I wonder if New York’s esteemed city council will also exclude artists like Just-Ice, Schoolly D, Kool G Rap and the late Notorious BIG? Is gangsta rap based strictly on your music or your actions? After all, there are quite a few pioneering rappers who were straight up thugs when they got off the mic.
Also will the council move to ban rappers who had sexist lyrics? Personally, I think the violence, disdain and pimping of women is much more problematic then gangsta rap. See what happens when you let others control, define and redine your culture?Should New York’s Proposed Hip Hop Museum Include Gangsta Rap?
www.eurweb.com/story/eur27861.cfm
If the New York City Council has its way, the worlds first hip hop museum will not include the presence of such important rap acts as NWA, Tupac Shakur or Snoop Dogg.
According to NME.com, council members and organizers are arguing over whether a section on gangsta rap should be included in the overall retrospective of hip hop and its roots in the Bronx.
Scheduled to open in late 2008 or early 2009, the facility has received $1.5 million from the New York City Council. The legislative body, therefore, feels it should have a say in what types of artists should be on exhibit.
“We’re not talking about gangsta rap,” said Bronx council member Larry Seabrook according to the BBC. “We’re talking about hip hop. Anybody can be a thug.”
Adam Matthews, senior music editor of The Source, offers a different opinion on the inclusion of gangsta rap. He tells NME: “You have to consider the statistics. As hip hop has become progressively violent, the streets have become safer.”
Seabrook, meanwhile, hopes that the museum will eventually expand into a larger hip hop complex that will include a studio and a theatre.