Look at the cover of Ja Rule’s 2003 album Blood in My Eye. See the prison in the background? He is paying homage to George Jackson's book of the same title. Yet the impactful cover art belies the crappy lyrics contained on the actual CD. Ja Rule’s words in no way measure up to the powerful ones written by Jackson.

This got me thinking about the fact that the most successful modern social movements (the black freedom movement, the anti-war movement, etc…) seem to have had an accompanying soundtrack.

What would be the soundtrack for a modern social movement to dismantle prisons? A few weeks ago, in response to a request, I offered a few songs about prisons/jails that I like. However besides Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos by Public Enemy and 16 on Death Row by Tupac from that list, I don’t know that I would include any of the other songs on my anti-PIC movement soundtrack.

This led me to think more deeply about the relationship between rap music and the prison industrial complex. A number of rappers offer prison as a setting for their lyrics, album covers and videos. Yet how often have you heard these performers actually talking about prison abolition or even reform? The answer is simple… very rarely. Why is this?

I have a theory that it is because incarceration among young black men has been and is naturalized in actuality and in representation. I think that hip hop artists don’t talk about reform or abolition because to them prison has been and is a part of the experience of being young and black in America. It is a black boy’s rite of passage so to speak. I have no empirical evidence of the truth of this claim. I am just making an assumption based on very limited knowledge. This will no doubt prove to be problematic when it is shown that I am completely wrong. Yet, how would you explain the disconnect? I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the matter…