This is a letter to the editor I published at the Daily Advance. Posted here for posterity, since they have no online archive:
I need to challenge an assertion made in last week’s interview with music industry veteran Jerry Heller that gangster rap artists are portraying the “reality of their way of life.” Of NWA’s four members, Easy-E was the only real-life gangster. Dr. Dre and Ice Cube were actually just posers, with the Cube now starring in mainstream family-friendly comedy films. There was nothing cool about Easy-E’s demise, wasting away on a hospital bed infected with A.I.D.S. was a far cry from going out in one of those exciting gunfights he always sang about.
Ganster Rap defends its moral depravity by claiming it represents a lifestyle, but the music actually pushes a stereotype of all African-Americans as criminals and thugs. Chuck D., leader of the brilliant and politically-charged rap-band, Public Enemy, attacked Gangsterism in rap music as, “a pirating of our culture,” further lamenting, “Intelligence is being downplayed.” Spike Lee satirized gangster rap music as the modern-day blackface performance in his film “Bamboozled.”
Several different Elizabeth City residents have told me that drug-related crime activity and street gangsterism did not exist here a decade ago. Gangster Rap, with its message of homophobia, misogyny, promiscuity, lack of morality, racism, materialism, and hopelessness, came onto the music scene in the late 80s, long before Elizabeth City’s problems emerged. Life is clearly imitating art, not vice versa.
“Don’t Believe the Hype,” was Chuck D.’s catchphrase, a message to his fans concerning his own band, urging them to look past Public Enemy’s controversial outward appearance and into their politically challenging ideas. Gangster rap fans need to look past the thugs making a few measly dollars, dying of A.I.D.S., drug addiction, and street violence to the wealthy white men, like Jerry Heller, who push them onto consumers, exploiting African-Americans and getting wealthier by selling them derogatory caricatures of themselves.