What does Deuce Diggs Music represent?

Deuce Diggs music represents solidarity and black identity. Not all of the Deuce Diggs lyrics written in the novel are explicitly political, but rap music has a symbolic tie to the culture of the African American community. When Tison shoots Manny for refusing to turn the Deuce Diggs music down, he is judging Manny’s music—and his very blackness—as evidence of criminality. Throughout the novel, Manny and Justyce turn to Deuce Diggs to reaffirm their positive identity as young black men in a world that seeks to impose negative, criminal identities instead. Manny dies for his attachment to the music’s symbolism, only further reinforcing the necessity of these self-affirming pieces of culture.