Hip-hop was paired with other forms of expression that emerged from this DJing, break dancing, and graffiti writing were all ways that stories of harsh American reality were told by the youth.
In 1994, C. Delores Tucker told a Senate panel that the hip-hop generation, "coaxed by gangster rap,' would "trigger a crime wave of epidemic proportions that we have never seen the likes of."
Organizers in Paris, Cape Town, Sweden, New Zealand, Chile, and other countries have employed the tools of hip hop to work for change in communities, empower youth and give voice to unchecked issues.
While gangster rap has been blamed by cultural critics for triggering crime waves, hip hop activism has stood up against the prison industrial complex, addressed environmental racism (many went on to encompass green politics) and corrupt systems that cause poverty around the world.
[citation needed] A significant factor in the national organizing of hip-hop activist in recent years can be attributed to legislation passed in response to waves of migration and immigration from Central and South America.
Opponents like Paul Johnston claim that Proposition 187 has only served to increase political, cultural and class factions while marginalizing specific minority populations.