The Battalion • Page 3
Thursday • June 8, 1995
Dole's duel with entertainment is misguided
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3 stoi:
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JmirrBitches ain't s-
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> the mack down"
heart:
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[Chinfe »^ Ice Cube
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stieake four ATF to their
te a
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apF Jytiuil / I'll kill you
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I blow the gat in his ass
"because it's all good
ight^np now the boys in
L P3 ajue come after the
—-aotherf—kin' East Bay
^j^angsta murder master"
!Pac
(Keep my s--t
[ocked 'cause
he cop's got a gloc too
A/hat the f—k would you
;lo? Drop him or let him
Jrop you? I chose
Ircbppin' the cop"
leath"
ll be
Ice T (Body
Count)
"I got my brain
>nlhype / Tonight'll be
va iof 'our night / I got this
oqig-assed knife/ And
;our neck looks just
igl it"
!
inoop Doggy
^ogg
''It s a 187
Murder) on a motherfu—
cop"
peto Boys
j®^e sight of blood
ites me / Shoot you in
| [he head / Sit down and
Vatch you bleed to
death / I hear the sounds
>f your last breath"
Gangsta rapper Spice 1
A rtists everywhere, run for the hills!
The censors are coming!
The censors are coming!
Instead of finding them
selves at the top of the movie
and music charts, Oliver
Stone, Quentin Tarantino,
2Pac and Snoop Doggy
Dogg now find themselves
at the top of Ameri
ca’s most wanted
list.
At least in the
mind of Sen. Bob
Dole, that is.
An ugly, nasty storm is brewing from the depths of
Dole’s mouth with his recent attack on the entertainment
industry. Shades of Tipper Gore’s Parents Music Resource
Center and her crusade on explicit lyrics have resurfaced,
this time in the form of a crabby, old Senate majority leader.
Seems ol’ Dole isn’t too fond of hardcore rap and rock
See related EDITORIAL, Page 7
music and violent movies.
Duh.
Dole said in a press conference “I’m talking
about ... a culture business that makes money
from ‘music’ extolling the pleasures of rap
ing, torturing and mutilating women; from
‘songs’ about killing policemen and re
jecting law.”
How familiar is he with this music?
Can you imagine Dole putting a Dr.
Dre CD in his car stereo, rolling
through D.C. and hearing “Bitches
ain’t sh-t but hoes and tricks?”
He would probably have to ask
his advisers why women were being
referred to as garden tools.
Rap is an easy target for the cen
sorship brigade. Disturbing tales of
urban violence and drug use are a
shock to the system.
A rapper like 2Pac or Ice Cube isn’t
concerned with lyrical morality. Rap-
> ; ■ pers are painting a picture of the
, . : :S : I harsh realities of life in the ghetto.
. And it ain’t pretty.
But how can it be? If Dole
doesn’t like the classic N.W.A.
album Straight Outta Compton,
maybe he should head on over to
Compton, Calif, and walk the
streets for a while.I’d give him two
minutes, tops. It’s doubtful that
Dole has ever encountered such
problems in his posh life in Washing
ton D.C.
Of course, some rappers just try to
give more shock for the buck. Gangstas
sell albums, and they know it. But the
original gangstas — Ice T, Ice Cube, Dr.
Dre and Snoop Dogg — are products of their environment. They
rap about what they know.
It may not be what people know in Kansas, or in College Sta
tion. We don’t see drive-by shootings on Texas Avenue. We
don’t see police brutality every day. But our world is a world
away from South Central L.A.
And what is that lurking behind Dole’s attack? Why, it’s cen
sorship of course. The Bill of Rights states Congress cannot
abridge the freedom of speech.
Yet this debate continues. Albums with controversial lyrics
already have parental warning stickers slapped on them. Stores
won’t allow a 6-year-old child to buy a 2 Live Crew album.
Some of the shocking violence in rap is disturbing and dis
gusting. When dollars start coming through the door, responsi
bility is often thrown out.
But they still have the right to say what they feel, whether
Dole likes it or not.
And haven’t we been through all this before? Two recent cas
es of attempted crackdowns on rap come to mind.
• In 1990, a Miami court declared 2 Live Crew’s As Nasty As
They Wanna Be album to be obscene. Anyone selling the album
or performing its songs was subject to arrest. Members of 2 Live
Crew were arrested after a performance at an adults-only club.
A record store owner was arrested for
continuing to sell the album. The
members of 2 Live Crew were acquit
ted and the record store owner re
ceived a fine.
• In 1992, rapper Ice T sparked a
national storm of controversy with
his hardcore -metal band Body
Count and the song “Cop Killer.”
Further criticisms came from
George Bush and Dan Quayle.
Ice T and Time Warner even
tually pulled the
i song from Body
Count’s album
after months of
media pressure.
On the film side.
Dole lashed out at movies like True Romance and Natural
Born Killers, both written by Quentin Tarantino. Somehow, I
don’t think Quentin is shaking in fear. No doubt those movies,
plus Pulp Fiction, are violent, but it’s funny how other gore
fests escaped Dole’s wrath.
I guess killing someone in a Terminator fantasy movie is
fine, but in a clever Pulp Fiction, it’s “mainstream deviancy.”
In Dole’s perfect world, we’d all be watching Free Willy in
stead of Reservoir Dogs.
The bottom line is there is an enormous generation gap be
tween Dole and, say, college students. Most young people
hailed Pulp Fiction as an extraordinary movie, and it’s difficult
to see a politician doing the same.
He doesn’t get it. Nor is he supposed to.
These movies and albums aren’t intended for him. I’m sure
Ice Cube doesn’t sit in a recording studio and say “Oh sh-t, my
man Dole is gonna love this beat!” Of course not — it’s not for
Senate majority leaders.
Just think, if Dole has his way, we’ll be stuck watching
“Golden Girls” reruns and listening to Rick Astley.
That would be more frightening than any rap lyric could
ever be.
// eople say I glorify gangsterism on my tapes. I
i—don't glorify it, I just talk about it. I'm not saying,
'Yougo do it.' I'm just saying that's what I've
done - this is what it's all about around here ... when the rap
thing came along, it pulled me out of the streets completely."
- Spice 1
// I 'm talking about ... a culture business that makes money
I from 'music'extolling the pleasures of raping, torturing
I and mutilating women; from 'songs' about killing police
men and rejecting law."
. ' ' ' ' 'V ' ' ' '
— Bob Dole
Senate majority leader
In previous interviews with The Battalion, Spice 1, Digable Planets, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul
talked about controversies surrounding rap music lyrics
Digable Planets
ike this gangsta s—it— it's so bulis--t.
I'm not saying there are no gangstas
‘out there, but it's getting to the point of
them bein' pimps.
It's a f—ked up game and I don't like it. It's
taking the fun out of rap ...
Everybody's a cutthroat, everybody wants to
kill each other just for a spot on the Billboard
charts. Who gives a f—k?"
— Doodlebug (front)
A Tribe Called Quest
| could never talk about shootin' nobody
| or smackin' a bitch in her face. That s—t
■ is dead to me. I refuse to come out and
talk about bustin' a cap.
The generation of today is f—ked up and the
generation of tomorrow is gonna be even worse,
so we gotta look out for them."
- Phife Dawg (middle)
De La Soul
ap is an entity like anything else.
There can't be a positive side
without a negative side. There's a lot
of stuff said withing rap that I don't agree with,
but I don't think it's right to censor them.
You hear a lot of reports downing a Snoop Dogg
or a 2Pac, but they don't come behind them and
say, 'Here are some rappers that are doing
something positive. They don't talk about that at
all."
- Posdnuos (seated left)
jrrnits
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