5 Grams : : Crack Cocaine, Rap Music, and the War on Drugs / / Dimitri A. Bogazianos.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Bogazianos, Dimitri A.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2011]; ©2011
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Series: Alternative Criminology ; 15
• Physical Description: 1 online resource
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Acknowledgments --; Introduction --; 1. Crack, Rap, and the Punitive Turn --; 2. The Invisible Hand Holds a Gun: Law and Policy in the Lethal Regulation of Crack --; 3. Rap Puts Crack to Work --; 4. Things Done Changed: The Rise of New School Violence --; 5. Training and Humiliation --; 6. Facing the Corporation --; Conclusion --; Methodological Essay --; Notes --; Bibliography --; Index --; About the Author
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9780814725160; 9783110706444
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Dimitri A. Bogazianos.

In 2010, President Barack Obama signed a law repealing one of the most controversial policies in American criminal justice history: the one hundred to one sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder whereby someone convicted of “simply” possessing five grams of crack-the equivalent of a few sugar packets-had been required by law to serve no less than five years in prison. In this highly original work, Dimitri A. Bogazianos draws on various sources to examine the profound symbolic consequences of America’s reliance on this punishment structure, tracing the rich cultural linkages between America’s War on Drugs, and the creative contributions of those directly affected by its destructive effects.Focusing primarily on lyrics that emerged in 1990s New York rap, which critiqued the music industry for being corrupt, unjust, and criminal, Bogazianos shows how many rappers began drawing parallels between the “rap game” and the “crack game." He argues that the symbolism of crack in rap’s stance towards its own commercialization represents a moral debate that is far bigger than hip hop culture, highlighting the degree to which crack cocaine-although a drug long in decline-has come to represent the entire paradoxical predicament of punishment in the U.S. today.