CLASSIC: Did the prison industry push gangster rap?
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
iHeartPodcasts
4.2 • 11K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What makes a genre of music successful? Ideally, the art connects on a personal level with the audience, speaking truth to power, tapping into a universal experience.... but what if that isn't always the case? In 2012, an email from someone claiming to be a former music industry executive alleged that gangster rap was not an organic success. Instead, they claimed, the success of this genre was the result of a secret, high-level meeting in 1991, between members of the music industry's elite and representatives of the private prison industry. Making this music successful, they argued, would ensure the prison system became even more profitable for investors. It's a profoundly disturbing idea -- but could it be true? Tune in to learn more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Fellow conspiracy realists, we are returning to you with a classic episode that's been on our minds lately. |
| 0:08.0 | Not too too long ago, Billy Corrigan of Smashing Pumpkin's fame claimed that there was a conspiracy behind what he sees as the decline of rock music and the rise of gangster rap. |
| 0:20.8 | I don't know, man. |
| 0:21.4 | I just think he's just mad. |
| 0:22.5 | People aren't listening to his records anymore. |
| 0:25.4 | Yeah, we talked about this with our friend Gandhi on her excellent shows. |
| 0:29.6 | Saw us on the side. |
| 0:30.6 | Please do check out Gandhi. |
| 0:33.3 | She's just a legend in the game. |
| 0:35.4 | And we had a lot of fun chatting conspiracies here. |
| 0:38.8 | This also reminded us our recent conversation of an episode we did an investigation way back in 2020, right? |
| 0:48.4 | I want to say right after Thanksgiving about whether the prison industry in cooperation, maybe with the government, |
| 0:57.9 | created gangster rap or popularized gangster rap. |
| 1:03.0 | Wait a second. |
| 1:04.3 | Are we saying that there are maybe small groups of powerful individuals that run, I don't |
| 1:10.6 | know, television networks, cable channels, |
| 1:14.6 | radio stations, and they, like, can push certain music on us versus other music. |
| 1:22.4 | Dare we say shape world events through their influence? |
| 1:28.9 | Well, you know, it's funny, though, guys, |
| 1:30.4 | because it becomes a question of, like, |
| 1:32.0 | is it tastemaker kind of stuff? |
| 1:34.7 | Like, is it influence of culture in a way that, you know, |
... |
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