USA: RAP SINGERS AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND BLACK LAW MAKERS GATHER TO DISCUSS THE IMAGE OF HIP HOP MUSIC

Record ID: 391616

  • Title: USA: RAP SINGERS AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND BLACK LAW MAKERS GATHER TO DISCUSS THE IMAGE OF HIP HOP MUSIC
  • Date: 12th June 2001
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JUNE 12, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) VARIOUS, GV HILTON HOTEL (3 SHOTS) SCU CAMERAMAN SMV, GERMAINE DUPREE, HIP HOP PRODUCER TALKING TO PRESS WIDE OF PHOTOGRAPHERS PAN TO DUPREE AND CHUCK D., HIP HOP ARTIST POSE FOR STILLS SMV, RUSSELL SIMMONS, HIP HOP PRODUCER TALKS TO CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS SMV, CORNELL WEST, PROFESSOR, HARVARD
  • Embargoed: 27th June 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES AND UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime,Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA172WGW9Q26BLRG0NCYWC3V1YE
  • Story Text: Rappers, music executives and black lawmakers gathered in New York on Tuesday for a "Hip-Hop Summit" on revamping the music's violent image, hoping to set up ways for the industry to regulate lyrics and stop rapper feuds.
    Some of hip-hop's most influential musicians and executives gathered in New York Tuesday (June 12) at the start of a three day summit to clean up the violent image created by lyrics and cross continent 'wars'. The summit brings together artists and producers to discuss the social, political and economic impact hip hop has on the world and to try to improve the message of the music and the images.
    Jermaine Dupree, music producer of rappers including Lil Bow Wow was in attendance as was famed rapper, Chuck D. A number of representatives of the music business including Hip Hop record mogul, Russell Simmons were also in attendance .
    Cornell West is a Harvard professor who feels that much of the problem the white community has with hip hop is that the message is coming from mostly black Americans.
    "So that black folk constitute a certain kind of threat by mere presence and the music and telling the truth about the black situation also tells the truth about American hypocrisy and so it constitutes a threat and a lot of young white brothers and sisters recognize that and that's one of the reasons that why they are attracted to it."
    The summit was conceived of by Russell Simmons, the CEO of Def Jam/Def Soul. He is one of the most successful record producers and entrepreneurs in the hip hop world. He feels that hip hop has become a powerhouse, "Hip hop is more powerful as a movement than any American cultural movement we've ever had and so it has such great opportunity and it's already done so much I just want people to feel the success that they have created and the industry that they've built and the influence that they have and I'm hopeful that with feeling that they will take more responsibility about whatever it is that they do and realize how big it is what they have built and what their potential is.
    Chuck D. said that the hip hop audience are easily misled,"People follow perceptions in the black community, like you wouldn't believe, perception is everything images control perceptions you can create images so when you talk about too much violence in a video a lot of times older people might say well yeah I don't follow it, yeah, you're 31 years old you might not follow the video but somebody 13 that's not able to navigate through it is going to to have a difficult time."
    Hip hop, a fast-growing segment of the music industry that is extremely popular among teens, has come under fire for violent and sexual lyrics and for sometimes deadly fights among big-name rappers. Attention has focused on violent strains in the music and its culture after the murder of two top-selling rappers -- Christopher Wallace, better known as Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur -- four years ago.
    Another rap impresario, Sean "Puffy" Combs, who just changed his nickname to "P. Diddy", beat charges in March of gun possession and bribery after a 1999 New York night club shoot-out that left three people wounded.
    Some music businessmen and rappers at the summit said they would work on labeling their music to alert parents so they would know if lyrics were sexually explicit or violent, although censoring rappers' music themselves would violate free speech rights. Many feel the music industry has shouldered part of the blame for proliferating hip-hop's more violent images, hurting blacks in the process, in order to sell CDs. The debate continues while the music and the videos continue to play on.
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