FORMER RAPPER SAYS RAP AN EXAMPLE OF CAPITALISM AT ITS BEST

The birth of rap music in the South Bronx in 1975 "turned liberal elitist ideology on its ear," a former rapper and conservative radio host said Tuesday night.

Reginald Jones said development of the rap music industry is a perfect example of how capitalism thrives without government interference.

The music form developed in small clubs and grew to sell billions of dollars worth of records annually -- all without the help of affirmative action or government protection, said Jones.

While rap developed as a cottage industry in the South Bronx, rappers were able to create a product, a market for it and jobs in their community, he said.

And the industry grew from the bottom up, Jones said, calling affirmative action and other welfare programs "elitist" initiatives that don't help the people at the bottom of the socio-economic scale.

Jones spoke to about 20 people at Crisp Auditorium on the Southeast Missouri State University campus. His appearance was sponsored by the College Republicans.

The South Bronx became known as "Hong Kong USA" as the rap industry developed, he said, referring to Hong Kong's growth as an economic power in Asia.

"The people at the bottom were creating a phenomenon that people were sure would be gone in a few years, but they were wrong," Jones said.

In the early days, rap was centered in New York. But the focus shifted to California when N.W.A. came onto the scene.

"We couldn't get affirmative action for the East Coast rappers who were being displaced by the West Coast," Jones said.

Welfare and affirmative-action quota systems are to blame for much of the poverty and crime in minority neighborhoods, Jones says, because they don't allow for free-market, capitalist competition.

"If government had been involved in rap, it would never have happened," he said.

Jones is a radical libertarian often at odds with the mainstream Republican Party. A former rapper, he now hosts NET's "Grassroots Live."

When rapper Puffy Combs founded Bad Boy Entertainment, now one of the top music labels in the industry, he began recruiting street artists like Lil Kim and Faith Evans, "who affirmative action did not touch, who the welfare state had destroyed their communities," Jones said.

Jones said the quota system "makes no sense" in a competitive economy.

"Nobody talks about diversity where blacks excel" such as in athletics or in entertainment, Jones said.

Most of the NBA's millionaires are black, he said, "but I don't see anybody saying we need an affirmative-action program for Korean point guards."