"I predict that if we don't listen, people are going to move to bloodshed. I know from listening to people in the street, if they do not see justice, then they are going to move. They're going to hurt some people. So are we going to get some justice? Are you going to send some of these killer cops to jail, show people that everybody is responsible under the law? Or are you going to show that the law doesn't work? And in that case, why should they respect the law?"
           --Ice T
HIP HOP AND THE RIOTS
 
 

PART 3: RELATING SITES TO OTHER SOURCES
 
 

      The best source for understanding the word on the street on the riots is from the horse's mouth itself. It is important to note, however, that this voice is not easily accessed, or understood, either on-line or on paper. It requires some careful hunting and research to bring together the disparate points of view, facts and scholarly comment that are needed for a wholistic understanding of this historical event. A new approach to investigation had to be employed: when I wanted to know the answer to one of my initial questions, I posted it on an underground hip hop discussion board I frequent, ughh.com. This method, though unusual, gave me one of my best starts in tracing just what is out there, what can be squeezed from the web that is of historical value. I was lead to OHHLA.com and SOHH.com, two hip hop oriented sites: one a lyrics archive, the other a search engine. 
 

A post by a fellow classmate lead me to read an online version of an interview Ice T gave to Rolling Stone in October 1992, where he commented extensively on the riots. A South Central native, Ice T has a great deal to say on the riots that tore apart his neighborhood in 1992, both in his lyrics and in interviews with the press. In the interview Ice T brings the voice of the unheard black youth so involved in the rioting to a wider audience. In the post riot atmosphere of October 1992, Ice T had this to say: "every time when the LAPD whup on somebody now, they take their chance on starting another riot. Maybe it'll make them think." 

      The interview captures the sentiments of those without agency, without historical voice. Their frustrations and fears are explained by Ice T, who provides an explanation to the feelings that lead to the violence that erupted in April. It is only through investigating the sentiments of those directly involved, and their spokespeople, that we will approach understanding of an event. 

Content wise, this article is rich with material for historical investigation, but with little to no context provided, it is again, a useful source in a dead end. Furthermore, as this version of the article is presented within the University of Sydney database, hidden in the University server, it is unavailable to the general public. Attempts to access the original article through Rolling Stone failed, as their online archives did not date back to 1992, and when I checked again on 9 May, they didn't seem to be online at all. 

       Rapper Willie D has a different approach to Ice T, a response typically grounded in a hip hop tradition, the diss track, mentioned in one of the responses to my post on ughh.com. "Fuck Rodney King" is his take on the situation. He casts King as an Uncle Tom, who was a "god damn sell-out/ On TV crying for a cop." Willie D offers an insight into the division in the black community over the appropriate response to the trial verdict: 

"Fuck all that singing
I'ma be too busy swinging
That's the problem with the black folks
Always wanna bust a note
And hold hands and form rallies
And down niggas for fighting back in Cali
I'm down with the niggas who's nexting
Fuck all that god damn protesting
So don't try to pull it
5th Ward niggas fight bullets with bullets
Right between the eyes
So you can keep your mothafucking Noble Peace Prize
I said fuck Rodney King and I mean it."

This track provides evidence to support the theory that despite the mobilisation of the black community in light of the King verdict, there were different factions supporting different actions in the wake of the verdict. It is important to note that there is a generational, and perhaps class aspect to black interaction with this area. While older members of the community may have suggested the hand holding and rally forming peaceful approach that Willie D so reviles, it is clear from D, Ice T and from Ice Cube that black youth had a different reaction to both the violence in April and in general. D, T and Cube all make it clear that "fighting back" and confrontation is the mode of expression utilised by youth. 

        Ice Cube's track "The Predator", from the 1992 album of the same name gives an idea of the rage felt by many members of both the black, and LA community. Name checking the officers involved in the Rodney King beating, Cube raps,
"Fuck Laurence Powell and Briseno - Wind and Koon, pretty soon
we'll fuck them like they fucked us and won't kiss 'em
Riots ain't nothin but dodge for the system
Fightin with the beast, no justice, no peace
If any, even if we fuck up Denny
Niggaz are sick of your white man tricks with no treat."
Hip hop provides us with a trapdoor for accessing the voice of the subaltern so long ignored. Perhaps for the first time in history, the voice of the historically silenced black community can be heard by both blacks and non-blacks. Hip hop is the voice of the youth of that community, a group of people who have marginalisation upon marginalisation heaped on them: they are black in a white world, young in an old world and just as Ice T elucidates, "if there wasn't rap, where would the voice of the eighteen year-old black male be? He would never be on TV, he ain't writing no book. He is not in the movies. So he's hidden, he's not heard. With rap you gave people the option of 'Here's the beat, say whatever the fuck you want.' It's the true vehicle of free speech ..."
 
 

Main

Riots

Bibliography
"America--somebody needs to hit a reset button on this whole place, try to get everybody in check. People just have to be aware. People out there say, "Oh,
the riot, that's over with." If you think it's over with, you are so sadly mistaken. You are tripping. You just do not know how quick motherfuckers are ready
to flip again. They are ready. I mean ready, like let's do it tomorrow. They found out that they can do it, and if it goes down, LAPD really can't hold them. I
pray to God that somehow some miracle will happen to give some form of justice."
           --Ice T