Hip Hop and the LA Riots

Essay by cm1227High School, 11th gradeC+, December 2014

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Hip Hop and

The LA Riots

By: Connor Miele

Hip Hop and the LA Riots

By Connor Miele

6/16/14 Block 2A

Rodney King was ordered out of his car and to lie down on march 3rd 1991 after leading police on a high speed chase. He gave up and pulled over. One of the people in the apartment complex across the street grabbed a camera and came outside to hear what was going on. King took 56 baton blows that night and ended up with 9 skull fractures, a shattered eye socket and cheekbone, a broken leg, and nerve damage that left his face partially paralyzed. "I'm just glad I'm not dead, that's all. They

could of very well killed me," King stated during an interview after the accident. Within 48 hours, the video tape went national. They had finally gotten proof of what the Hip Hop artists had been preaching for years and what happened next changed the history of America.

It demonstrated Malcom X's " By all means necessary" and proved that sometimes violence is the answer when it comes to developing equal treatment to all races, especially treatment from the law enforcement itself. On April 29th, 1992, the four officers involved in the incident were tried and were found not guilty. "Thats when you have a revolution on your hands" states Ice Cube, a member of the NWA (Niggaz With Attitude). This revolution Created Racial integration between Blacks, Whites, and even Koreans. This integration even includes the two most notorious gangs of LA, the Bloods and Crips.

"You should have been paying attention to Ice cube, you weren't paying attention to Ice Cube, and look what happened," says Todd Boyd, a professor from USC. To anybody who grew up in california in the last 50 years, this...