Black Women Ask Retailer Not to Sell ‘Gangsta Rap’

A prominent black women’s group stepped up its campaign against “gangsta rap” music Wednesday, calling on Sam Goody, the nation’s largest music and video retailer, to stop selling the work of artists whose lyrics glorify violence and denigrate women.

C. Delores Tucker, chairwoman of the National Political Congress of Black Women, said her organization targeted Sam Goody because of its prominence as a national chain and because of its high volume of “gangsta rap” sales in the nation’s capital. She said the protest--in which members marched in front of a local Sam Goody store--would be expanded over the next 10 days and continue until the company, and others, comply.

A spokeswoman for Sam Goody’s parent firm, Musicland Group, said the company believes that it has gone as far as it can to address concerns about violent and misogynist lyrics by placing parental warnings on some of the recordings in question.

“While many of the recordings we don’t like ourselves, we don’t want to set ourselves up as censors for what the public can or cannot buy,” said Marsha Apple, vice president of communications for Musicland Group.

Last month, the group--which offers support to black women congressional candidates--conveyed its concerns to The Wiz record stores in Washington.

“Our children should be enjoying their childhoods instead of dodging bullets, planning their funerals and counting the numbers of relatives and friends who have died or been injured through violence in the streets,” Tucker said. “The continued dehumanization and negative depiction of women subjects our young people to offensive images that destroy their spirits.”