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Chapter 8 “Prisoners Rise, Rise, Rise!” Hip Hop as a Ciceronian Approach to Prison Protest and Community Care Craig Lee Engstrom and Derrick L. Williams I’m a prison cell six by nine . . . I’m the place many fear cause there’s no way out I take the sun away put misery instead When you wit me most folks consider you dead . . . —Nas, “Last Words” (1999b) The United States is addicted to prisons (Walmsley, 2009), and many of the men and women who inhabit these facilities are often abandoned by family, friends, and society. Popular hip-hop artist Nas’s lyrics, quoted above, remind us of the stark material reality faced by the nearly 2.3 million prisoners in the United States and 5 million others on probation, on parole, and under house arrest (Pew, 2010; Porter, 2011). As noted in the editors’ introduction to this book, this means one in thirty-one adults is under some form of correctional control. This fact captures a depressing truth about the prison-industrial complex: once in the system, there is seemingly no way out. Parolees know this reality well, as they are often denied the right to vote and have increased difficulty finding a job upon release. A significant number—approximately 500,000—of those incarcerated are serving time for nonviolent drug offenses or victimless crimes (Butler, 2009). Regardless of the reason for “doing a bid,”1 we should be mindful that when we talk about individuals’ presence in prison, we are speaking of an absence from families and communities. For many of us, the incarcerated are, as several authors have referred to them throughout this book, our “neighbors.” As Eleanor Novek observes in Chapter Ten, it is common for activists, teachers, and those most impacted by the prison-industrial complex to see the incarcerated as “People Like Us,” because chances are great that the prison system has directly impacted us. Thus the statistics are likely personal in some way. The absence of our family, friends, and neighbors often “Prisoners Rise, Rise, Rise!” 161 continues after incarceration, too, in the form of psychological depression or an inability to support a family, pay taxes, or vote (Pryor, 2010). In short, the prison-industrial complex creates significant social, psychological, and financial costs for families and communities (Fulmer, 1995; Marsh, Fox, & Hedderman, 2009; Mauer & Coyle, 2004). In this chapter, we argue that the hip-hop movement plays an important role inilluminatingtheproblemsoftheprison-industrialcomplexbycreatingspaces of prison protest and modeling sources of community care. To demonstrate this claim, we explore what we call “consciousness-raising hip hop” as a type of Ciceronian rhetoric that challenges the prison-industrial complex and empowers prisoners and their communities. Our analysis of hip hop focuses on the artists, music, and (life)styles that promote a type of citizen-orator that is Ciceronian in character. Like Cicero, who was as much influenced by poetry as oratory (Enos, 1975a), hip hop speaks to its audience in complex and caring ways. First, we briefly explain why we believe the overzealous growth of the United States prison population is problematic. Without belaboring points already made in the editors’ introduction, we want to add resonance to the positions of other chapter authors who address the powerful ways race impacts the prison-industrial complex. Second, we explain how hip hop can be understood as a form of Ciceronian rhetoric. In this section, we define “consciousness-raising hip hop” and explicate how this music (and movement) advocates for prison care and reform. Third, we provide examples of hip-hop advocacy consistent with Ciceronian ethos and rhetoric. In particular, we give attention to those hip-hop artists who fit our definition of “consciousness-raising” by providing hope to prisoners and communities working to transform the U.S. criminal-justice system, which, according to hip-hop artist Nas, is a “beast” that has “a fat belly” and “likes to eat dark meat” (DMX, Method Man, Nas, & Ja Rule, 1998). While mainstream rap artists frequently glorify prison and promote it as a rite of passage, consciousness-raising hip hop addresses issues of mass incarceration and prisoner abandonment. In the concluding section, we provide examples from recently published news and scholarly articles to support our overall claim that hip hop promotes prison protest and community care. We also provide two personal examples that show how hip hop was important in shaping our worldviews and leading us to engage in both prison protest and community care. In sum, we demonstrate how working for justice needs a...

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