The Beat of the Gavel: Rap, “Race” and Criminal Injustice’

Rap music is stereotypically perceived, discussed and policed as the soundtrack to “Black criminality”. Blamed for glamourising, glorifying and even causing violence in major cities around the world, rap is usually approached as the source rather than the target of violence. Writing against legal penal logics that obscure how rappers are victimised by the police, prosecutors and judges, this chapter offers an overview of how rap music is criminalised. UK drill music takes centre stage here, as the most recent rap subgenre to bear the brunt of such criminalisation, showing how “race”, crime and Black expressive culture(s) are interpreted as a public safety threat. The chapter argues that rap music tells us more about how and why it is racially criminalised, and encourages a more critical take on this issue than law-and-order rhetoric and politics allow.