POP/ROCK - March 16, 1993

Rap Happenings: Jury selection is scheduled to begin today in Austin, Tex., for the trial of Ronald Ray Howard, a 19-year-old Texan charged in the shooting death of a state trooper last April on a highway about 100 miles outside of Houston. Howard’s attorney hopes to prove that the defendant was listening to violent songs by rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur on the night of the killing and that it affected his behavior. Meanwhile, Shakur was arrested Saturday in Hollywood on suspicion of assaulting a limousine driver who protested what he said was Shakur’s use of drugs in the limousine. . . . Rapper Ice-T is using his music to help promote peace in the ‘hood. He is donating profits from his latest single, “Gotta Lotta Love,” to the United Gang Alliance/Hands Across Watts, which works to unite members of rival gangs in South-Central Los Angeles.