Rap music taking a dive, for lack of a positive vibe

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NEW YORK -- Maybe it was the umpteenth coke-dealing anthem or soft-porn music video. Perhaps it was the preening antics that some call reminiscent of Stepin Fetchit.

The turning point is hard to pinpoint. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society.

Rap insider Chuck Creekmur, who runs the leading Web site Allhiphop.com, says he got a message from a friend recently "asking me to hook her up with some Red Hot Chili Peppers because she said she's through with rap. A lot of people are sick of rap ... the negativity is just over the top now."

The rapper Nas, considered one of the greats, challenged the condition of the art form when he titled his latest album "Hip-Hop Is Dead." It's at least ailing, according to recent statistics: Though music sales are down overall, rap sales slid an alarming 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year.

A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed the majority of youth think rap has too many violent images.

In a poll of black Americans by Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices last year, 50 percent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society.

Nicole Duncan-Smith grew up on rap, worked in the rap industry for years and is married to a hip-hop producer. She still listens to rap but said it no longer speaks to or for her. She wrote the children's book "I Am Hip-Hop" partly to create something positive about rap for young children, including her 4-year-old daughter.

"I'm not removed from it, but I can't really tell the difference between Young Jeezy and Yung Joc. It's the same dumb stuff to me," says Miss Duncan-Smith, 33. "I can't listen to that nonsense. ... I can't listen to another black man talk about you don't come to the 'hood anymore and ghetto revivals. ... I'm from the 'hood. How can you tell me you want to revive it? How about you want to change it? Rejuvenate it?"

Hip-hop also increasingly seems to be blamed for a variety of social ills. Studies have attempted to link it to everything from teen drug use to increased sexual activity among girls.

Even the mayhem that broke out in Las Vegas during last month's NBA All-Star Game was blamed on hip-hoppers.