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Article: Rapping Gangsta Rap
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- January 7, 1994
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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THOSE WHO take on popular culture need a strong stomach and a
spine of steel. That's because it's easy to label critics of
destructive cultural trends as prudes or enemies of free speech.
Some who rightly criticize the coarsening of the culture legitimize
these criticisms by calling for outright government censorship, an
approach that's always dangerous and often backfires.
The mobilization against "gangsta rap" is different. Those
fighting music that celebrates violence and degrades women have not
looked to government to do what an aroused community can do by
itself. In cities all over the country, movements that often found
their base in the black churches began simply by denouncing a ...