Wallace, who was just 24, sang about his past as a crack cocaine dealer in New York City, which he boasted was proof of his authenticity as a rap exponent. He was considered a rival of Shakur, who once accused Wallace of involvement in a robbery in which Shakur was shot. Wallace did not attend a "rap summit" last fall held to ease tensions between West Coast and East Coast rappers after Shakur's slaying.
It is disturbing that millions of teen-agers and children are buying records that feature brutally violent and sexually vulgar lyrics.
Part of the appeal of rap appears to be the outrageous personas of the artists. Their violent deaths are the ultimate evidence that they are as authentically criminal as they boast they are.
Even the worst of gangsta rap may not meet the Supreme Court's difficult standard for obscenity and thus be subject to censorship. But the dissemination of such material surely has a harmful effect on the nation's youth.
The record companies that produce it have rightly been accused of social irresponsibility.
Former Education Secretary William Bennett two years ago told Time Warner it "should stop its involvement with and support of gross, violent, offensive and misogynistic lyrics." Bennett and C. DeLores Tucker, who heads the National Political Congress of Black Women, issued a television commercial charging that Time Warner promoted "music that celebrates the rape, torture and murder of women."
Tucker also spoke of her visit to a household in Dayton, Ohio, where an 11-year-old boy had shot and killed his 3-year-old sister and wounded his 5-year-old sister. "He said he was imitating Tupac Shakur," she reported.
The chairman of Warner Bros. Records, Danny Goldberg, responded by asking, "Why should a corporation listen to a bunch of middle-aged people who don't like the music and don't listen to it, and ignore the people who do love it and who do buy it?"
However, Warner Music Group subsequently announced it was dropping its stake in Interscope Records, home to several gangsta rappers. That was an important first step, but the problem persists.
Perhaps the murder of a second gangsta rap star will bring the record executives who deal in this poisonous material to their senses.
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor