Slick Rick Dissed By NLPC

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Looks like some people always have to try to stir up some controversy when it comes to hip-hop and its artists. The National Legal and Policy Center has written a letter to the Reverend Jesse Jackson asking him to "disinvite" Slick Rick to participate on a panel at the youth oriented Wall Street Project conference this week.

The letter calls Slick Rick a "gangsta rap artist" and says that they "fail to see how Slick Rick can contribute anything positive to a conversation regarding our nation's young people." The letter denounces Slick Rick's 1989 debut album, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick and the songs "Treat Her Like A Prostitute", "Indian Girl" and "Lick The Balls". There's no word if Jackson obliged with the NLPC's request.

[Crenshaw_blvd]

January 15, 2002

The Reverend Jesse Jackson
New York / Wall Street Office
Empire State Building
350 5th Avenue, Suite 2723
New York, NY 10118
Fax: 212-968-1412

Dear Reverend Jackson:

We were dismayed to see that gangsta rap artist and convicted felon "Slick Rick" will be participating in your Wall Street Project conference of this week. We fail to see how Slick Rick can contribute anything positive to a conversation regarding our nation's young people given the graphic and vulgar nature of his music career.

Slick Rick's 1989 debut album, "The Great Adventures of Slick Rick," featured such provocative titles as "Treat Her Like a Prostitute."  In that album, the rapster bellows out vulgar lyrics that virtually any family would consider poisonous influences for their children.  In the album's first song, Slick Rick warns his young listeners that there are "girlies out here that seem appealing, ut they all come in your life and cold hurt your feelings." His solution? "Treat'em like a prostitute."  For you to pass an artist like that off as a worthwhile contributor to a discussion on young people becoming "self-sufficient" is disgraceful.

In the 1970s, you condemned "The Rolling Stones" for lyrics you characterized as vulgar and "degrading" to young black women in "Some Girls," and you criticized any music that encouraged drug use and promiscuity.

We ask that you act according to your stated convictions and withdraw your organization's invitation to Slick Rick for this year's Wall Street Project conference.

Sincerely,

Ken Boehm
Chairman