Tuesday, December 10th, 6:15 PM EST
CULTURAL ACTIVISTS CONDEMN SEAGRAM FOR GANGSTA RAP
by Deborah Zabarenko for Reuters News Service
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (Reuter) - Washington cultural activists lashed out Tuesday at so-called gangsta rap and other "twisted" music and accused Seagram VO.TO Co. Ltd. of breaking a promise not to sell objectionable music.
Standing beside an enlargement of the cover art for shock-rocker Marilyn Manson's "Antichrist Superstar," family values crusader William Bennett criticized Seagram for allowing its Interscope Records to produce the album.
"We are here today because Seagrams-MCA is peddling filth for profit and reneging on a moral commitment it made when it purchased the rights to Interscope," Bennett said "..MCA's word is no good. MCA cannot be trusted. They are willing to make money even if it promotes the worst kind of sleaze."
Bennett said Seagram chief Edgar Bronfman had assured him last year when Seagram purchased a controlling stake in MCA that "MCA would not profit from disseminating music which is objectionable." But he said Bronfman, in a "candid and contentious" phone call on Monday, defended Interscope's releases as upholding Seagram's standards.
Pointing to the "Antichrist Superstar" album cover, which showed a blurred image of a near-naked man with tubes extending from his codpiece to the mouths of two kneeling figures, Bennett told a news conference: "If this is what you stand for, sit down, Mr. Bronfman, because you don't have the foggiest idea what standards are. If you don't know this is crap and filth, then you don't have the wit to get in the game."
In a corporate statement released on Tuesday, Seagram's MCA Music Group said it had a "comprehensive review process" to monitor its releases but that this was a "subjective process" on which not all would always agree.
"MCA takes this issue seriously and is dedicated to finding a viable balance between its artists, the preferences and demands of audiences in the marketplace, and its corporate responsibility," the statement said.
MCA Music Group also produces gangsta rappers such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur. Lyrics from all three were played at the news conference and, while most were unintelligible, texts that were provided had gross racial and sexual slurs and Shakur's "Intro/Bomb First (My Second Reply)" included the repeated audible cocking and firing of a gun.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, said he found it particularly objectionable that some of these albums were being marketed as seasonal fare: "They are literally marketing death and degradation as a twisted form of holiday cheer."
Lieberman said that he, Bennett and C. DeLores Tucker of the National Political Congress of Black Women had launched a campaign last year against objectionable music sponsored by such media giants as Time-Warner, Sony, BMG, EMI and Polygram, but he said the campaign had largely "fallen on deaf ears."
However, he praised retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., K Mart Corp., Tower Records and Transworld for either not selling objectionable music or restricting sales to minors.
(c) Reuters News Service