True to the Game: Ice Cube’s ‘Death Certificate’

Nevermind Nostalgia: The Music of 1991… 20 Years Later

True to the Game: Ice Cube’s ‘Death Certificate’

by Dean Van Nguyen

In the early hours of March 3, 1991, George Holliday, a citizen of Los Angeles, California, filmed the arrest of Rodney King. Unbeknown to the four LAPD officers involved, Holliday’s camera captured an apprehension that saw 56 baton blows, six kicks, 11 skull fractures, broken bones, broken teeth, and kidney damage; all suffered by the African-American suspect King. Two weeks later, Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old African-American student, was shot in the back of the head from a distance of about three feet as she turned to exit a store after an altercation with middle-aged female Korean store owner Soon Ja Du.

Little over a year later, the officers involved in the Rodney King beating were acquitted of assault and Du had just begun serving five years probation for voluntary manslaughter with no jail time. On April 29, 1992, almost immediately after the officer’s acquittal, the Los Angeles riots broke out.

It was during this period between the King beating and subsequent court verdict that Ice Cube cut Death Certificate, a chilling glimpse into the anger and frustration South Central Angelinos were feeling. Years of systematic racism and urban mismanagement had taken its toll on LA’s African American communities. While the King and Harlins incidents proved to be the final catalysts, the riots were a result of decades of institutional and structural neglect that had led to conditions of poverty, racial segregation, lack of educational and employment opportunities, and shocking police abuse.

For the full story visit: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/148997-true-to-the-game-ice-cubes-death-certificate/