(S) play on stopping gangster rap at leisure gets criticism

Whether the popular gangster rap romanticizes crime or just depicts a violent reality is a matter debated in the premiere episode of Weekly Crimes on Tuesday. And during the debate, Gustaf Lantz, Social Democrat, made a remarkable statement.

- I was out walking at night in an area that has been exposed to shootings, and when I walk into the leisure yard I see how the kids are sitting watching such videos. The adults do nothing. This message is not only spread, but sanctioned by the public, Gustaf Lantz said, in this week's crime.

He wants leisure farms funded by taxpayers not to show gangster rap videos.

- I think there is a kind of self-harm behavior in our society: on the one hand we invest a lot of money in getting rid of the co-shootings and on the other we have leisure farms that support the message.

Gustaf Lantz's statement has aroused reactions in several different media and now he also receives sharp criticism from the political side.

- We politicians should not ban music, what music you listen to or where it is played. It is definitely not the role of politicians, says Center Party cultural policy spokesperson Per Lodenius, to the Culture News.

Is this the moral panic of our time or is there a real problem with songs about crime being played on the leisure farms?

- This is a depiction of what is happening and so it has always been within the music. Especially in music that comes from below, says Per Lodenius.

Also Christer Nylander, cultural political spokesman for the Liberals, thinks Gustaf Lantz is on the wrong track.

- I get quite upset when politicians interfere in what kind of music is played in leisure farms. Politicians can enact laws on incitement against ethnic groups and the like, but we should not try to stop certain cultural expressions, he tells Culture News.

He is supported by the Environmental Political Spokesperson of the Environment Party:

“Of course, there is a lot of concern about the problems of crime that exist, especially among young people. Major efforts are needed against this. But it is not the culture's fault that there is crime, ”writes Anna Sibinska (MP) in an e-mail to the Culture News.

Many of those who have reacted to Gustav Lantz's play, recall other cultural expressions that have aroused indignation and concern over the years. Most people probably remember how the journalist Siewert Öholm wove against the heavy metal band WASP in the debate program Svar Direkt from 1984.

- A decade ago people talked about how hard rock would do to make people become Satanists. Then it was the kind of music that was questioned. Every time has its debate, says Vasiliki Tsouplaki, the Left Party's cultural policy spokesperson.