Hip-hop tries to break image of violence

But some of rap's elder statesmen, like Mr. Fisher, say the $5 billion industry needs to transform from within to become a more powerful and positive social force. Despite earlier efforts to stem the violence in some rap, heated verbal disputes between rappers have continued, sometimes resulting in killings - such as the still-unsolved deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. several years ago.

The National Hip-Hop Summit Youth Council, which grew out of Simmons' work, has been developing a "peace project" to address such issues. The group had planned on launching it in 2003. But last month's execution-style slaying of rap icon Jason Mizell, known as Jam Master Jay, prompted the artists and activists to dedicate their movement to him and roll out their agenda early.

"It took the death of a positive brother for all of us to wake up and say we have to put our foot forward now to make change," says Fisher, founder and chairman of the National Hip-Hop Summit Youth Council.

The project has several components: a code of principles designed to be used as a self-policing mechanism for the industry; an artist's mediation board to help resolve disputes between artists; a media complaint board; and a task force on gun, prison, and drug-law reform.

Chuck D, the frontman for Public Enemy, says the goal is not to censor or dictate artistic direction, but to ensure there's "balance." Too often, rap artists focus on the "gangsta fairy tale" without mentioning the repercussions, he says.

"I speak in jails, and everybody there says to me, 'Yo, what's going on with these rappers? They ain't never going to jail, talking about some fairy-tale gangsta life while we up here doing 10 to 15 years. Nobody's telling our story,' " says Chuck D. "Kids needs to know the whole story."

But the proposed code is already generating controversy within the hip-hop community. Simmons, who's worked with Fisher over years, has made it clear he believes any kind of code amounts to censorship and is opposed to it.

Some academics also caution against condemning rap's fury-filled lyrics without looking at the societal context from which they come. Murray Forman of Boston's Northeastern University argues that those lyrics give voice to violent, desperate experiences in the inner city that many in America don't want to admit exist.

"It's far too easy for the media to paint hip-hop as a problem," he says. "The other piece of it is that it's never been proven that representational violence leads to actual violence. There is desensitization, perhaps, and acceptance of a discourse of aggressiveness, but how that translates into actual aggressiveness is much more problematic."

Guy Ramsey of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia also argues that rap is far more multifaceted than the media gives it credit for. "You can have a hip-hop artist like Mos Def who has a searing political critique, but it will never be talked about in the same way as some guy who's talking about whopping somebody," says Professor Ramsey.

Youth activist Kirkland doesn't disagree, but he argues that the growth of gangsta rap has had a clear impact on kids in the community.

"The hip-hop world and the gangsta world are about to collide, and we have to stop the body count," says Mr. Kirkland. "This is a life-and-death matter."

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