Is The Rap War For Real?

Is the 'Rap War' for Real?

By MICHELLE DeARMOND, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. said they hoped their music would bring positive change to blighted inner cities.

Now with both men dead, the victims of drive-by shootings, all eyes are again on violence in rap.

The two rappers were the central characters in an East Coast-West Coast rivalry, but some industry observers said Monday it was too early to blame the deaths on the long running feud.

``Sure, there's been this competition, but that's been since day one, but we don't have artists on the West Coast saying, `Let's kill off all of those East Coast rappers so we can sell more records on the East Coast,''' said Phyllis Pollack, a publicist who has represented several rap stars, including N.W.A.

Jesse Washington, managing editor of VIBE magazine, acknowledged there was animosity between the rappers but cautioned against trying to read too much into the deaths. VIBE magazine sponsored the party that B.I.G. attended before his death Sunday.

``I think all I can say right now is that it's too early to attribute this to a coastal rivalry, Tupac revenge or anything else because there's just so many different possibilities and aspects to this whole situation,'' said Washington, a former Associated Press reporter.

But Chaka Zulu, a cousin of Tupac Shakur's, disagreed.

``I think to some extent this was a retaliation for Pac's death,'' said Zulu, who is music director for Atlanta-area rap station WHTA-FM. ``I don't think it came out of Pac's camp, though. I think it came from people that are caught up in the hype of the music and the East-Coast-West Coast thing.''

The Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was leaving a party celebrating the Soul Train Awards when someone drove by and shot through the passenger side door of the GMC Suburban where he was sitting. The driver of B.I.G.'s car drove to a hospital, where 24-year-old Wallace was pronounced dead.

Police were interviewing about 200 witnesses and hope to soon release a sketch of the gunman, who is described as black, in his early 20s and believed to be driving a dark-colored sedan

No arrests have been made in the September shooting of Shakur, 25, either. .

Shakur was in Las Vegas with Death Row Records founder Marion ``Suge'' Knight on Sept. 7 when he was shot near the Las Vegas Strip while sitting in the passenger seat of Knight's car. Shakur was rushed to the hospital, but died one week later.