ALBANY – Mainstream music download sites on the Internet are giving kids easy access to frightening hate- and violence-filled music, a Post probe has found.
A random search on Napster turned up derogatory songs about ethnic, racial and other groups, including blacks, Jews and gays – as well as odes to the Ku Klux Klan.
More than 15 years ago, a group led by Tipper Gore fought to have the music industry voluntarily label compact discs and cassette tapes to make parents aware of any offensive content.
But those warning labels don’t exist on Napster and other MP3 sites where kids can easily download popular but controversial rap and heavy-metal tunes that their parents might otherwise ban.
Even more worrisome for parents is that hate groups have embraced the new technology to make their music more accessible.
“Whoa! I didn’t know that,” said Eleanore McNamee, president of the Queens Confederation of High School Parents. “I’m extremely surprised.”
Type in the word “nigger” on Napster’s search engine, and 100 choices pop up on the screen.
Some are audio clips of comedians like Richard Pryor or Chris Rock doing racially themed routines. But many others are titles of hate, such as “Nigger Hatin’ Me.”
Other hateful song titles found on Napster: “Kill All Them Jews” by Neo Hate, “Gays Gotta Go” by Midtown Bootboys, and “Gooks Ears” by Ian Stuart and the Klansmen.
One horrifying song by Johnny Rebel details the Klan’s torture of a black man who seeks to eat in a restaurant, where he’s refused service.
Parental screening programs designed to keep kids from certain Web sites don’t work with Napster, which has no central server but rather connects the hard drives of individual users.
Napster is not the only place where kids have access to the offensive material. There are a host of other popular but less publicized music download sites.
In addition, white-supremacist music sites are growing on the Web, making it possible to order music through the mail or download it more easily onto the computer.
“Hate-rock songs are one of the primary ways hate groups are reaching out to young people,” said Jordan Kessler, director of Internet monitoring for the Anti-Defamation League.
Though the songs and their availability are not illegal, many people are concerned, particularly when school shootings have become common.
“Whether we want kids to see this stuff or not, we live in a culture where it’s impossible to shield them from it anymore,” said Daphne White, founder of the Lion & Lamb Project, a national grass-roots organization to stop the marketing of violence to children. Despite her crusade a decade ago to label records, tapes and compact discs, Tipper Gore refused to be interviewed for this story.
Hilary Rosen, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, said she was aware that music that would otherwise contain warning labels is easily accessible on “unauthorized” download sites like Napster.
But she was stunned to find that those same sites also contain hate-group material.
“It’s one more reason why unauthorized sites are the worst place to go for music,” said Rosen, whose organization is fighting to shut down Napster for copyright infringement. “I believe in free speech [but] I think it’s up to the people who produce and distribute music to be responsible.”
A Napster spokesman said the company “does not condone the trading of these types of files.”
The company, which insists it doesn’t monitor the content of the files, would not say if it would remove offensive material.
Those on both sides of the free-speech issue urged parents to better monitor what their kids are doing online.
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LYRICS OF LOATHING
Excerpts from some of the hate songs found on Napster:
From ‘Gays Have Gotta Go,’ by Midtown Boot Boys
Stop the threat of AIDS today,Cripple, maim, or kill a gay.We’ve got to take a stand today,We’ve got to wage a war on gays.
“Nigger Hatin’ Me,” by Johnny Rebel
I like sugar, and I like tea, But I don’t like niggers . . . no siree. There’s two known things that’ll make me puke, And that’s a hog eatin’ slop, and a big, black spook.
“Kill Whitey,” by Wesley Willis
You are a no-good rotten bum.You are a good-for-nothing scatterbrain. You bring damaging disharmony in my life by cussing at me for no reason at all. Kill Whitey Kill Whitey Kill Whitey Kill Whitey
“Holocaust 2000,” by Blue Eyed Devils
We’ve heard your tales of persecution and we’ve listened to your lies. But this time it’s for real – the final genocide.
– Compiled by Kenneth Lovett