Raising a Rap Flap

Rap music often deals with the imagery of violence, but for rapper Kris Parker, it’s all too real. His partner and deejay Scott Sterling (who went under the name of Scot La Rock) was gunned down last year on the streets of the Bronx.

Parker, a.k.a. KRS-ONE, decided to continue with music, and his group Boogie Down Productions recently released the starkly anti-violence album “By All Means Necessary” on Jive/RCA. The LP is in the Top 20 on the national black charts and has crossed over to the Top 80 on the pop charts.

The group hits downtown L.A.’s Alcohol Salad club tonight for a promotional event featuring videos and a brief performance.

With his quasi-libertarian politics, his background as a homeless person and the memory of Sterling’s death, Parker, 22, has become increasingly critical of other rap groups and record companies. He says they foster negative, superficial images of black youth and don’t deal with serious issues.

“What it is right now is the gold chains, the kangol (hat) and sneakers with no laces in them. That’s not rap music,” the New Yorker says. “We’re here to put those stereotypes aside.”

Parker’s brand of topical rap includes attacks on the U.S. government (“Illegal Business,” in which he charges that backroom politics and not health concerns are the main reason for drug laws) and on his musical colleagues (“My Philosophy,” which takes other rappers to task for only celebrating the party life).

Parker has discussed his approach with such rap stars as Run-D.M.C. and L.L. Cool J and producer Russell Simmons. “Everyone has their views but no one argues. They can’t argue with me because what I’m saying is true,” he says matter-of-factly.

It’s ironic that despite Sterling’s death, Parker is against American-style gun control. And he even poses on the album cover with a gun, hoping, he says, to lure those who might be attracted by the gun to listen to the message on songs like “Stop the Violence.”