The chairman of a group that promotes ethics in government has sent a letter to Rev. Jesse Jackson protesting ‘gangsta rap artist and convicted felon’ Slick Rick’s participation in this week’s Wall Street Project conference for youths.
“We fail to see how Slick Rick can contribute anything positive to a conversation regarding our nation’s young people given the graphic and vulgar nature of his music career,” National Legal and Policy Center chairman Ken Boehm wrote in a letter dated Jan. 15 and posted on the group’s web site. “Slick Rick’s 1989 debut album, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, featured such provocative titles as ‘Treat Her Like a Prostitute.’ In that album, the rapster bellows out vulgar lyrics that virtually any family would consider poisonous influences for their children. In the album’s first song, Slick Rick warns his young listeners that there are ‘girlies out there that seem appealing, but they all come in your life and cold hurt your feelings.’ His solution? ‘Treat’em like a prostitute.’ For you to pass an artist like that off as a worthwhile contributor to a discussion on young people becoming “self-sufficient” is disgraceful.”
At this time, Slick Rick still is scheduled to participate on a panel at the conference.
