Rap music and the elections- Cop killers or killer cops?

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liftle-known rapper, grotesquely Ice-T in Los Angeles and SILVERE CHABOT Just after the Los Angeles uprising, two rappers, a man and a woman, were denounced as instigators of violence. The man was denounced by President Bush and the woman by his challenger, Bill Clinton.

Meanwhile, hardcore rap music-often Afrocentric or Black nationalist-has become a burning subject for the major media. In this manner, rap has surged onto the political scene with even more force than rock music did 25 years ago.

In fact, the campaign against the rappers was initiated at the beginning of this year when many media outlets and politicians, following the lead of moderate Black leaders, denounced the video "By the Time I Get to Arizona" by the group Public Enemy.

In reaction to the invasion of the Persian Gulf by the U.S. military, the leader of the group, Chuck D, had conceived a "revenge fantasy"-turning their own methods against them! Using a scene reconstructing the assassination of Martin Luther King as background, the video shows how the "commando army" of Public Enemy disembarks in Arizona and carries out terrorist actions against the public powers of that state.

James Bernard, senior editor of The Source, the only Black independent revue of rap music and hip-hop culture, expressed satisfaction that finally someone had "undermined the notion that our political system is so fair in representing 'the people' that armed rebellion could never be justified."

"Sick and obscene"

Speaking before the Rainbow Coalition, Bill Clinton accused rapper Sister Souljah of initiating racial violence. Newsweek immediately honored Souljah with her photo on the cover and seized the occasion to publish a fat background dossier titled, "Rap and Race: Beyond Sister SouljahThe New Politics of Pop Music."

Meanwhile, the Republican team— George Bush and Dan Quayle-jumped on rapper Ice-T, denouncing his song "Cop Killer" as "sick" and "obscene," and alleging that it "glorified killing Sister Souljah racist rather than holding those in the White House and corporate America responsible for the destruction of our communities."

"Tonight we get even"

It's true that in "Cop Killer," and in the video that he made, Ice-T speaks as he puts on a black shirt, black gloves, and a ski mask. He sings with the group Body Count: "This shit's been too long/ I got my 12-gauge sawed off/ 1 got my headlights turned off/ I'm 'bout to dust some cops off/ Cop killer, it's better you than me/ Cop killer, fuck police brutality/ Cop killer, I know your family's grievin'/ Cop killer, but tonight we get even/ ...Fuck the police, for Rodney King/ Fuck the police, for my dead homies/ Fuck the police, for your freedom/ ...Fuck the police, have some muthafuckin' courage."

But there was nothing new there since the release, in 1989, of "Fuck the Police" by the group Niggers With Attitude (NWA). At that time, the racket made about that piece was enormous. The FBI attempted to prosecute the group, but was beaten back by defenders of First Amendment rights, which guarantees freedom of expression.

It seemed that words like "fuck the police," which have become the mode among rappers, had achieved the right to be expressed. But this was clearly no longer the case after the Los Angeles uprising.

In an editorial in The Source, Chris Wilder wrote: "Whether it's gangsta rappers like NWA, political rappers like KRS-One, or militant pro-Black rappers like X-Clan, they all agree that police are the enemy. These artists represent the majority of young, Black America."

And as the rapper Ice Cube pointed out: This young, Black America, which identifies with rap music, is distinguished from preceding generations by the fact that, more than being ready to die for what is right, it is ready to kill for what is right. And there you have the second reason behind the attacks of Bush and Clinton.

"For more than four years before the Los Angeles riots, rap had anticipated the rage that ultimately boiled over on April 29," wrote John Leland, editor of the dossier published by Newsweek. Rap had previewed (continued on page 7, in “Black students victims of racist dragnet at upstate N.Y. college”)