They have a autority to kill a minority: o gangsta rap de Tupac Shakur e do N.W.A. e a sua utilização como forma de resistência às violências policiais e institucional perante a população afro-americana de Los Angeles (1986-1996)

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the relationship between the African American community and the police and institutional violence. To this end, the work is about analyzing a musical style that is capable of dialoguing with that specific group and that has an interesting penetration for this population. In this sense, this research uses Gangsta Rap, a variation of Rap very popular in Los Angeles and New York between the 1980s and 1990s. We propose that Gangsta Rap operates as an extremely important element for the construction of a dissident discourse on the police and institutional violence in a considerable part of its songs. Therefore, we understand that this musical style operates as a discourse of resistance due to the nature of its construction and the penetration of its message. For the development of the research, we used albums from the group N.W.A. and the artist Tupac Shakur, and this selection is due to the fact that both are prominent exponents within the scenario, with the success of album sales being an important evaluation criterion for carrying out this research.