[Applause] Clinton, voice-over: When this bill is law, we will have 100,000 police officers on the street, a 20% increase.

It will be used to build prisons to keep 100,000 violent criminals off the street.

We will have the means by which we can say punishment will be more certain.

♪ Chuck D, voice-over: The weapons of mass distraction have always been into play.

♪ People follow their sports teams more than they follow the things that's gonna affect them every day.

So, a lot of times, the bills are passed and politicians go back and forth and all of a sudden, you turn around and there's a crime bill that not only affects your present but really seriously affects your future.

♪ Dr. Rosa Alicia Clemente, voice-over: Clinton passed a crime bill which allowed now 14-year-olds to be tried as adults, more prisons being built.

♪ Wright Rigueur, voice-over: The impact of the crime bill is devastating and felt almost immediately.

♪ For example, the three strikes law, this idea that if you have 3 offenses, that you're outta here, right, like, you go away.

It increases your sentencing dramatically.

That is embedded into the crime bill.

Clinton, voice-over: ...violent crimes should be told, "When you commit a third violent crime, you will be put away and put away for good."

♪ [Indistinct chatter] ♪ Wright Rigueur, voice-over: In fact, we had seen sentencing discrepancies when it comes to drugs.

Cocaine versus crack.

Crack and cocaine.

Cocaine versus crack cocaine.

The penalty for possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine, the drug used and sold by many young Blacks, is 5 years in prison.

♪ The penalty for possession of 5 grams of powdered cocaine, the drug favored by the white middle class, is probation.

♪ George, voice-over: And that's why so many people who got caught with very small amounts ended up doing really major time.

♪ Man: Do you think you'll be coming back here again?

That's hard to say.

♪ Armour, voice-over: As a result of the Clinton administration policies, you have one in 3 Black males caught up in the criminal justice system, with the numbers climbing.

♪ Wright Rigueur, voice-over: These communities were asking for help.

We know that they were like, "We have problems."

♪ But what they were asking for was to get to the root of the problem.

So, that doesn't mean locking up a generation of--of African Americans or labeling every Black man who walks out of his house a gangbanger.

♪ Calloway, voice-over: We can't really measure the effect and impact that it has on us as a community because it's impossible to reverse the damage.

I got friends who got sentenced to decades and because they were in prison, they couldn't provide for their families.

♪ We don't know if they would've possibly married and created families of their own.

We don't know who they would've grown up to become.

♪ Fat Joe, voice-over: Oh, man, I got a friend who's now, that if they caught with a butter knife, they'll be doing life in jail.

♪ It's incredible.

Really hurt the community.

♪ Reverend Al Sharpton, voice-over: After a few years, I didn't know a Black family that didn't have a family member that had been in jail, incarcerated for a long period of time.

♪ Love, voice-over: A lot of men were being swept away and, you know, the pipeline to--to penitentiary was just heavy, put into place, and thick, and men were getting swept up off the streets for low-level marijuana crimes.

Let's just start there.

Tupac: ♪ That's right, it ain't easy being me ♪ ♪ Will I see the penitentiary, or will I stay free?

♪ ♪ It ain't easy being me ♪ Will I see the penitentiary, or will I stay free?

♪ George, voice-over: You know, it's a new record talking about guys gonna hit the bricks.

There's a lot of references to jail culture.

Tupac: ♪ ...killer kids, 'cause they wild ♪ ♪ Bill Clinton, can you recognize a ... representin' ♪ ♪ Doin' 20 to life in San Quentin ♪ ♪ Gettin' calls from ... Mike Tyson ♪ ♪ Ain't nuttin' nice, yo, 'Pac, do something righteous witcha life ♪ ♪ And even though you innocent, you still a ... ♪ ♪ So they figure rather have you... ♪ Chuck D, voice-over: Tupac Shakur wrote "It Ain't Easy" in the mid 1990s when he was facing jail time of his own.

Tupac: ♪ On the block, oh, it ain't easy... ♪ Chuck D, voice-over: He was speaking directly to the hearts and issues of young Black men at the time.

Tupac: ♪ It ain't easy Chuck D, voice-over: Pac was able to, like, take the everyday life that he was even in the middle of and be able to come up with a great song.

Tupac: ♪ Keep an eye on the cops while D-Boys slang rocks ♪ ♪ It's the project kid without a conscience ♪ Chuck D, voice-over: Tupac was a social commentator, but he was also a skilled rapper, MC, and had that revolutionary spirit.

[Static] Man: Are you rolling, Eddie?

Tupac: OK. My name is Tupac Shakur.

I think I'm growing up good in all sense of the word.

I think I'm growing up and learning about responsibilities and everything.

My mother was a Black Panther, and she was really involved in the movement, you know, just Black people bettering themselves and things like that.

Woman: ...our peer group and they have no right to try us, they have no right to accuse us of anything.

You know, and I say-- I say, like, um, if the people want me to go on trial, I'm ready to stand trial for the people.

♪ Tupac, voice-over: She could've chose to go to college and got a degree in something and right now been well-off, but she chose to, um, analyze society and fight and do things better.

Jeffries, voice-over: When we think about Tupac, you can't understand Tupac as an artist, as a person, without understanding sort of where he comes from.

This is a child of East Coast Panthers.

Crowd: ♪ Power to the people ♪ Gonna free... Jeffries, voice-over: They embraced a revolutionary critique of American society.

[Crowd singing indistinctly] Jeffries, voice-over: Tupac coming out of that tradition, we see the critique of capitalism and the structures around us.

♪ We have to be supportive, we have to be together as we move forward in this moment.

♪ Chuck D, voice-over: Tupac was a person that fearlessly said, you know, "I'm gonna take all of my attributes "and all of my skill sets that I've learned "and see if I could incorporate this into "my art as an artist and a activist and make it all work."

And, um...that he did.

He's gonna be so diverse.

He's gonna talk about single mothers in "Brenda's Got a Baby" where he's got a touch in there that's like, "Whoa."

Smith, voice-over: "Brenda's Got a Baby," which I think is one of the more political songs in the history of rap, especially with regard to Black women, and it's wild that it's coming from a Black man, but it did.

It didn't matter.

The politics were always there.

♪ Baker, voice-over: He rapped about how Brenda's got a baby and threw her in the trash and how-- what a horrible situation this is.

He only did that because he knew of these stories and he knew of these realities and he wanted to change that.

♪ Chuck D, voice-over: Tupac made the hardest records ever to do, that people were afraid to touch, you know.

"Keep Ya Head Up" and "Dear Mama."

Come on, man.

Greatest rap, hip-hop songs of all time.

Tupac represented a lot of things to a lot of people.

On the one hand, he was very thoughtful and supportive of women.

On the other hand, he had a lot of songs disparaging women.

Woman: ♪ Take money Tupac: ♪ West Side... Baker, voice-over: On the other hand, he had a lot of political songs and he had a lot of songs about "I want to shoot and kill people in the streets."

People don't want to hear your righteous side anymore or as much because they're not looking at you like that.

They're like, "Nah, he's raw, he's from the streets, he's hardcore, he's a gangster."

Tupac: ♪ Plus Puffy tryin' ta see me ♪ ♪ Weak hearts I rip, Biggie Smalls... ♪ Whitehead, voice-over: So, when people think about 1994, people tend to think about the fact that that was the year that Tupac was shot 5 times.

Tupac: ♪ You know the rules, Lil' Ceaser, go ask... ♪ Whitehead, voice-over: That was the year that he was found guilty of sexual abuse and sent to jail.

Like, that was a huge year.

Man: Mr. Shakur, can we get a comment from you at all?

Thug life.

Pardon me?

Thug life.

Thug life.

That's my family.

What's that mean?

I don't understand.

Chuck D, voice-over: Tupac's persona blew up.

Yes, I am gonna say that I'm a thug.

That's because I came from the gutter and I'm still here.

I'm not saying I'm a thug 'cause I wanna rob you and rape people and things.

Was that everything that he was?

No, it was a slice of what he was.

Tupac: ♪ ...bad boys ... for life, plus Puffy... ♪ Baker, voice-over: I think the general public lost touch with Tupac.

Tupac: ♪ We keep on comin'...

They wanted to grab, let's say, to "Hit 'Em Up" and to the violence and to the rivalries.

Tupac: ♪ Cut your young ass up, leave you in pieces... ♪ Baker, voice-over: The fact that he had all of these other layers to him and some of the political stuff just gets thrown by the wayside, unfortunately, because, one, his life was so short, but then, two, toward the end of his life, it was consumed by chaos and tumult.

♪ Grab ya ... when you see Tupac ♪ ♪ Call the cops when you see Tupac, uh ♪ ♪ Who shot me, but you punks didn't finish ♪ ♪ Now ya bout to feel the wrath of a menace ... hit 'em up ♪ Carmichael, voice-over: It started to feel like hip-hop was losing its way.

You know, the music was changing, the--the morals were changing, you know.

The streets were becoming very dominant.

It was--it was the "keep it real" era and keeping it real was going very wrong in a lot of ways, especially when you talk about losing two of the biggest artists in the genre at the time.

Hussein Fatal: ♪ Attack when I'm servin' ya... ♪ Carmichael voice-over: We lost Biggie and Pac.

Hussein Fatal: ♪ Guard your rank Woman: ♪ Take money... Carmichael, voice-over: '96, '97, and I feel like the genre in itself was at a huge turning point.

♪ First off ... and the click you claim ♪ ♪ West Side when we ride come equipped with game ♪ ♪ You claim to be a player but I ... your wife ♪ ♪ We bust on Bad Boys ... for life ♪ ♪ Plus Puffy tryin' ta see me weak hearts... ♪ Chuck D, voice-over: Sure, Pac aggravated some people.

No doubt about that.

Tupac and other artists like Snoop and Dre became targets in a debate over censoring hip-hop.

Woman: We will begin the press conference.

Marilyn?

Our crusade is against gangster rap, rap that glorifies and promotes violence with guns, knives, or drugs.

♪ Dr. C. Delores Tucker was a powerful voice standing against the hip-hop movement.

She is someone who had been involved in politics.

She had participated in the Selma to Montgomery march.

She took a stand against misogyny in hip-hop, and that was a huge statement.

The gangster rap is not gangster rap.

Much of it is just plain old pornography, period.

It is unfortunate that these negative gangster rappers have learned to have such low respect for women, especially African American women.

If you go back now and you listen to the lyrics and then you look at her stance, she was right.

The music was misogynistic.

It did misalign and misappropriate the ways in which women show up in this space.

♪ The music was very-- very dangerous in the ways in which people respond to Black women.

♪ And--and for some reason, it was OK. She was one of the few voices that said it was not OK. Tucker: The corporate gangsters in the entertainment suites, the true cause and propagators of this filth, not the young gangsters in the streets who are exploited, are merely the victims of the converging malevolent forces.

She said, "Listen, this--this-- this ain't playing out well.

"What I see is the corporations that are pimping these kids and they--and they dangling them."

Nobody out here wants to look at the conditions and try to change them.

Change the conditions, and then perhaps our music will change.

Charnas, voice-over: There's a rift that develops between younger and older generations in the Black community.

Woman: It's so wrong.

As a Black woman, I am not a dog, and I refuse to be called a dog.

A rapper who changes from positive to negative just to get a record deal is just like a Black man who will pimp his sisters on the street just to make money.

♪ Charnas, voice-over: There are young folks who are making these records.

They're selling them out of the trunk of their cars.

♪ And then you have the older generation, somewhat more conservative.

Religious figures like Calvin Butts.

Butts: Recognize that this poison kills.

It kills young men and women.

It kills old men and women.

It promotes violence and sexism in our community.

It's dangerous to our police officers.

It is just wrong.

[Crowd cheering] ♪ Smith, voice-over: It didn't have to be the Reverend Calvin Butts running over CDs in Times Square.

It didn't have to be Delores Tucker or any of these people that were just against rap, against rap.

It was a constant battle and a constant fight.

♪ Chuck D, voice-over: You have a misunderstanding trying to govern the misunderstood.

And so, it was like [beep] all rap music, you know?

It was a cultural division.

We hope to create a climate in our community that we believe once existed, where this kind of thing is so intolerable that people would dare not suggest that a Black woman is a bitch, or any woman is a female dog.

["Gin and Juice" by Snoop Dogg playing] ♪ ♪ With so much drama in the L-B-C... ♪ Charnas, voice-over: Into C. Delores' office comes Dionne Warwick holding Snoop Dogg's new album "Doggystyle."

Snoop Dogg: ♪ May I... Charnas: They feel that this represents a nadir in hip-hop of misogyny.

And as Black women, they vow to do something about it.

Snoop Dogg: ♪ Bitches in the living room gettin' it on ♪ ♪ And they ain't leavin' till 6 in the morning ♪ Women: ♪ 6 in the morning ♪ So what you wanna do?

♪ I got a pocket full of rubbers and my homeboys do, too... ♪ Warwick: This is our responsibility.

It's not my responsibility, it's not her responsibility, it's not her responsibility.

It's our... Woman: Our!

responsibility.

Chorus: ♪ Smokin' indo ♪ Sippin' on gin and juice ♪ Laid back ♪ With my mind on my money and my money on my mind ♪ ♪ Rollin' down the street, smokin' indo ♪ ♪ Sippin' on gin and juice ♪ Laid back ♪ With my mind on my money and my money on my mind ♪ ♪ Now that I got me some Seagram's gin... ♪ Woman: Gangster rappers don't seem to care if radios ban their music.

Snoop Doggy Dogg's album is already number one.

Look at the people before me that was Black, successful, and powerful with words.

Where they at now?

Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. Eminem, voice-over: I know rappers were always getting attacked by politicians.

A lot of it was just to push buttons regardless.

Snoop Dogg: ♪ Please, at ease, at ease... ♪ Charnas: C. Delores Tucker seizes on this moment.

She gets Congress to hold the first hearings ever on rap lyrics.

Woman: Our first panel today will be Dr. C. Delores Tucker.

As I see it simply, there are 3 things that prevent gangster rap from being a freedom of speech issue.

Number one, it is obscene, number two, it is obscene, and number 3, it is obscene.

Thank you very much.

Lynch, voice-over: Whether it was misogynist lyrical content or gangster, you know, it would have been unrealistic to think that there wasn't going to be pushback.

But there was a feeling that we didn't want to be policed.

The issue here for hip-hop is that this fight is coming from folks outside of hip-hop who don't appreciate any part of the culture.

And then there are folks who defend hip-hop against this attack.

And so they are literally fighting a culture war.

Woman: Mr. Nelson George, who's a journalist.

George, voice-over: A lot of people didn't like this music and felt offended by it and felt it was, you know, bringing Black people down.

But there were many conflicting agendas that were at play.

For me, the question of gangster rap's role in America is not a question of the chicken or the egg.

The egg in this case is the economic and social breakdowns that have taunted our city since at least the riots of the 1960s.

And a few--it shows few signs of really being addressed.

The chicken is the culture of cynicism about government and verbal rebellion that rap represents.

If tomorrow every offensive gangster rap record was removed from our stores, our airwaves, and our video shows, there would still be random violence, teenage unemployment, teen pregnancy, and drug trafficking.

The only difference is that the musical backing for our youth would change.

But the conditions that frighten our nation into Congressional hearings on rap would continue.

Chuck D, voice-over: The hearings didn't amount to much.

Hip-hop wasn't stripped of its voice.

This macho thing that Black men primarily brought out in hip-hop and rap, that, well, I'm being obscured, so I'm coming out, and not only that, I'm gonna be loud, I'm gonna be me, and I'm gonna be super Black male from my point of view.

And whether y'all like it or not, go [bleep] yourself.

♪ Love, voice-over: The culture just was very masculine.

It was almost like there wasn't room for any level of femininity.

It was difficult for women to find their place and their footing, especially when the guys that were out were so strong and loud.

Even some women, you know, dived in with a masculine manner.

The good news is, um, there were people, such as Roxanne Shanté.

[Cheers and applause] We came here tonight to get started, to cold act ill or get retarded.

♪ Shanté: I was participating in a all-out battle for world supremacy.

You would get this big belt that says you are the best in the world.

And I'm the only female, the only girl, and these are all emcees and men.

I must have rhymed all day long until we got down to the last two people.

And it was myself, and it was Busy Bee, another emcee.

I'm saying like, "Wow, I'm getting ready "to be the best in the world, and the world is going to know I'm the best."

♪ And we got to the last battle, everybody takes their numbers and turns them up.

9, 10, 10, 9, 10.

4.

4?

And the crowd went crazy.

Like, "Ahh!"

Like, it was just like pandemonium.

People wanted to-- people wanted to fight.

I wanted to fight.

[People booing] I just walked out.

And I never looked at hip-hop the same ever again.

She won that battle, and she was deprived of the world supremacy title.

Shanté, voice-over: Years later, I remember one of the judges, and he said, "The reason why I gave you a 4 "is because we were just starting to be respected as a genre of music.

"If they thought the best in the world "of this new genre of music, "the one that no one can beat, "is a Black 14-year-old girl, there's just no way they would have accepted it."

He said, "So I had to let you lose in order for hip-hop to win."

Love, voice-over: This is why I respect people like Roxanne Shanté so much and some of the other girls, and it's because regardless to how many setbacks they were faced with, they still continued, and I'm glad they did, because that knocked down doors and that made room for the next set of women to come after them.

What video do you want to see right now, Freddy, on "Video Music Box"?

Well, it would have to be the latest video that I directed, which is "Ladies First" by Queen Latifah featuring Monie Love.

Chorus: ♪ Ooh, ladies first, ladies first ♪ ♪ Ooh, ladies first, ladies first... ♪ Lynch, voice-over: Latifah, she was really a pioneer very early on.

"Ladies First" had an enormous impact.

Queen Latifah: ♪ The ladies will kick it... Lynch: It was a record that influenced multiple generations of women.

♪ A woman could bear you, break you... ♪ You know, it's funny, when you're doing it, you don't necessarily think about, "Well, this is gonna be a feminist statement for all time."

Queen Latifah: ♪ Who says that the ladies couldn't make it?

♪ ♪ You must be blind ♪ If you don't believe, well, here, listen to this rhyme ♪ ♪ Ladies first, there's no time to rehearse ♪ ♪ I'm divine and my mind expands throughout the universe ♪ ♪ A female rapper with a message to send ♪ ♪ The Queen Latifah... Lynch, voice-over: That video was a huge part of making that statement.

Love: ♪ ...down the sound, totally a yes ♪ ♪ Let me state the position ♪ Ladies first, yes?

♪ Yes ♪ Ooh Lynch, voice-over: Monie at her side.

And it was a great video.

It had all these fantastic images of powerful Black women.

♪ Some think we can't flow ♪ ♪ Can't flow ♪ Stereotypes, they got to go ♪ ♪ Got to go ♪ I'm gonna mess around and flip the scene into reverse ♪ ♪ With what?

♪ With a little touch of ladies first ♪ Calloway: I thought she was very important as a powerful Black woman who stood with a straight spine, and she wore that African garb and celebrated her history and where she came from.

We needed that kind of messaging as kids.

And I think especially Black women, young girls, needed to see the Queen Latifahs.

Whitehead: People like Queen Latifah was able to cut through the noise to kind of demand that women have a space at the table in ways that they hadn't before.

We belong here.

We take the stage.

We're speaking back.

We're not gonna be sidelined.

We're not gonna be disrespected.

She was doing a direct talk back to some of the lyrics that were coming up at that time.

I mean, "Who you calling the b-i-t-c-h?"

And, "Are you respecting me?"

Queen Latifah changed the game.

♪ Who you calling a bitch?

♪ U-n-i-t-y ♪ You gotta let them know ♪ U-n-i-t-y ♪ Come on, here we go ♪ U-n-i-t-y ♪ You gotta let them know ♪ You ain't a bitch or a ho, here we go ♪ ♪ U-n-i-t-y ♪ You gotta let them know ♪ U-n-i-t-y ♪ Come on, come on, here we go... ♪ Love, voice-over: She told a story about a girl who's walking down the street, guy hollers at her, she doesn't want to speak, and because she doesn't want to speak, she's automatically then deemed a bitch.

It's not cool to do that.

♪ You know all of that gots to go ♪ ♪ Now everybody knows there's exceptions to this rule... ♪ Love, voice-over: I really think it had an impact, because I felt like I got a lot less male ego that gets turnt down calling me a b-word after that song.

I think 'cause they felt stupid, perhaps, because Latifah called them out on record.

Queen Latifah: ♪ One of them felt my booty, he was nasty ♪ ♪ I turned around red, somebody was catching the wrath ♪ ♪ Then the little one said ♪ Ha ha, yeah, me, bitch ♪ And laughed ♪ Since he was with his boys, he tried to break fly ♪ ♪ Huh, I punched him dead in his eye and said ♪ ♪ Who you calling a bitch?

♪ U-n-i-t-y The nominees were announced today for the 37th annual Grammy awards.

The Grammys will be held in Los Angeles on March 1.

Chuck D: Queen Latifah, she was up against all men-- Queen Latifah: ♪ Please, there's plenty of people out there with triggers... ♪ Chuck D: Coolio, Snoop, Warren G, Craig Mack.

Queen Latifah: ♪ Ain't none of this worth getting your face sliced ♪ ♪ 'Cause that's what happened to your homegirl, right?

♪ ♪ She got to wear that for life... ♪ Chuck D: Queen Latifah won Best Rap Solo Performance.

♪ U-n-i-t-y, that's a unity ♪ Come on, here we go... Chuck D: She became the first woman to win this category.

I think when she won that Grammy, a lot of people weren't shocked.

They just said, you know, it's overdue and that's Latifah.

Love: When Latifah won at the Grammys, hip-hop still wasn't a respected genre within the Grammy Association at that time.

And, uh, she received her accolade or what have you during an untelevised portion of the Grammys.

♪ Hip-hop still wasn't at the level of respect that it should have been.

And then on top of that, she's a woman.

♪ Lynch: Even to this day, I'll meet women who were growing up, and they say, "Oh, man, that first Queen Latifah album, that really inspired me."

Now there's a lot of female players in the hip-hop game.

Lauryn Hill, a brilliant emcee.

Missy Elliot broke through in such a huge way.

Megan, the success of Cardi, Doja Cat, City Girls.

To a lot of female artists, she really had a tremendous influence.

♪ Queen bee is Queen Latifah.

She's always been the queen boss.

[Whistling] Chuck D: She is one of those people that people never really looked at as, like, just a female rapper, as powerful as any male there ever was in hip-hop.

Even more so.

[Vocalizing] "Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World" is available on Amazon Prime Video ♪