ABSTRACT
In 1992, the ‘gangsta’ rapper, Ice T, offended mainstream white America with the song ‘Cop Killer’, a fantasy of violent retribution for police brutality. Though, strictly speaking, a heavy metal rather than rap record, the lyrics of the song were seen as typifying rap’s dangerous, incendiary potential. Replete with its almost obligatory references to ‘bitches’, ‘hoes’ (whores), ‘niggas’, gang feuds, ‘slinging dope’ and ‘icing cops’, the sometimes violent, misogynistic, anti-Semitic and invariably profane themes of hip hop have induced widespread condemnation from all quarters of American society (Lusane, 1993; Rose, 1994).
