Gregory Freeman: Unlikely Help For Nasty Rap. 6/29/1990

Headline: UNLIKELY HELP FOR NASTY RAP
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Fri., June 29, 1990
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 1C, Edition: FIVE STAR

WHEN I WAS a teen-ager, my younger sister and I used to sneak down the basement of our home and listen to records by comedians Redd Foxx and Moms Mabley.
Those records were listened to by my parents and their friends, but they were strictly banned around our house as far as kids were concerned. So the minute the adults left, the albums were the first things that we listened to. It wasn't so much that the comedians were that funny - although some of their material was hilarious. It was more that we were listening to something that adults thought we shouldn't be listening to.

That's why, in 1990, things have never been so good for Luther Campbell.
     As the battle over what is pornographic rages, Campbell and his rap group, 2 Live Crew, are enjoying the controversy and raking in the money.
     The group's raunchy album, ''As Nasty As They Want To Be, '' is rapidly becoming a best seller, largely because of lot of anti-pornography advocates have been saying that the music shouldn't be heard.
     The album also became the first ever ruled obscene by a federal court, and Campbell was arrested after a show in Hollywood, Fla.

The truth is that the vile sounds that pass as music by 2 Live Crew are far from being stellar stuff. It's loud, it's crude, it's witless and it's sexist. But kids are running over each other to buy it because of all the controversy and because a lot of people are saying that it shouldn't be listened to.
     Al Karniski, manager of Streetside Records on Delmar Boulevard in University City, says sales were on the wane before a judge in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., ruled that the album appealed ''to dirty thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind.''
     Those are the kinds of words that make some teen-agers rush to the record stores.
     ''If they had left it alone, sales would have died off, '' said Karniski. ''Rap albums generally last for about six months, and this album has been out for a year and a half.''

The overreaction to the record has been the best thing that could happen to 2 Live Crew. The record's sold nearly 2 million copies.
     Now those who have made such a big stink about the album may find their actions backfiring on them. Campbell's group has gotten invaluable exposure on such television talk shows as Donahue, Geraldo and Sally Jessy Raphael. And the sales of the 2 Live Crew album have encouraged other record companies to push raunchy rap albums.
     ''It's opened up a whole new audience, '' Campbell said during his most recent appearance on Donahue.
     Indeed, members of one fledgling rap group out of Florida said that they never considered writing explicit lyrics until they were approached by a California record promoter and asked if they could ''go dirty'' like 2 Live Crew.

There is probably no question that rap music is a fad, one that's most popular among teen-agers and people in their 20s. Like other fads before it, it will likely pass away within the next 10 years. It is not the traditional type of black music that is likely to last forever.
     Unlike Fats Waller's ''Ain't Misbehavin', '' unlike Duke Ellington's ''Take the 'A' Train, '' unlike even Michael Jackson's ''Beat It, '' it's probably a safe bet that people 40 years from now will not be calling oldies stations asking deejays to play ''As Nasty As They Want To Be.''
     Still, there are numerous mainstream rap groups that enjoy tremendous popularity today, such as Kid and Play, D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, M.C. Hammer and Kool Moe Dee.
     These talented groups produce danceable music that stays away from the more pornographic raps of 2 Live Crew. These groups don't have to use gutter language to be popular.

But the courts can't stop youngsters from listening to pornographic rap groups and neither can the ''decency police.''
Those who want to listen to it will listen to it. But it will lose a lot of appeal to teen-agers when adults - and the courts - stop overreacting to it.
Pornographic rap music - like other musical forms before it - will likely go away. But those who continue to try to kill it prematurely are likely to be the very ones who will cause it to be around even longer.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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