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Britain's Street Crime Blamed On America

Author: Jonty Adderley
Friday, March 8, 2002
US rap has "hijacked" black British youth culture and is behind the growing gun crime and lawlessness, according to reports in Britain's press this week.

Speaking in the Guardian, Joseph Harked suggested the "profane, misogynistic" (obscene, female hating) imagery of rap videos has influenced a new generation of black teenagers to start terrorising their neighbourhoods in an attempt "to start living up to the gangsta rap culture which has been imported from the US since the late 80s."

His views were backed by London's Evening Standard newspaper, discussing the escalating violence associated with UK garage, in particular, the So Solid Crew.

"Fans of So Solid Crew enter a world of urban depravation and menace in which the values, beliefs and assumptions of decent society do not apply," the Standard suggested.

"It is a place where young men live fast and die young, shoot first and prize wealth above all things. It is the posturing and nihilism of America's gangsta rappers horribly transported into modern-day Britain."

The article was prompted by the imprisonment of 19 year old Crew member Ashley Walters, currently in jail awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to possessing a gun in central London.
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