POP MUSIC : Beating the Rap of Concert Violence

Police barricades block the streets.

Helicopters hover overhead.

Security guards frisk thousands of people as they line up to walk through metal detectors.

Welcome to a hard-core rap concert in the ‘90s, where the fear of violence has convinced police and concert promoters nationwide that such precautions are often necessary to keep concert-goers safe.

Although violent outbursts are rare at rap shows, the escalating cost of security and insurance for promoters has led some observers to suggest that live rap shows may be nearing extinction.

Ironically, many of the rap acts whose fire and imagination helped establish rap as a creative force in the late ‘80s--including Public Enemy, N.W.A. and Boogie Down Productions--may be unable to perform in concert at the very time when mainstream rappers--notably M.C. Hammer and Vanilla Ice--have become the toasts of the pop world.

The situation is especially touchy in Southern California, where a few incidents have made officials wary: At a 1986 Run-D.M.C. concert at the Long Beach Arena, 40 fans were injured after gang fights broke out, and as recently as Dec. 27, a 16-year-old fan was shot in the stomach outside an Ice Cube/Too Short concert at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim.

Oakland rapper Too Short (whose real name is Todd Shaw) predicts a bleak future for rap performers.

“This is street music and gangbangers are going to show up to hear it,” he said. “Security is a must and if security costs too much for promoters to make a profit, then where is the future in rap?”

But Bill Graham, the nation’s best-known concert promoter, believes rap shows can be staged safely.

“It’s true that some of these artists attract a violent element,” the San Francisco-based Graham said. “But we just finished producing a hard-core rap show in Oakland last month without a hint of any kind of problem. We had to spend a lot of money and go to great lengths to ensure the safety of fans. It’s a pain, but it can be done.”

The violence that broke out the night of Aug. 6, 1986, between rival gang members at the Run-D.M.C. show in Long Beach seemed to confirm the worst fears of parents and police.

Although Run-D.M.C.’s rhymes are not gang-oriented and the New York-based trio publicly rebuked the perpetrators, rap music--already widely linked in the minds of most white civic leaders to gang violence--was seen as the source of the brawl.

Over the past two years there have been outbursts at performances by N.W.A. and Public Enemy in Southern California and by 2 Live Crew, Too Short and Boogie Down Productions in the Bay Area, but allegations that rap itself triggers such incidents seemed to be on the wane.

That was until the Dec. 27 Celebrity Theatre shooting.

The Greek Theatre, the Hollywood Palladium and the Palace in Los Angeles have presented occasional rap shows over the years, but the Celebrity was the only Southern California outlet regularly booking rap acts. Following the shooting, Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter and other officials urged owners of the facility to institute a ban on rap.

After consultation with city representatives, the theater on Jan. 14 released a statement, endorsed by Hunter and the Anaheim Police Department, vowing to tighten controls and increase security at all events. A. Raymond Hamrick III--the attorney for the Celebrity who negotiated the agreement with the city--denies that rap music has been banned at the theater.

“No moratorium has been put into effect,” Hamrick said. “The theater will carefully consider each act on a case-by-case basis.”

Ban or no ban, Celebrity employees confirm that no rap act has been booked to perform there for at least the next four months.

Meanwhile, the debate over rap-instigated violence continues nationwide.

Many involved in the concert business believe the genre has been unjustly singled out.

There has been no problem at concerts by pop-oriented rap acts such as M.C. Hammer and Vanilla Ice. In fact, Vanilla Ice performed without incident at the Celebrity Theatre the night after the Dec. 27 shooting.

“If rap is so guilty of causing violence,” Los Angeles rapper Tone Loc said recently, “Why is it you never hear about anybody getting shot at a Tone Loc or an M.C. Hammer concert?”

Jay R. Grant, national coordinator of GRIP (Group for Rap Industry Protection)--a nonprofit coalition of music-industry affiliates devoted to educating the public about the positive effects of rap music--claims that most of the hysteria about violence at rap concerts has been inflated by the media.

“Violence at rap shows has been blown way out of proportion by reporters,” Grant said in a phone interview from GRIP’s Berkeley headquarters. “Why don’t we hear more about the correlation between violence and rock music? I can’t remember the last time I read an article about how rap music brings the races together--which it does. Nobody ever reports about the positive sociological aspects of what happens at these shows.”

Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Rod Bersen, who has 16 years of experience in concert crowd control, concurs.

“It’s very unfair to say all rap concerts attract anti-social audiences that break windows and vandalize private property,” Bersen said. “It only happens once in a while, but unfortunately, that’s all you ever read about in the papers.”

Graham has studied the situation. “Our research shows that in the last few years there have been more incidents of violence at rap shows than at other events.”

And many law enforcement agencies find the message of hard-core rappers such as N.W.A. and Public Enemy “dangerous and inflammatory.”

The Fraternal Order of the Police (FOP), a 76-year-old organization that functions as a bargaining agent for some 220,000 law enforcement officers around the nation, drafted a resolution two years ago advising its membership to “refuse to work at or provide security for concerts by any group advocating violence against police officers.”

Because most promoters rely on off-duty officers to provide security, police boycotts pose severe logistic problems in producing shows by controversial rap acts. Last year, off-duty FOP officers refused to provide security for rap shows in Washington, Oklahoma City, Cincinnati, Detroit and Providence, R.I.

Security is not the only dark cloud looming over rap. Concert promoters are finding it increasingly difficult to insure rap events.

Concert promoters are required to carry insurance policies protecting the facility and concert-goers against fire or personal injury. According to a survey of top national insurance brokers, most insurance companies have either increased premiums or stopped writing policies for rap shows.

Promoter Carol Kirkendall, vice president of the New York-based G Street Express, the company that booked Public Enemy’s 1990 tour, claims that insurance rates for hard-core rap acts have tripled in the last three years. The cost of insuring rap concerts has risen from 30 to 90 cents a head. Rock concerts typically cost 25 to 37 cents a head, Kirkendall said.

“What the insurance companies are doing now is targeting a group like Public Enemy for being ‘too political’ and upping their rates.” Kirkendall said in a telephone interview from her New York office. “Every year, it just keeps getting worse.”

Those attempting to stop gang violence at rap shows suggest that new attitudes toward the socioeconomic roots of the problem need to be developed. They believe rap music not only represents the emergence of a unique art form, but also a new avenue for social and political expression.

Promoter Graham, whose recent violence-free Ice Cube/Too Short show in Oakland put an end to a yearlong moratorium on rap concerts in the city, said he became involved with producing the concert because he saw it as a freedom of speech issue.

“What we were attempting to do was stand up for the First Amendment and protect the rights of black artists to express themselves,” Graham said.

Graham’s production company worked six weeks with police, social experts and community representatives to develop a comprehensive security plan for the Oakland show. He increased the size of the security force by one-third and, through a grass-roots effort that included radio spots and flyers, got out the word that gang violence would not be tolerated.

GRIP director Grant applauded Graham’s efforts, noting that a GRIP security manual detailing such practical solutions to the rap concert crisis is in the works and will soon be available to other promoters.

“It’s important for promoters to begin addressing the social ramifications of this music,” Grant said. “Not only do they need to beef up security, they need to increase the racial balance of their security forces.”

Tone Loc suggested that concert producers take even more drastic precautions. “I think the way to solve the problem at the hard-core shows is to start enforcing dress codes,” the rapper said. “No hats, no tennis shoes, no colors. No violence.”

Paul Tolett, talent director for Goldenvoice Productions, the South Bay promotion company that staged the Bad Religion punk show in North Hollywood last month, agrees.

“That’s what promoters in England did a few years back to stop the skinhead gangs from fighting at clubs and it worked,” Tolett said. “Nobody sporting gang colors was allowed to enter. I mean, they banned everything--right down to the laces in their tennis shoes.”

But in the end, security precautions--no matter how elaborate--address the problem only on a cosmetic level.

Boogie Down Productions founder KRS-One, a socially conscious New Yorker rapper, sees concert violence as a reflection of unresolved tensions in society.

“The question for me is not why these killers come to rap concerts, but how the kids turn into killers in the first place,” KRS-One said in a phone interview from New York. “The finger points at the breakdown in our educational, political and religious systems. I believe that until America seriously begins to address the real problems haunting our society, violence at rap concerts will not stop.”

As for rap itself, he said, “They can’t stop rap now, no matter what they do. If insurance rates keep rising through the roof and legitimate clubs refuse to book rappers, what you’re going to see is rap will go back to the outside-in-the-street jam, just the way it used to be.”

The future of live rap in Los Angeles will be put to the test Thursday. Promoters predict that a crowd of about 17,000 fans will attend an all-female rap revue scheduled at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

Go Productions, the company staging the five-hour event, has been working since December with police, community leaders, ex-gang members, underground record companies and a hip-hop coalition of high school volunteers to present a safe show.

Grand Jury Rap Entertainment’s Mike Concepcion, a former gang member who initiated last June’s anti-violence “All in the Same Gang” song and video, said “This concert will prove rap is safe. The message is anti-violence and anti-war. We want to show the world that rappers are for peace.”