Washington Post music writer Chris Richards has a political edge. Who can forget his gooey tribute to Obama press secretary Jay Carney’s musical taste for the band Guided By Voices? He can also leave out Obama when it’s convenient.
On Thursday, Richards wrote a story dominating the front of the Style section on “The Firing Lines of Chiraq,” as Chicago's rappers respond to the “epidemic of gun violence,” but names like Barack Obama or Mayor Rahm Emanuel never surfaced:
In Chicago, a rising generation of young rappers — Lil Durk, Chance the Rapper and countless others — are coming of age amidst an epidemic of gun violence that’s contributed to the murders of 229 people this year...
In 2012, Chicago tallied 509 slayings. In 2011, it was 433, with more than 80 percent of those killings reportedly taking place in public spaces, leading some to wonder if Chicago’s youth should be treated for the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. With segments of Chicago resembling veritable war zones, the Windy City has lived up to its brutal new nickname, Chiraq.
Richards also didn’t want anyone blaming rap music for “epidemic” violence:
It’s easy to default to chicken-and-egging when it comes to violence and pop songs, but it’s wrong-headed. If the music stopped tomorrow, the killings wouldn’t. To villainize a young artist for growing up in a gun culture that our federal government has shown no interest in regulating is insensible and unfair.
Obama showed no interest in "regulating the gun culture"? Chicago's mayors (like gun-controlling Richard Daley) had no interest?
