When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s

by John Ganz

Leonard Pitts Jr., the Miami Herald’s pop music critic, made a similar point. “The L.A. Riot was not a surprise. The L.A. riot has been foreshadowed for years. In rap … if the music has elements of hatred, self-hatred, violence and inarticulate rage, remember that, in those elements, it is much like South Central Los Angeles. And if it is a hard music to listen to, remember that South Central, Bed-Stuy, Liberty City and on and on are hard places to live.” Pitts also pointed out that the music’s appeal was not limited to Black youth. “The feeling of disenfranchisement, of having nothing to lose, does not run solely along racial fault lines. Consider how many blond, blue-eyed kids show up at Public Enemy concerts. Consider the fact that when Ice-T played the Button South in Hallandale a few months ago, his audience was as much as 90 percent white. And consider, too, the plaintive plea from the white heavy metal band Poison a couple of years ago: ‘Just give me something to believe in.’” But