Fight the Power: Law and Policy through Hip-Hop Songs

Taking inspiration from Public Enemy's lead vocalist Chuck D - who once declared that 'rap is the CNN of young Black America' - this volume brings together leading legal commentators to make sense of some of the most pressing law and policy issues in the context of hip-hop music and the ongoing struggle for Black equality. Contributors include MSNBC commentator Paul Butler, who grapples with race and policing through the lens of N.W.A.'s song 'Fuck tha Police', ACLU President Deborah Archer, who considers the 2014 uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri, and many other prominent scholars who speak of poverty, LGBTQ+ rights, mass incarceration, and other crucial topics of the day. Written to 'say it plain', this collection will be valuable not only to students and scholars of law, African-American studies, and hip-hop, but also to everyone who cares about creating a more just society.

Editors: 

Gregory S. Parks, Wake Forest University, North Carolina
Gregory Parks, a trained psychologist and lawyer, is Associate Dean and Professor of Law at Wake Forest University School of Law. He has authored or edited eleven books including A Pledge with Purpose: Black Sororities and Fraternities and the Fight for Equality (New York University Press, 2020).

Frank Rudy Cooper, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Frank Rudy Cooper is William S. Boyd Professor and Director, Program on Race, Gender & Policing, UNLV Boyd School of Law. He is an expert in the intersectionality of identities and policing. His extensive publications include Masculinities and the Law: A Multidimensional Approach (New York University Press 2012).

Contributors:

Paul Butler, Henry L. Chambers, Jr., Kami Chavis, Roger A. Fairfax, Jr., Kristin Henning, André douglas pond cummings, Gregory S. Parks, Lolita Buckner Innis, Robert Pervine, Kevin Brown, Charles Westerhaus, Kynton Grays, Zoe Smith-Holladay, Catherine Smith, Deborah Archer, Brie McLemore, Margaret Eby, Etienne C. Toussaint, Ruqaiijah Yearby

Parks, Gregory, and Frank Rudy Cooper, eds. Fight the Power: Law and Policy through Hip-Hop Songs. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2022. https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/us-law/fight-power-law-and-policy-through-hip-hop-songs?format=PB.