15 février
Vegas Police Want Rap Out of Casinos
A strange story is coming out of Las Vegas (home to many strange stories, to be sure): the city sheriff, Bill Young wants hip-hop artists banned from performing in local casino nightclubs. This doesn't come out of nowhere: Young is partially responding to the fact that one of
his deputies, Henry Prendes, was killed on February 1st while responding to a domestic incident call; his killer was Amir Crump aka Trajik of the rap group Desert Mobb. Young is now arguing that hip-hop is a bad influence and therefore, should not be part of the image that Las Vegas wants to cultivate itself:
"The entertainment industry should be ashamed of itself for promoting this gangster rap genre that espouses violence, mistreatment of women, hatred for the authority of police officers and emulates drug dealers and two-bit thugs. It's not a good message for our young people, and it's not a good message for our community."
Sheriff Young has not asked for an outright ban – he's made his request somewhat surreptitiously by reminding casino operators that they are liable for anything that happens in their club – say, a shooting or stabbing. Notably, at a Nelly concert held at the Aladdin last May, there were two shootings.
However, as the LA Times "Vegasblog" notes, since then, there haven't been any major incidents at the nightclubs and they are not certain what is spurring a ban from the casinos themselves, especially since Sheriff Young assumes all of hip-hop is equivalent to gangsta rap (Nelly, a gangsta rapper? Please.)
Record promoter Morey Alexander, quoted in a Las Vegas Sun editorial, argues that singling out rappers makes little sense:
""It's ridiculous. They're artists. They should have the right to play here. There are thugs in every business. There are thugs in government."
As far as Sheriff Young is concerned though, the biggest thug is ... surprise, surprise, 50 Cent:
"50 Cent is one of the worst. His whole act is predicated on violence. He's a mentor for all of the other gangster rappers in the making." (And don't think he's not proud of that). So far, it's not clear how many casinos have instituted no-rap policies in response to the Sheriff's request but the VegasBlog isn't hopeful that they'll stand up to this coercion:
"with billions at stake in these licenses this all but guarantees that no casino will risk holding a concert or after party by a big name rapper." (Source: LA Times)
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