Laying a Bad Rap on Hip-Hop Culture

Re “A Rapper’s Spiritual Journey,” Feb. 8: Tupac Shakur does not have a “violent legacy.” Maybe all you see about him is the way he died and the criminal allegations, just as I did at first, but there’s more to Shakur’s legacy. As Brett Johnson, senior editor of the Source magazine, said in the February 2003 issue, “[Tupac] was interested in more than just gun-blazing. His music also dealt with political struggle, teen pregnancy, love, death, good times, loyalty and, ultimately, hope.”

You call the rap music industry “an industry where many of its superstars have been murdered.” But in fact, many of the rap industry’s superstars are alive -- writing, producing, touring and carrying on with their lives. About a handful have died in the last 10 years. I don’t think it’s right to paint the hip-hop culture as one that has and accepts so much death.

And finally, I do not think your article is doing any good. I really think it’s just proving to older, white, middle-class America that the two things it dislikes the most -- rap and Islam -- are very much related. Maybe in a different time this article would be more appropriate, but right now it’s just dirty business.

Camille Ray

Los Angeles