The gangsta rap riots?

Historian David Starkey represents something of a bête noire for both the broad Left and Scottish nationalists, thus his comments on Newsnight last week suggesting that the ethos of gangsta rap may have been an important factor in last week's riots have predictably gone down like a lead balloon in some quarters, including this from a darling of the Conservatives (following her demolition of comprehensive schools in a conference speech).

What follows does not really intend to engage with the minutiae of that debate - although, for example, when Dr Starkey referred to black Labour MP David Lammy as sounding like a white rather than a black I assumed he was referring to his outlook and ethos rather than denigrating ethnic minority grammar and speaking abilities - but instead takes a brief and amateurish look at the possible impact of gangsta rap on last week's events in the context of another popular music genre.

Thus as blogged last week English punk band The Clash essentially feted the black propensity to riot in their iconic 'White Riot' anthem from the late 1970s. Aggressive and subversive, certainly, but then riots generally are. However, the perspective was essentially political, and the band raged against issues like unemployment, racism and authoritarian policing. And when The Clash eschewed punk rock for the mish mash of musical genres on their London Calling and Sandinista! albums, black-influenced styles were much to the fore.

And the album cover shown perhaps nicely encapsulates the band's early ethos - the lone Rastafarian walking towards the serried ranks of riot police. Thus it's not difficult to draw a parallel between this and the Brixton riots of the early 1980s.

But as compared to the anarchy and nihilism preached by punk compatriots The Sex Pistols, The Clash's message was essentially socially aware. As perhaps was demonstrated by the band's early punk/reggae crossover cover of 'Police and Thieves':

Police and thieves in the streets
Scaring the nation with their guns and ammunition

Which would presumably deplore both sides in last week's looting and disorder.

Compare that with gangsta rap pioneers NWA (Niggaz With Attitude for the uninitiated!) from their classic 'Straight Outta Compton' - 'F*** Tha Police' - 'Gangsta Gangsta' triumvirate:

Do I look like a mutha f**** role model?
To a kid lookin' up ta me
Life ain't nothin but bitches and money.

Or:

Just cause I'm from the CPT [Compton, California], punk police are afraid of me, huh
A young nigga on a war path
And when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath
Of cops, dyin' in LA

Or:

When I'm called off, I got a sawed off
Squeeze the trigger, and bodies are hauled off
You too, boy, if ya f*** with me
The police are gonna hafta come and get me

Ah, that seems a lot more 'in tune' with the violence and hedonism of Tottenham 2011 rather than Brixton 1981.

Thus although there's plenty of reading available on the precise words of Dr Starkey, in more general terms (as a black academic writes in the, er, Daily Mail):

For, despite the attempts of some apologists to dress up the looting as a political act against an oppressive Tory establishment, the fact is that the ethos of materialism — or ‘bling’ to use the street term — that pervades urban black youth played a major part in the widespread criminality perpetrated by rioters of all races.

That is why the looters targeted specific stores that are cherished in this culture, such as those selling mobile phones, trainers, sports clothes or widescreen TVs. Let’s face it, there were no reports of the vandals looting bookshops or public libraries.

What motivated the troublemakers was not genuine poverty but rather a raw acquisitiveness that is fuelled by so much in this black-led youth culture, from the imagery in rap videos to the lyrics of hip-hop music. The twin central themes of this world are sex and material possessions.

It is a milieu that glories in loose women and fast cars, in macho dominance and easy wealth. Concepts of restraint, hard work and personal responsibility are absent. Respect is something to be demanded rather than earned.

So much of the music and the video output is close to pornographic, with women degradingly treated as little more than sex objects. In this world, the highest ideal to which a man can aspire is to be a philandering, gun-wielding gang leader.

Where I believe Dr Starkey is right is that it is now just as likely to be a white or Asian teenager posing on the internet in baggy designer clothes and dripping in gold chains, either waving a weapon of some kind or pointing their fingers at the camera in a grotesque parody of a shooting.

All of which means, of course, that I couldn't be bothered developing the argument and couldn't hope to emulate the likes of the foregoing, hence the mega-quote!

Of course, as with anything else it's dangerous to generalise, and hip-hop can be both subversive and socially aware rather than purely self-indulgent - compare Public Enemy with NWA, which in hip-hop terms is perhaps like comparing The Clash and The Sex Pistols in the punk genre.

(As something of an eclectic popular music buff I've had both NWA's Straight Outta Compton and Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back on my iPod for months before recent events, two albums I bought around 20 years ago but never really got into at the time.

My favourite gig ever was The Clash at the Caird Hall, Dundee over thirty years ago. The nearest I've been to that since was a tribute band - The Clashed - who I saw a week and a half ago at a venue in Dundee a mere couple of streets away from the Caird Hall. With some personal irony, around 24 hours after the band finished their encore with 'White Riot' - which almost made me break into a pogo, but was worried that my sciatica would play up! - things were just kicking off in Tottenham.)