Don’t get me wrong. A rapper who says guns are bad is better than a rapper who glamorizes them. But a rapper who says guns are bad and glamorizes himself for surviving guns is all kinds of NSFWed-up. It is, of course, fairly routine. Here’s one we prepared earlier, from the London Evening Standard: “When he was 17, Lox Lokko would wear a bullet-proof vest to bed, knowing that rival gang members across south London wanted him dead. The Myatts Field Estate in Brixton, where Lox grew up, is a bleak 1970s development known as ‘the dads’ by local gang members. ‘We call it the dads because it’s like Baghdad — all shot up,’ he says. ‘For kids on this estate, gangs are the only option. There’s nothing else.’ By his 18th birthday, Lox had been stabbed three times, watched four close friends die during brutal turf wars and been arrested for murder, though never charged.” First, a bullet proof vest doesn’t exist, per se. Second, to bed? Third, isn’t the Standard hyping violence by joining Lox Lokko in decrying it? Did I say Lokko? “Now 20, Lox has left the gang he called his family for three years and dedicates his time to helping youngsters out of that life through his work at a local youth ministry. Under the stage name Mr C’Mon, he is set to release his debut rap album produced at south London community project Code 7.” IGW.
“Rich people don’t join gangs,” he says. “If everyone around you is a doctor, that’s what you see and that’s what you become. If everyone around you is involved with knives and guns, that’s what you do. You think that’s the only way to be successful, the only way to get respect.”
This is wrong on so many levels. If nothing else, what do you call the British Medical Association? C’mon C’mon. Are you for real? I mean, is any of this criminal curriculum vitae actually true? The Standard applies what I’d consider to be a rather low journalistic standard in that regard.
PC [as in Police Constable] Allan Douglas-Smith, who has patrolled the estate for 10 years, says he knew of Lox’s reputation as a gangster before they started working together to divert youngsters from crime.
No conflict of interest there, then. Yo. Illegal guns suck. But the “rich white society to blame for gun crime” meme is old. Now if only it would get tired.
