I guess it doesn’t surprise me that Dr. Dre’s son Andre Young Jr., overdosed on Heroin, People Magazine is dredging up the story from last year for some reason. Rap artists probably aren’t the best role models considering their street rep backgrounds. I can understand young Andre smoking pot–heroin though? Dare I say bad parenting may be involved?

And yet I would like to propose that many notorious rap artists from the past have cleaned up their act so much so that they can star in family-oriented shows and movies. The genre has been tamed by mainstream success and no one would have guessed from those early days that these infamous rap stars would be fit for family viewing.

Take Ice Cube for instance. I remember listening to N.W.A and not being able to say what the acronym meant out loud because I was an uncool white kid. My half-jap friend (and that’s how he described himself) let me listen to the album as well as it was played where I later worked at Burgerville when we were closing up.

At the time, I didn’t care much for mainstream rap like Fresh Prince or Kid ‘N’ Play. It seemed too sugar-coated, I’d probably now listen to it for giggles. Gangsta rap fascinated me much like other kids at the time and since I was into heavy metal it felt more in line with what I considered to be “heavy music.” However, I was also very conservative at the time with my beliefs (yes, I was a teenage enigma) and I disapproved of the lyrics such as a “bitch is a bitch.” Like most teens, though, I mentally blocked the real meaning of the lyrics and enjoyed the music.

So what is Ice Cube doing now? The last thing I saw was trailer for the sequel “Are We Done Yet,” a family movie about buying a fixer upper out in the woods. According to Wiki it is a remake of Mr. Blandling Builds His Dream House starring Cary Grant. The kind of movie that used to be reserved for bland white comedian actors mainly due to marketing reasons. I can see marketing asking, “Who wants to see a former gangsta rapper try to fix a house?”

I’m not criticizing Ice Cube for doing such projects–I applaud him–I just think it’s ironic considering his tough image from the past. Similarly Snoop Dogg, mister mellow dope smoker, has appeared on Monk and even reinterpreted the Monk theme song. I don’t want to say Monk is a “white show” (I know black people who enjoy it too), but I’m not sure I would call it typical TV fare that is representative of “da hood.”

Much like Ice Cube’s movies, Monk is a ”family show,” in my opinion, because it is rarely offensive except maybe for the murders (we never take the murders seriously in murder mystery shows anyhow). Families gather to watch this show, I’m sure.

The only rapper I can think of off the top of my head who is in a TV show that is not what I call “family viewing” is Ice T (BTW: his real name is Tracy Lauren Marrow, no wonder he changed it). He stars in the Law and Orderseries as Detective Fin Tutuola. Isn’t this the same guy who sang “Cop Killer” ?

What this all really means is that those of us who listened to the dangerous “PMRC” labeled rap in the late eighties and early nineties are growing older. Our gangsta icons have settled down and are enjoying life instead of worrying about getting shot at.

That’s a good thing I believe. Family TV and Movies may not have street credibility, but who cares. When you’re young you fight the world, when you’re older you do a little fighting as you plan you’re next trip to Disneyland with the kids and then take an afternoon nap.

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