Death Row Records
has recently had its own wake-up call. The companies CEO, Marion Suge Knight,
has recently been arrested for violated his probation and is in jail. He was
charged with assault with a deadly weapon in 1992 and was sentenced to five
years probation plus 30 days in a halfway house. A hearing later will decide on
what kind of sentence he will receive. Knight could face up to five to nine
years in prison if convicted. The company may suffer a great loss because no
business actions or even phone calls are allowed from prison. Before he began
his fortune as CEO he was an All-American defensive end and was on the dean's
list at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He the played pro-football for the
Los Angeles Rams but later quit to become a concert promoter. Soon Hawkins 6
after this his run-ins with the law started with his arrest for trafficking
guns. After other run-ins with the law Knight began recording The Chronic, which
refers or a type of marijuana, with Dr. Dre. He then was approached by
Interscope Records, who wanted him to produce records. He negotiated a $10
million deal to start up Death Row Records (Cheevers A1). Now Death Row Records
is known as the only label that can do whatever they want. To some listeners
Death Row's music is powerful and is also reality , but to others their music
celebrates drugs, murderers and misogyny. The FBI says that this rap label has
ties to gangs and drugs. They are still trying to determine wether the company
was involved in cocaine-trafficking, money laundering and racketeering (Leeds
B1). The FBI has been investigating Death Row Records and the individual
members. Death Row Records is not the only record company to promote rap, Time
Warner has also been producing rap records. Time Warner has pledged to do
something about obscene and rude lyrics in rap music. The new chairman of Warner
Music Group , Michael J. Fuchs, was asked to talk with critics of rap lyrics and
to work with other record companies to come up with some regulations for warning
labels (Landler D2). Warning labels have been placed on albums with provocative
lyrics, but these warnings do little to prevent the lyrics from reaching
children. The chairman and chief executive claims that music is not the cause of
society's ills.
That may be true but do they have an influence on the people
that listen to the music. Many say yes and many say no. An experiment done by
James D. Johnson shows that violent rap tends to perpetuate the acceptance of
the use of violence and an anti-education mind-set. He thinks that this kind of
music should have some regulation. He refers to rap music being like nicotine-
it is addictive; it is mood Hawkins 7 altering and it is available with some
strains (Raspberry, Does A27).
A person has to be 18 years old to buy
cigarettes, rent X-rated movies, or get into a strip bar/nightclub and has to be
21 years old to drink or buy alcohol. There are age limits on these things that
can endanger young people and there should also be a age limit on buying albums
with explicit lyrics on them. Even though there is a warning label on the albums
young children can still buy them because there is no law to prohibit sale.
There are a lot of people who agree something should be done about the explicit
lyrics on albums. Stanley Crouch, a music critic and writer, says that rappers
are a bunch of opportunists who are appealing to an appetite that America has
for vulgarity, violence and anarchy inside Afro America (Sims 3). Kevin Powell,
a writer for Vibe magazine, believes that rap music is a legitimate art form,
but thinks that the genre has gone too far and the music industry is to blame
for not exercising some degree of control (Sims 3). He also thinks that it has
made black children think that being hard is the definition for being black in
the 1990's. There are many people who feel this way, but many rappers and
defenders of rap disagree. Most rappers do not think that their music causes
violence and that they have no influence on their listeners. Before Easy-E died
his lawyer read a letter from the rapper that said, anyone could get AIDS, that
it does not discriminate (Marriot 74). After the letter was read the Minority
AIDS Project in South-Central Los Angeles reported a 80 percent increase in
requests for AIDS testing. This was more of an increase than when Magic Johnson
made his announcement (Marriot 74). His influence was seen in warning people
about the AIDS virus just as Magic did when he found out he had HIV. Snoop says
that he hopes that listeners will see that any black man out Hawkins 8 of the
ghetto can do something positive with his life if he is dedicated (Farley 78).
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