I would like to pose and discuss a question related to a couple of media creations that I am intimately familiar with. The first is the FX dramatic series 'The Shield' and the second is the top selling videogame 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'.
The basic question is how real are the portrayals of actual black gang life and what does it mean. I'm prepared to beat this one to death. In light of a little piece I read the other day on the crime of PG County, (a damn fine piece of reality blogging, btw) I'm interested to know how our ways and means of communicating that ugly part of American reality has improved since the days of Rodney King.
I would, for the sake of provocation, suggest that the narrative of gangsta rap is about to be superceded in both accuracy and artistic merit by a new verisimilitude in the best of these new media.