Gangsta rappers’ arrests spur more static over genre

Four years after N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” album popularized gangsta rap, the debate over the stark, confrontational music continues to escalate.

The recent arrests of some of the genre’s biggest stars--notably Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr. Dre and Tupac Amaru Shakur--has caused a heightened sensitivity in the record industry to criticisms that gangsta rap promotes violence.

Though executives at major labels refused to speak on the record about it, some suggested the situation is serious enough that major corporations could eventually pull the plug on the multimillion-dollar gangsta rap market.

“At this point, no one is panicking,” says one executive. “But there is a heightened degree of anxiety and measured concern about the arrests because no one wants to be associated with immoral behavior. If a rapper is convicted of a violent crime, you could see a further retreat from the rap market.”

The growing number of arrests--involving charges ranging from assault to murder--have changed the scope of the gangsta rap argument from freedom of speech to a focus on the character of the artists whose music is heard and seen regularly by millions of teen-agers on MTV and other cable shows.

“It’s a sad statement about our society that alleged criminals can end up serving as role models for our kids,” says Robert DeMoss, youth culture specialist for Focus on the Family, a Colorado Springs-based Christian media-watchdog group that monitors violent and misogynistic entertainment.

“Character is no longer an issue in America anymore. We have entertainers out there making millions of dollars marketing their angry hate-filled existence to young people who are impressionable.”

Focus on the Family was one of dozens of parent and police groups that called for Time Warner to recall Ice-T’s album and restrict all records with “cop-killing” references, which the media giant eventually did. Nearly a dozen hard-core rappers have since been dropped by Time Warner-owned labels and other major record corporations, most of which now censor songs with incendiary lyrics.

The entertainment industry began paying close attention to criticism of gangsta rap by parent groups and media watchdog committees last year after the widow of a slain Texas state trooper sued rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur, blaming his “cop killing” lyrics for her husband’s death. The widow’s multimillion-dollar product lawsuit is expected to reach trial next fall.

While some clinical studies suggest that exposure to violent entertainment can cause people to become more “callous and aggressive,” free speech advocates say there is no empirical evidence that gangsta rap affects people’s behavior.

“This idea that banning music about violent reality will somehow stop reality from being violent is ludicrous,” says Lee Ballinger, associate editor of Rock N’ Rap Confidential, an industry newsletter dedicated since 1985 to monitoring censorship. “The attack on gangsta rap is being led by individuals who are providing absolutely no solutions to the social and financial problems that rappers such as Tupac or Dr. Dre or Ice-T are telling us about.”

As gangsta rappers move from the mainstream of popular culture into criminal courtrooms, some radio stations and record labels have begun questioning the social impact of this music.

“Gangsta rappers are giving kids the impression that it’s cool to shoot each other and sling drugs and call women bitches and whores,” says Mark Gunn, music director at KACE, a black-owned Inglewood radio station that just pulled the plug on gangsta rap. On the station’s hit list: Dr. Dre’s hit singles “Nothin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” and “Dre Day.”

“When I look around and I see everything that’s going on in the black community--the drive-by shootings, the truancy in schools, the drugs and the crime--I don’t think we can afford to perpetuate these kind of negative images on the airwaves,” Gunn says.

The National Political Congress of Black Women plans to hold a Dec. 9 forum in Beverly Hills as part of a campaign to protest misogynist lyrics in gangsta rap.

“We are on a crusade,” says C. DeLores Tucker, chair of the Washington-based organization. “This repetition of cultural garbage is producing and promoting low self-esteem and disrespect for the sanctity of human life.”

But Ronald Hampton, the executive director of the National Black Police Assn., which supported Ice-T during his “Cop Killer” battle, says people should stop using rap as a scapegoat.

“I don’t accept the idea that poets and musicians and filmmakers are responsible for the social ills depicted in art,” says Hampton, whose group represents 35,000 officers. “Police brutality and crime existed before people wrote about it. Rappers such as Ice-T, Dr. Dre and Snoop are artists describing what they see happening in society--no different than when Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder used to write songs about inner-city violence. There are much deeper problems that precipitate the negative conditions on the streets. Why blame rap?”