NY Daily News "Money Talks" Errol Louis

Let the money talk
There are two men in New York who can do more than anyone to put an end to the way entertainment companies rake in profits by promoting the violence in hip-hop music. And it's not 50 Cent or The Game. They're small fry.
State Controller Alan Hevesi and City Controller William Thompson collectively control over $150 billion in pension funds, which are invested in all sorts of companies - including many of the worst offenders in the world of entertainment. Irresponsible chiefs of entertainment firms who run from the press are far more likely to take calls from Hevesi or Thompson, who manage two of the country's largest pots of money.
Both controllers regularly use shareholder resolutions to pressure companies into changing their policies on global warming, human rights and the like. Closer to home, Thompson and Hevesi need to use their clout to start conversations with the worst record labels, radio stations, video game makers and merchandisers about how they do business.
Cut off the money, and you choke off the sewage at the source.
Consider, for instance, Reebok International, a Fortune 500 company that has launched an entire sneaker line and national advertising campaign that features rapper 50 Cent, a former crack dealer and self-described pimp. New Yorkers, through funds managed by our city and state controllers, own more than 400,000 shares of Reebok, valued at nearly $18 million.
The company is proudly running 50 Cent ads everywhere - on its Web site, on neighborhood billboards, even on the Cartoon Network late at night. One group, Philadelphia-based Racial Unity, is fed up, and recently announced a boycott of Reebok products because of the 50 Cent connection (racialunityusa@aol.com, (215) 625-9237).
I asked Reebok to explain how using 50 Cent as a company rep squares with the firm's Standards of Business Conduct, in which Reebok promises to act "with the utmost integrity in all that we do."
A Reebok spokeswoman responded by describing the Reebok brand as celebrating "individuality and authenticity," and stating that "50 Cent epitomizes this position in unique and exciting ways."
Wonderful. Reebok's pitchman has one song in which, to the sound of a gun clip being racked, he raps lyrics like better watch how you talk when you talk about me/'cause I'll come and take your life away. Advance clips from a new video game show a cartoon image of 50 Cent firing away. And in real life, one of the rapper's many feuds resulted in a man getting shot. In office suites far from the blood-stained sidewalk, Reebok calls it all "unique and exciting" and keeps counting the profits.
Perhaps the company will give Hevesi and Thompson a more serious answer.
Another corporate offender, Vivendi Universal, owns the labels Interscope, Shady and Aftermath, which record 50 Cent and The Game. Doug Morris, who heads Vivendi's music division, is ducking press calls about the gunfight between Vivendi's contract players. But New Yorkers own more than 976,000 shares of Vivendi Universal, valued at $31 million, through the state pension funds. That should entitle Hevesi to some answers about whether the company plans to stop promoting "artists" whose songs - and actions - glorify thuggery.
Last but not least is Hot 97, the hip-hop radio station owned by Indiana-based Emmis Communications. The newly formed Coalition Against Hate Media, an alliance of dozens of community organizations, yesterday announced a demand that Sprint Communications pull its advertising from the station.
That's the right idea. Hot 97 broadcast a disgusting ditty that openly made fun of victims of the Asian tsunami. The station has been the site of two shootings between the goon squads of rival rap groups.
New York's city and state funds own nearly half a million shares of Emmis Communications, worth more than $9 million. Our trustees ought to tell the station to clean up its act, or else.
Thompson is seeking reelection this year, and Hevesi is running next year. It's time for both to represent New York's real values by getting on the phone and into this fight. Originally published on March 11, 2005