The urban music community has reacted angrily to comments made by Culture Minister Kim Howells who said increases in gun crime in the UK were "symptomatic" of developments in rap and garage music, attacking acts like So Solid Crew for "glorifying gun culture and violence". His comments came as the government moved gun crime up the agenda after two young women were killed in Birmingham at New Year after being caught in the crossfire of a gun fight.
1Xtra DJ Iyare was among those working in the industry to hit out at Howell’s comments, saying the media were making a scapegoat of rap and garage music. "The whole gun culture in relation to music is minute. Whatever is hottest on the streets will always attract a small number of idiots. It was the same with dancehall music and rap in the past and garage now. But films and computer games glorify guns far more than music and have a wider impact than music. But Kim Howells is not prepared to take on Hollywood, or Sony and Microsoft."
Talking about members of the So Solid Crew being charged with gun possession he claimed Crew members carried the weapons for protection more than anything else. "Rightly or wrongly, they feel threatened and need to protect themselves. They are kids from council estates and are targets for those making a beeline for them."
Despite preaching a more tolerant message than many of her counterparts, Ms Dynamite also criticised the media comments against the scene. "The media have blown it all out of proportion," she told the Guardian, claiming some rap acts are involved with guns because it was “a metaphor for life in general”.
Radio 1 and MTV presenter Trevor Nelson also defended rap and garage music, telling Radio 5: "If there is a serial killer on the loose, they don't ring Stephen King and start telling him about what he puts in his movies or books because we all enjoy them. We go to the cinema, we know it is not real, we go home. But as soon as this happens with this subject ... they are knocking on every musician's door … from Eminem to whoever."
He argued hitting out at the garage scene was a misled knee-jerk reaction to a serious social problem. "I think it's wrong - it's an obvious problem. Anyone who goes into a club or who is young and on the streets of a city in this country knows there is a problem and is scared witless. It is a big horror story on the streets and people have to do something about it sooner or later."
Other insiders pointed out that flagship rap and hip hop artists in the US have fronted police staged anti-gun campaigns with relatively little affect – suggesting the gun problem was more a social than cultural problem.