Decision Won’t Stop Rap Music

With Time Warner Inc. bailing out of the “gangsta” rap music business, will this stop anyone from buying discs from controversial Interscope artists such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg and the hotly anticipated new album from Tha Dogg Pound?

Nah.

“I don’t think it’ll make any difference at all,” said Beth Campau, manager of Tower Records in Anaheim, Calif. “It’ll just help out Time Warner with their public relations. It won’t have any impact on us at the retail level.”

On the contrary. Customers have been asking Campau for months about the coming Tha Dogg Pound release and she expects a big turnout when the disc finally ships to stores Oct. 24.

Time Warner announced Wednesday that it would sell its 50 percent stake in Interscope, further severing its ties with violent “gangsta” rap after months of political pressure.

It’s not the first retreat from rap for Time Warner, which dropped Ice T after a flap over the violent cover art and music on his last solo album, “Home Invasion.” It was still available to fans.

The latest controversy shouldn’t pose a problem for rap fans, though, because Interscope is one of the most successful young companies in music. Picking up another distributor to get the music into stores should be fairly simple.

Interscope officials didn’t return a call for comment on their distribution plans.

Local music retailers predicted that all the high-level politicking will have virtually no effect on what people will find in the bins.

“That’s exactly what it is - politics,” said Tom Gracyk, district manager for the Moby Disc record chain. “Time Warner wants to advance their cable options. This is the only way they can do it with the Republicans in power. They’re the only American-based record company, so they’re the only one subject to that scrutiny by Bob Dole. It just shows you who’s got the power and who’s calling the shots.”

Do customers care about the controversy?

“No. People just mostly want to get the kind of music they like,” Campau said.

As for Interscope, “I assume they’ll sign with another major (label),” Gracyk said.

If another company such as Polygram buys into Interscope, the worst that could happen is there could be a short gap during which some CDs are unavailable while Polygram produces its own, Gracyk said.

“There could be just a little lag time where the stuff isn’t available,” he said.

What’s lost in the controversy is that many Interscope artists, such as Primus, don’t generate controversy at all.

“Those Primus albums will still be out there, no problem,” Gracyk said.