Rap Under Siege : Flap Won’t Crimp Their Style, L.A. Rappers Say

Don’t look for the 2 Live Crew legal battle to put a chill on rap, a leading Los Angeles rapper said Wednesday at a press conference to publicize the release of an anti-violence rap album and video.

“It’s not going to affect me,” said Tone Loc, whose racy “Wild Thing” and “Funky Cold Medina” are two of the biggest singles ever in rap. “I’m not going to change what I do.”

Asked whether the record companies might try to restrict artists whose raps might be considered obscene, he said after the conference at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club, “(The 2 Live Crew furor) may be bad publicity, but it’s still good publicity because sales are going to boost,” he said. “So I don’t think record companies are going to change anyone.”

Tone Loc is one of more than a dozen, mostly Los Angeles rap acts featured on “All in the Same Gang,” an anti-gang violence rap number that has been released as a single and is part in an album by Grand Jury Records and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.

A video of the song--featuring Tone Loc and such other rappers as M.C. Hammer, N.W.A’s Eazy-E and Ice-T--is scheduled to be premiered tonight on “The Arsenio Hall Show” (11 p.m. on Channels 6 and 13 and at midnight on Channels 3 and 42). The video is also due to be shown on “In Living Color” on Sunday (9:30 p.m. on Channels 6 and 11).

Former Crips gang leader Mike Concepcion, who organized the “Same Gang” project, and E’ban Kelly, his partner in Grand Jury records, said before the press conference that rap has become an easy target for people with “anti-civil rights” agendas.

“If 2 Live Crew and Public Enemy were back in the ghetto and not making lots of money, no one would care,” Kelly said.

But he said that the media tend to pay more attention to controversial matters than to projects such as the anti-violence recording.

“Hopefully, we can get the same kind of publicity as the guys with the naked girls,” he said.

At the press conference attended by representatives of various Los Angles city and county officials and agencies, Concepcion called for gang members to observe “Peace Weekend” this weekend in honor of the release of the album.

Concepcion and New York rapper Def Jef, who is also on the album and in the video, expressed concern that the negative publicity generated by the 2 Live Crew obscenity arrests and the stark social commentary of such acts as Public Enemy and N.W.A could overshadow the positive, community-oriented efforts of rappers.

“(2 Live Crew leader) Luke Skyywalker goes through the community giving money back,” he said, citing housing efforts and Christmas toy giveaways undertaken by Luther Campbell, who recorded under the name Luke Skyywalker prior to a recent court order that the name infringed on film director George Lucas’ trademarked “Star Wars” character Luke Skywalker.

“You don’t hear (about the positive aspects of rap) through the media,” Def Jef said. “You can hear a curse on a rap record, but it’s not necessarily a negative record. Everybody curses.”