Along with the original influx of drug addicts was also a black drug dealing backed subculture that was rather small before it got hyped by a movie called SUPERFLY... All sorts of fads and trends followed, which any number of black gang members modeled themselves after, i.e. as in-- whose fictional character was the most popular, hence the market for Max Julien trenchcoats, etc. So did all of you here who came of age during that era forget that too? I doubt it... So let's truly be for real about the roots of gangsta rap... And of course, we have our right to be concerned, when stuff on the big screen winds up plaguing us, in the real world... FYI...
Yes, anytime crime and drugs are glamorized people and children can be influenced by it no matter which medium it comes in....movies, books, or videos. But, I do not agree that movies such as "Superfly" and "The Mack" (nor any of the Blaxploitation era movies) is the "ROOT of our Issues/Problems." The "ROOT" of drugs and gangs lies in the inner-city ghettos our people were segregated into by law, society, and economy after Emancipation and the "Black Exodus" of African Americans leaving the South for the North, East, West and Mid-West seeking a better life away from share-croppin. And, before these Blaxploitation movies ever came to be, many urban, inner-city Black people were doing just what many of them are doing TODAY: selling drugs, hustling and stealing, etc.. Long before "CRACK" came on the scene, HEROIN was the major street drug in urban cities across the country, East Coast to West Coast. Back in the early 1900s, what DRUG do you think MARCUS GARVEY was talking about when he told his People that they were more than that? Back in the 60s, what DRUG do you think the NOI was helping Black men and women kick....to get that "monkey off their backs?" HEROIN. So, I just do not agree that you can blame "GANGSTA RAP" and GANGS and DRUGS and CRIME in our communities TODAY on some MOVIES from the 70s. Many BOOKS were written by ICE-BERG SLIM and DONALD GOINES about life in the ghetto and crime and drugs. --- Donald was a former HEROIN ADDICT and Ice-Berg was a former PIMP. (By the way, the famous RAPPER of TODAY named "ICE-T" (also a former PIMP) takes his stage name from Ice-Berg Slim.) ASK YOURSELF: "Does LIFE imitate ART?.....or Does ART imitate LIFE?"
In both of the cases you named, those scourges didnt destroy the community like crack and economic deprivation. We had our afros, we had unity, we had businesses, we were feared. One movie about a high yella, ghetto, pimp, with a tricked out ride and we dumped all that ..