BY DANA SCOTT • JANUARY 21, 2019

In the late 1980s, Rap music had a problem. At the time the genre was exploding with national and overseas tours, incidents were taking place at some of those concerts that were smearing the reputation of the Hip-Hop culture. As the safety of show-goers was a significant concern, mainstream media spread the news about the dangers of the lifestyle around this music.

There were several fatal incidents and riots at events headlined by the rap’s biggest stars. Forty people were treated for injuries after violence in the crowd canceled Run-D.M.C.’s Raising Hell Tour stop in Long Beach, California. That same weekend at Monster Jam ’86 in Brooklyn, David Drummond, a 14-year-old boy was killed after a gunshot to the head. Two years later there were several publicized melees at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Queens, New York which caused a ban on further Rap concerts at the venue. One fatal stabbing took place during an Eric B. & Rakim, Doug E. Fresh, and Kool Moe Dee concert. Multiple stabbings were reported weeks earlier, at a Run-D.M.C. Tougher Than Leather show at the venue.

In response to these events, Boogie Down Productions co-founder KRS-One organized a song with renowned author and journalist Nelson George and Jive Records executive Ann Carli for rappers to come together and restore order in the streets where Hip-Hop lived, especially within the Black community. The song “Self Destruction” and the organization’s title Stop The Violence Movement was an extension of BDP’s By All Means Necessary track of the same name.

READ MORE AT AMBROSIA FOR HEADS