Its driving beat and chanted lyrics echo the pulse and pitch of inner-city streets. But rap music also draws out a meaner side of ghetto life: gang violence. When some 14,500 fans poured into Long Beach Arena near Los Angeles last week for a concert featuring the popular rap group Run-D.M.C., more than 300 members of black and Hispanic street gangs swarmed through the crowd, attacking everyone around them. Audience members struck back with metal chairs and whatever else came to hand, until police armed with batons broke up the concert. Forty-five people were injured, including a man who was stabbed....
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