A Song Has Never Killed Anyone

By Charles Jones, YO! Youth Outlook. Posted July 26, 2000.

Writing about the recent killings in San Francisco's Hunter's Point presents somewhat of a problem for me. I was basically born here and have lived here half my life. I shop at Foods Co., I eat at B&Js in the morning, and I wince every day on my way to work as the 15 bus rolls past the Mcplaything that should be a Tic Toc Drive-In.

So when someone does something or has something done to them, six times out of ten I know the doer and or the done/to.

Starvel Junious and Jarvis Baker, shot down in May, were my younger brother's childhood friends. Kenneth Gathron, killed in April, is a different story all together. His younger brother and I are like brothers ourselves -- we've been friends in the truest sense of the word since 1991. Joe and I have done nearly everything together and have thankfully lived to tell the tale.

So I know these people, and when they die I grieve, but when I pick up a newspaper and see their lives trivialized and read that they were "reportedly" vanquished over something as petty as who the premiere local rap act is, I get upset.

Then I hope to get the truth and expose it.

Now when the media report that Starvel's momma says he had no gang or turf affiliation, I feel an almost invisible hint of distrust, as if they would rather say or print that Starvell "allegedly" had no history of gang involvement. Well, she has a witness in me, and anyone else who knew him that the young star was no "gangsta".

It almost seems that no one wants to explore the real community issues surrounding the deaths, opting instead to simplify Starvel's killing and thereby nullify the positive aspects of his life. This lets police continue to generalize and "profile" low-income housing residents and lets a reporter make his deadline, both once again using the universal urban scapegoat, rap music.

Starvell died because the air in Hunter's Point is thick with fear and tension. Nearly any incident can end up with you losing your life.

And the notion that Kenny G. died in or in relation to any melee between Big Block and Westmob is ridiculous -- Kenny G. was from the Sunnydale projects a mile south.

I have to admit that before his demise he'd had at least three brushes with death by gunfire.

And I also admit that there are and have nearly always been warring factions within Hunter's Point. There is an antiquated "king of the school" mentality that has kept us from unifying as a community. Police believe there are about 20 other shootings and killings related to the recent so-called rap/gang-related deaths in Hunter's Point but it's been going on for far longer than the past few weeks.

People have been killing and dying over set-tripping since the late 1980s. And the music of the local rappers only reflects the territorial pride of the artist and his block or projects. It isn't a calculated declaration of war.

Local rapper 'C.l.e.a.n." has been in the studio with many local artists, some of whom the police may be considering as suspects in the recent slayings.

"Some of these fools is trippin," he says of local rappers. "Ain't none of them making no money. It would be stupid to beef over who sell the most records because ain't nobody buying.

"The market is so congested, you have to be the tightest out there for someone to pick you up if you ain't from the same hood or city for that matter."

And it's true. Anyone with the money for studio time can (and probably will) release an album. Rap has officially been dubbed "the new dope game" and has replaced basketball -- which requires practice, skill, and eight times out of ten at lest three years in college) as the poor man's get-rich-quick dream.

These days a lucky act can accidentally trip over a platinum plaque regardless of content or talent. And most artists see it as their only way out of their projects or off their block.

So the stakes are high.. And when the stakes are a little too high, sometimes you bet (and lose) your life.

Which is why this anger in Hunter's Point transcends the street and ends up on wax. Rap music is the product of the streets and can sometimes be mirror image of their ugliest side, but a song has never killed anyone. Not even a really bad song.

[Charles Jones is on the staff of YO! Youth Outlook, a publication by and about Bay Area youth published by Pacific News Service.]

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