THE FOUL-MOUTHED HIP-HOP artists Notorious B.I.G., Kool G Rap and Hurricane of the Beastie Boys have a lot in common with the squeaky-clean Sen. Bob Dole and former Secretary of Education William Bennett.
They share similar family values.That's right. Even these three rap artists and most others - including many hard-core gangsta rappers whose lyrics rationalize cop killing and cruelty against black women - believe that the family is a special institution worth protecting.
What most people, especially whites, do not know is that most rappers lead double lives, one for public consumption, the other kept quiet and off the screen. Unfortunately, unlike Dole and Bennett, most rappers have not merged their duel personas. They have not created one pattern of positive behavior that defines them both in public and in private.
In public, as expressed in their lyrics, videos, stage and media behavior, rap artists portray themselves as bragging, slovenly attired, drug-dealing, nihilistic thugs and criminals. This is the side that sells records, that makes millions of dollars a year, the side laced with profanity, vulgarity, misogyny and epithets. This is where young impressionable fans find a violent, amoral place to escape and where they find unsavory role models to emulate.
But these rappers have another life, one that is hidden inside their million-dollar mansions. "I am not hip-hop 24 hours a day, and I don't play my music in the house," Notorious B.I.G. told the Times. "When I am home, I lay around, snuggle up and play games with my (2-year-old) daughter."
Joseph Simmons, a.k.a. Reverend Run of Run-DMC fame, has erected a similar protective wall around his family. Like Notorious B.I.G., Simmons wants his children to study diligently, make good grades in school, stay out of trouble and respect adults. Simmons, therefore, is a strict disciplinarian. His children, Vanessa, 12, Angela, 7, and Daniel, 5, are permitted to listen to clean rap only - no profanity, no misogynistic rantings, no anger. "I can't have them listening to the craziest gangsta rap," he said. "It's crazy to me."
The bottom line is that no rappers want their own children to follow in the paths of Snoop Doggy Dogg, who has a court date on a charge of taking part in a drive-by shooting, and Tupac Shakur, who is serving a prison sentence for sex crimes. In other words, rappers who have children know that they are peddling explosive and sometimes deadly wares to other people's children.
Such conduct is unforgivable.
In her book, "Different and Wonderful: Raising Black Children in a Race Conscious Society," clinical psychologist Darlene Powell Hopson argues that rappers who are parents encourage negative behavior when they rationalize their smutty lyrics and violent video images by denying the antisocial messages in their work.
"They shouldn't really focus on certain types of lyrics and expect (them) not to affect kids," Hopson said. "As parents, we just can't talk the talk; we have to walk the walk."
The New York Times reports that several rappers, such as Guru, a.k.a. Keith Elam, are joining forces to actively confront the nasty side of rap's schizoid character. These artists have produced, among others, the song, "Watch What You Say," denouncing gangsta rappers as juveniles marketing filthy, violent lyrics that have no useful purpose.
Guru's objective is simple: "I want to take aim at all of these people that can't get a point across without cursing."
This effort will succeed only if gangsta rappers who are parents begin to respect other people's children just as they do their own. If their music is not good enough for their children, it is not good enough for the children of others.