Dave Marsh

“Rap, I think, is the voice of a group of disenfranchised Americans; people who don’t appear in The Washington Post, people who don’t appear on CBS television, and generally, who don’t appear even in The Village Voice in any other guise except as rappers. And I think the issue is, you know, the ‘F the Police’ song, the Straight Outta Compton video that we saw, the issue is police violence against Black youth for no other reason than the fact that they’re Black and young and dressed a certain way…the fact is that rap does not set the agenda between the police and the Black community, and it’s absurd to pretend it does, which is exactly what your article in response to my article did pretend, and exactly what you’re sitting and pretending right now, and that’s absurd. The police set the agenda of the police attitude toward the Black community, and what they get back is something they’ve gotta deal with.” 

The late Dave Marsh on CBS News Nightwatch, 1989. Wrote a little about his influence.