The freedom to rap?

Regarding the front-page article ``Backlash Is Brewing Over `Gangsta Rap' Lyrics as Public Says `Enough,' Dec. 13: I do not see that freedom of speech was curtailed when the Los Angeles radio station KPWR pulled ``gangsta rap'' from its play list. By stopping the assault on blacks and women, the station was actually enhancing rights that the rappers destroyed by hatred. If there is anything hatred does not need, it is a platform for expression.

There are those who say this hatred is an art form and its artists are oppressed because they are black. Nonsense. To say that gangsta rap has artistic integrity is like saying that poisonous mushrooms have nutritional value. Art must have some intrinsic benefit to humanity to be called art; an art form based on hate is irrelevant. June Fine, Newton Highlands, Mass.

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