Is gangsta rap to blame for the riots in France?

[Real American]

HEADLINE: Gangsta, in French 

BYLINE: By DAVID BROOKS

BODY:


After 9/11, everyone knew there was going to be a debate about the future of Islam. We just didn't know the debate would be between Osama bin Laden and Tupac Shakur.

Yet those seem to be the lifestyle alternatives that are really on offer for poor young Muslim men in places like France, Britain and maybe even the world beyond. A few highly alienated and fanatical young men commit themselves to the radical Islam of bin Laden. But most find their self-respect by embracing the poses and worldview of American hip-hop and gangsta rap.

One of the striking things about the scenes from France is how thoroughly the rioters have assimilated hip-hop and rap culture. It's not only that they use the same hand gestures as American rappers, wear the same clothes and necklaces, play the same video games, and sit with the same sorts of car stereos at full blast. It's that they seem to have adopted the same poses of exaggerated manhood, the same attitudes about women, money and the police. They seem to have replicated the same sort of gang culture, the same romantic visions of gunslinging drug dealers.

In a globalized age it's perhaps inevitable that the culture of resistance gets globalized, too. What we are seeing is what Mark Lilla of the University of Chicago calls a universal culture of the wretched of the earth. The images, modes and attitudes of hip-hop and gangsta rap are so powerful they are having a hegemonic effect across the globe.

American ghetto life, at least as portrayed in rap videos, now defines for the young, poor and disaffected what it means to be oppressed. Gangsta resistance is the most compelling model for how to rebel against that oppression. If you want to stand up and fight The Man, the Notorious B.I.G. shows the way.

This is a reminder that for all the talk about American cultural hegemony, American countercultural hegemony has always been more powerful. America's rebellious countercultural heroes exert more influence around the world than the clean establishment images from Disney and McDonald's. This is our final insult to the anti-Americans; we define how to be anti-American, and the foreigners who attack us are reduced to borrowing our own cliches.

When rap first came to France, American rappers dominated the scene, but now the suburban immigrant neighborhoods have produced their own stars in their own language. French rap lyrics today are like the American gangsta lyrics of about five or 10 years ago, when it was more common to fantasize about cop killings and gang rape.

Most of the lyrics can't be reprinted in this newspaper, but you can get a sense of them from, say, a snippet from a song from Bitter Ministry: ''Another woman takes her beating./This time she's called Brigitte./She's the wife of a cop. '' Or this from Mr. R's celebrated album ''PolitiKment IncorreKt'': ''France is a *****. Don't forget to [deleted] her to exhaustion. You have to treat her like a whore, man! My ******s and my Arabs, our playground is the street with the most guns!''

The French gangsta pose is familiar. It is built around the image of the strong, violent hypermacho male, who loudly asserts his dominance and demands respect. The gangsta is a brave, countercultural criminal. He has nothing but rage for the institutions of society: the state and the schools. He shows his own cruel strength by dominating women. It is perhaps no accident that until the riots, the biggest story coming out of these neighborhoods was the rise of astonishing and horrific gang rapes.

In other words, what we are seeing in France will be familiar to anyone who watched gangsta culture rise in this country. You take a population of young men who are oppressed by racism and who face limited opportunities, and you present them with a culture that encourages them to become exactly the sort of people the bigots think they are -- and you call this proud self-assertion and empowerment. You take men who are already suspected by the police because of their color, and you romanticize and encourage criminality so they will be really despised and mistreated. You tell them to defy oppression by embracing self-destruction.

In America, at least, gangsta rap is sort of a game. The gangsta fan ends up in college or law school. But in France, the barriers to ascent are higher. The prejudice is more impermeable, and the labor markets are more rigid. There really is no escape.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com

[Real American]

I honestly think this article describes Tech.

A young, confused Muslim boy who is frustrated with his place in a white man's world. He is mad at society, so he he turns to the latest Snoop Doggy Dogg CD to release his pent up anger.

[Machiavelli]

lol, no....You choose to do whatever you do...

[BizzyR.I.P.]

lol, no....You choose to do whatever you do...

I agree, I hate it when they try to blame somethind on music, video games, or TV. No one is to blame but the people involved.

[white Boy]

ye blame it on the music, not peoples stupidity

[Real American]

But the left wing media is looking for ways to blame the riots on everyone except the people actually doing the rioting. First they blamed the cops chasing the 2 boys who were electrocuted, then they blame the French politician who called the boys scum, then the blamed racism against French Arabs, and now it is gangsta rap music.

Why is the media so quick to blame everyone except the people rioting?

[Birch Barlow]

lol, no....You choose to do whatever you do...

I agree, I hate it when they try to blame somethind on music, video games, or TV. No one is to blame but the people involved.

I can see video games, movies, etc. being blamed for a certain decline in morality among kids. Even as far as saying a lot of them are so use to violence to be affected by it. But when they try to blame mass murders and hate crimes on this shit, that's just a bunch of bullshit.

[Birch Barlow]

Why is the media so quick to blame everyone except the people rioting?

[Ant]

But the left wing media is looking for ways to blame the riots on everyone except the people actually doing the rioting. First they blamed the cops chasing the 2 boys who were electrocuted, then they blame the French politician who called the boys scum, then the blamed racism against French Arabs, and now it is gangsta rap music.

Why is the media so quick to blame everyone except the people rioting?

why are the republicans such miserable failures?

[white Boy]

i love these deep political conversations or a west coast rap board. its beautifull.

[Javier]

But the left wing media is looking for ways to blame the riots on everyone except the people actually doing the rioting. First they blamed the cops chasing the 2 boys who were electrocuted, then they blame the French politician who called the boys scum, then the blamed racism against French Arabs, and now it is gangsta rap music.

Why is the media so quick to blame everyone except the people rioting?

Maybe because people want to figure out why people are doing it?  Everybody fucking knows who's doing it.  The question is why?  Nobody is blaming the riots on anybody but the the ones who are rioting, all the reports on TV, articles I read in the paper and on the internet are just trying to see find out the reason WHY.  I guess this is how you would like the media to tell you the info...

Sons of Arab Immigrants causing riots because they are Muslims. 

That's all you need to know folks!  Good night! 

[Real American]

why are the republicans such miserable failures?

Why do you always ignore the topic at hand?

[mauzip]

ye blame it on the music, not peoples stupidity

[Fonky Fresh]

ill say it loud and clear man : when u have no money to pay ur studies,no parents at home when ure a child bcuz they strugglin to get that small amout of do' to feed u,when u are diplomated with a master degree at that u find no job(even jobs that dont fit with ur qualifications!) or more precisely that nobody wants u, when u see by urself that the doors are closin one by one day by day ,u dont have too many choices: u deal drugs or u a rapper & eventually if ure talented ...u do sport(bball,football...)

thats whats up here since almost 20 years  same for usa & this is not near to end bcuz it is well known we're living in a white/christian/jewish world thats that kind of people who runs every occidental state & they have no intentions to let u take their job..they not fools u know.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST,these problems are expanding to the white middle class


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concerning gangsta rap,lol i wish u were right but this is a fucking joke.

It's true that rap is hella hardcore over here just like usa ,for example 1 year ago they have cancelled the famous westcoast show (westcoast l.a) on skyrock radio due to racist lyrix

but i dont see in what gangsta rap could be guilty, what u are pointin out remind me when snoop had troubles in the medias where that bitch dolores c stated gangsta rap was the engine of crimes increase.

i mean all that aint serious



all i hope is that im wrong but u know how politicians&big corporations bosses are....

[Ant]

why are the republicans such miserable failures?

Why do you always ignore the topic at hand?

If you want me to address the topic at hand then that's fine, but its so absurd it wasn't really worthwhile.  It's much more pleasurable to point out your general stupidity by pointing to the most obvious example of your ignorance - that is, your hardline support of a now obviously incompetent political party.  Your bigotted support of idiots is a refutation of your intelligence at anytime - unless you can prove you're a reasonable person there is no reason to address you in a reasonable manner.  Pointing out your rampant bigorty is my way of telling you that at any given time your whole point of view is fucked.... but you wanted a direct answer then so be it...

You asked "Why is the media so quick to blame everyone except the people rioting?"

The media isn't blaming anyone, they are reporting.  I didn't bother responding initially because I knew if I asked you to, you wouldn't be able to find any examples of the media "blaming" anyone for anything.  But by all means, go ahead, prove me wrong and show me the evidence on which you based your statement.  More than likely you made your statement with no evidence of the media "blaming" anyone, you just toss around generic right-wing cliches because its apparently your life's goal to become a living, breathing, republican talking point.