DURHAM Just like the Bull City, Hip Hop gets a bad rap for harboring a culture of violence courtesy of sub genres such as drill music. However, like Durham, historically, this has not always been the case. Durham was once the home of cultural havens such as Malcolm X Liberation University , as well as the Know Bookstore. In Hip Hop history, there was an era during the late 80’s/early 90’s when rap music pushed cultural knowledge and positive self awareness.
For a short period of time, (1988-1992) there was a strong movement in Hip Hop that promoted studying Black culture, stopping the crack epidemic and replacing expensive gold chains with African medallions. For example , in 1988, “Self Destruction” was released by a collective of popular rappers led by KRS-One called the Stop the Violence Movement that was highly instrumental in bringing awareness to so-called Black on Black Crime. So the question is, if this can work in 1988, why can’t this same technique be used to stop the violence in the Bull City in 2024 ?