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Drug wars, recessions and record violence in the 1980s had US cities in crisis. Hip hop artists responded by shifting from party music to a new style called "conscious rap." Artists like Public Enemy and Digable Planets championed a sound that was political, community-minded and deeply pro-black. But about six years after it started, that first wave of socially-conscious hip hop seemed to be over. Christopher M. Johnson joins host Kai Wright to find out what happened on the new podcast The Stakes.

Hear from:

- Rapper Kool Moe Dee

- Writer and filmmaker Nelson George

- Dan Charnas, author of The Big Payback

- Ann Carli, former hip hop record executive