Gangsta rappers speak for a generation

DURHAM N.C. — THE BLISTERING attacks on gangsta rap reveal the fury this music can evoke. Many elements of gangsta rap are certainly disturbing. Equally dismaying has been the scape-goating of its artists. How can we avoid the pitfall of unfairly attacking black youth for problems that bedeviled our culture long before they came on the scene?

If the 15-year evolution of hip-hop teaches us anything, it is that history is made in unexpected ways by unexpected people with unexpected results. Rap is now safe from the perils of quick extinction that was predicted at its humble start. But its birth in the bitter belly of the '70s proved to be a Rosetta Stone of black popular culture. Afros, funk music and carnal eruptions define a "back-in-the-day" hip-hop aesthetic.

The '70s busted the economic boom of the '60s. The fallout was felt in restructured automobile industries and collapsed steel mills, in the depletion of social services and in the gutting of public spaces for black recreation. Hip-hop was born in these bleak conditions. Hip-hoppers joined pleasure with rage and turned the details of their lives into craft and capital. This is the world hip-hop would come to "represent": privileged persons speaking for less visible or vocal peers. The art of "representin' " that is much ballyhooed in hip-hop is the witness of those left to tell the afflicted's story.

As rap expands its vision and influence, its unfavorable origins and its relentless quest to represent black youth are both a consolation and challenge to hip-hoppers. They remind rappers that history is not merely the stuff of imperial dreams from above. Representing history is within reach of those who seize the opportunity to speak for themselves, to represent their own interests at all costs. Even rap's largest controversies are about representation. The sharp responses to rap's misogyny and homophobia signify its central role in battles over the cultural representation of other beleaguered groups. This is particularly true of gangsta rap.

While gangsta rap takes the heat for a range of social maladies, the roots of racial misery remain buried beneath moralizing discourse that is confused and sometimes dishonest. There's no doubt that gangsta rap is often sexist. It is doubly wounding for black women: How painful it is for them, many of whom have fought valiantly for black pride, to hear the dissonant chord of disdain carried in the angry epithet "bitch."