Gangster rappers run foul of law

UP until recently, gangster rap's growing band of critics have concentrated their attacks on the musical genre's hard-core lyrics, which routinely chronicle drive-by shootings, drug abuse, gang warfare and other unpleasant realities of life in America's black urban ghettoes. But now criticism of rap - and especially gangster rap, its explicit, R-rated form - is no longer confined to the content of its lyrics.

With prominent rappers facing serious criminal charges, including murder, rappers are being condemned for their lifestyles as much as their music. The content of their character, in Dr Martin Luther King's words, has become an issue. Snoop Doggy Dogg, hailed as the hottest new rapper to have emerged in the past 12 months, faces a murder charge. Another prominent gangster rapper, Tupac Amaru Shakur, was charged with shooting two off-duty policemen in Atlanta earlier this month.

In the same week of Shakur's arrest, Flavor Flav, from acclaimed (not gangster) rap group Public Enemy, was charged with the attempted murder of a neighbour whom he allegedly fired at; he has since checked into the Betty Ford Clinic for drug and alcohol rehab. Shakur is in double jeopardy. He is also being sued by the widow of a Texas state trooper who claims Shakur's ''cop-killing'' lyrics contributed to her husband's death.

But it is Snoop Doggy Dogg's arrest for murder that has inflamed anti-rap forces and frightened record companies the most. Dogg, the latest gangster rapper to emerge from the ghettoes of Los Angeles, was charged with first degree murder after his bodyguard shot a man in September. His debut album, The Chronic, is scheduled to be released on November 23, just a week before he appears in court to answer the murder count.

The controversy surrounding him is expected to fuel sales and help propel the album to the top of the charts; some industry insiders even expect The Chronic to debut at number one on the Billboard top 200. The projected success of the album has intensified attacks from anti-rappers, who say a criminal record, or at least a solid gang pedigree, has become a prerequisite for success in gangster rap.

In this crusade against the excesses of rappers - both in the studio and on the streets - much of the most strident criticism is coming from sections of the black community. This is notable because in the past, rap's most visible detractors have been lily-white, conservative Christian groups like Focus For the Family, or the police associations which succeeded in banishing Ice T's single, Cop Killer.