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By Newsweek Editors
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Tough talk in pop music is old hat, but a hit album that advocates the murder of specific individuals is something new. "Death Certificate," by the rapper Ice Cube, includes two songs that attack Koreans and call for the murder of a man identified only as a Jew. "Oriental one-penny motherf--rs," Ice Cube raps, "...Pay respect to the black fist/ Or we'll burn your store right down to a crisp." In another song, directed to his old group, N.W.A: "Get rid of that devil, real simple / Put a bullet in his temple /'Cause you can't be the nigger for life crew / With a white Jew telling you what to do"--a reference to N.W.A manager Jerry Heller. The song also urges N.W.A to lynch founding member Eazy-E. Ice Cube says he wants his raps to instill pride in "the kids in my community." Last week a phone caller claiming to represent the KKK thanked Ice Cube's record company for the good work.
"Death Certificate" has been denounced by civil-rights groups, including L.A.'s Urban League, the Guardian Angels and Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In an unprecedented editorial, Billboard magazine urged stores to "strongly protest the sentiments expressed on that album," which is currently No. 3 in the country. It is also front-page news in the Korean-American community, where many fear it adds fuel to an already raging fire. Last March a Korean merchant in Los Angeles fatally shot a teenage black girl in the back of the head after a dispute over a bottle of juice. A video of the incident ran on local television. When the grocer, Soon Ja Du, received a suspended sentence on Nov. 15, it sparked outrage. "This is a life-and-death situation," says Yumi Jhang-Park of the Korean-American Grocers Association. "What if someone listened to the song and set fire to a store?"
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Ice Cube, at work on Walter Hill's film "The Looters," argues, "What people need to do is pay heed to the frustration. We're pissed off, and there ain't no nice way to say it. All I'm demanding in the song is respect ... I also say I'm gonna hang Eazy from a tree and burn him with gasoline. How come they don't say I'm anti-black, too?"
The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which monitors world anti-Semitism and racism, has urged four chain stores to pull the record (they haven't). Korean grocers, threatening a boycott, persuaded the makers of St. Ides malt liquor to temporarily suspend ads featuring Ice Cube (though they're filming a new one in "a couple days"). But the Billboard editorial, controversial even within the magazine, may have some impact. It's both influential and inconsistent, flagging Ice Cube's violent tirades against Koreans and Jews while ignoring those against other blacks (editor Timothy White claims he "couldn't make out the [other] lyrics"). Both sides are combating racism with racially inflammatory words; both somehow mean well. Ice Cube, 22, is clearly in over his head. But in the dearth of strong black leaders, rap turns young men into leaders often before they're ready. This one, through venom or confusion, now seems a racist demagogue.
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