New York Daily News - News & Views Columnists - Stanley Crouch: 'Gottis' make gangster rap true to name

New York Daily News - News & Views Columnists - Stanley Crouch: 'Gottis' make gangster rap true to name:'Gottis' make gangster
rap true to name

The rap phenomenon has long had an attendant component of corruption that took it outside kids' fantasies of being bad boys. From the time the pop style devolved into what became known as gangster rap, an element of thuggishness and violence came in.

While early rappers enjoyed camaraderie and verbal jousts, gangster rappers took joking insults to violence.

The documentary "Welcome to Death Row" tells the story of the record label begun by and financed in its early days by crime money. Rappers Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur were its stars. The first two left the label on their feet, the third was murdered in Las Vegas in the company of its CEO, Suge Knight.

Not long after, Biggie Smalls was murdered in Hollywood. Smalls had a beef with Shakur, who had accused him, along with Puff Daddy, of setting up an attempt on his life.

There have been brawls at music awards ceremonies. There was an exchange of gunfire between 50 Cent's bodyguards and some unidentified aggressors. A few months ago in Brooklyn there was a gangland-style murder of a record producer once associated with Russell Simmons.

Now we have a case that could tell us even more about the relationship between the worst extremes of rap and the criminal world. Irv and Christopher Lorenzo, who call themselves "Gotti," surrendered to the FBI on money-laundering charges. They were charged with being part of an interstate enterprise that sold heavy drugs and protected its operation with "calculated street assassinations."

The "Gottis" formed the label Murder Inc. in 1997 and sold 20 million records. According to the feds, the "Gottis" partnered with a notorious druglord and may have laundered $1 million.

Ever eloquent, Irv Lorenzo said to the press that he had nothing against the federal authorities. He implied that he could understand their investigating his operation. "I call myself 'Gotti,' I made my label 'Murder Inc.,' I grew up poor, from the street. ..."

But one of the feds asserted what might turn out to be the truest take on the case: "They don't call it gangster rap for nothing," he said.