No Rock And Roll Fun

RAPBACK: First, the good bit: The Mayor of Boston has thrown his full weight behind Radio Log, a girl-powered station which chooses to not play tracks which reflect badly on women.

But how on earth can anyone claim with a straight face that "Rap has been criticised for its negative portrayal of women right from the start." The Guardian does try to back up its case by recalling "Artists such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and Ja Rule have attracted particular criticism - both were charged for use of indecent language back in 2001 at the SunFest festival in Jamaica." But should you be writing about rap if you believe that the history of the genre stretches back about three years? And while early rap could be a bit unelightened, wouldn't a more petinent question be how the genre became quite so bogged down in an obsession with guns and girls in g-strings with the ever-open, the come-hithers?