Rap Wars: Do We Care About Whether Ice Will Be Hammered?

So this is where MTV has brought us. Silly me, I thought Madonna was as bad as it could get when it came to the marketing of marginal talent--at least she writes her own material.

Now all that is required of entertainers is that they be able to dance and to gather around them a large group who can also dance. Go to any dance club on a Saturday night, play a Rick James record, tape the liveliest showoff and Voila! , an M.C. Hammer or a Vanilla Ice video.

I guess their audiences are too young to remember Rick James and David Bowie. They must be, because every time I turn on the radio and get excited that one of my “old favorites” is being played, it turns out to be yet another hip-hop rapper getting rich off an artist who used to be criticized for being “commercial.”

KARA WAGNER-LeROSE

Sherman Oaks