Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, September 20, 2016.
A University of Chicago sociologist spent 18 months embedded with drill rappers
Forrest Stuart, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, spent 18 months embedded with a Chicago gang/drill-rap outfit, where music and violence are inextricably linked. With the gang’s blessing to write a book about the experience, Stuart was given a rare opportunity to observe members’ lives and learn how the gang operates. “For the gang—and other gangs like it—the rappers are designated as the ticket out of poverty,” he writes in a fascinating article for Chicago magazine. “It becomes the responsibility of the rest of the members to support and protect them. Each rapper has one or two ‘shooters.’ These are the members who make good on the threats the rappers dish out in their lyrics and on social media.” [Chicago]
