ABSTRACT
In 1990, rap dominated headlines and the pop charts as never before. Large segments of the American public were introduced to rap-or at least forced to confront its existence for the first time-through a pack of unlikely and sometimes unseemly performers. The year started with the January release of Public Enemy’s single “Welcome to the Terrordome,” which prompted widespread accusations (in the wake of remarks made by Professor Griff, the group’s “Minister of Information,” that Jews are responsible for “the majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe”) that rap’s most politically outspoken and widely respected group was anti-Semitic. The obscenity arrest of 2 Live Crew in June filled news, talk shows, and editorial pages for weeks. The concurrent rise of graphic, violent “Gangster Rap” from such artists as Ice Cube and the Geto Boys stoked these fires, even if their brutal streetscapes often made for complex, visceral, and challenging records.
