Rap - America´s secret weapon: Canadian MP called for rapper 50 Cent to be barred country

Rap music is one of America´s great cultural exports. The genre has also roiled two of our most annoying allies. France and Canada are both, nominally, in the Atlantic Alliance; in practice, they are both strong critics of American culture and foreign policy.

A Canadian MP called yesterday for rapper 50 Cent to be barred from the country. Rap music is blamed for the country´s escalating gun violence. Canada is usually held up as a rebuke to the US: a country, a neighbor, with guns but not the bloodthirsty desire to use them. Not any more, so blame rap.


Meanwhile, Dominique de Villepin, a model of aristocratic French disdain for Anglo-Saxon culture, and recently appointed prime minister, was drawn today into France´s own rap controversy.


About 200 French MPs, shocked by the riots in the Arab and African suburbs of Paris, have called for the prosecution of seven rap groups for provocative lyrics. De Villepin, who has called for more understanding of the firebombers, said rap was "not the cause" of the riots.


France has regularly damned American race relations, American cultural exports, and provocative speech, whether in rap lyrics or other media. The political correctness of the country´s ruling elite did not prevent the explosion of race rage this month.


Few people would claim that America´s rap music is directly responsible for violence in France and Canada. However, it is interesting that both countries are now suffering from the same cultural controversies that they once saw as typically, and absurdly, American.


[link to www.sploid.com]