Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent

by Rodrigo Bascunan

A docu-style investigation of our fascination with the gun, from the perspective of the hip-hop generation.

The 2003 shooting death of Toronto community-centre worker Kempton Howard put the spotlight on hip hop’s fixation with guns. Media and police soon blamed rap music and its tales of gang life on bullet-ridden US streets for the rising use of firearms in Canadian crime. Were these songs artful accounts of a terrible truth, or a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Rodrigo Bascunan and Christian Pearce have interviewed many of the major players in the hip-hop world. As publishers of an award-winning magazine of urban culture, they’d watched rap music become a scapegoat for society’s much older and widely spread fascination with guns. What follows is their international adventure to deconstruct modern gun culture in all its manifestations. Bascunan and Pearce seek out hip-hop artists, illegal gun runners, firearms aficionados and manufacturers, museum curators, academics, politicians, video-game creators, activists, victims of gun violence and the family and friends left behind.

Somewhere between Fast Food Nation, No Logo and a Michael Moore documentary, featuring sly sidebar material and original artwork, Enter the Babylon System is part outrageous journalistic pursuit and part passionate cri de coeur for sanity in the face of a society’s obsession.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 2007

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

DOES HIP-HOP PROMOTE GUNS? READ THIS BOOK...

Rodrigo Bascunan is "the publisher and co-owner of 'Pound' magazine, Canada's largest hip-hop and urban culture magazine," and Christian Pearce is its editor and co-owner. They wrote in the Introduction to this 2007 book, "Few would deny that rap music plays a role in the problem with guns---especially not us. We took on this subject partly because of how irresponsible gun-talk had become in the music we love... Hip-hop has long been stigmatized as a violent culture, the public's perception provoked by news reports of dead rappers and the menacing swagger of artists in movies and videos. But at best hip-hop is about knowledge and empowerment first, and here we combine the insights of lyrics with the lessons of experience and share them with the larger community. 'Enter the Babylon System' is our attempt to reassert hip-hop's stature as a political and cultural voice." (Pg. 14, 17)

One rap artist interviewed charges that "Most people who talk about a Glock, they can't tell you a model number or how many shots it holds. They've never fired it, they've never felt spent shells hit them and burn their forearm, they've never done any of that... a lot of rappers are emulating what they heard in somebody else's record..." (Pg. 47)

They also note that the Desert Eagle firearm "did indeed make its television debut on Miami Vice... (which) featured state-of-the-art gun handling. Miami Vice was also a boon for gun manufacturers, helping popularize gats like the bird and the Tec-9." They add that director Michael Mann "is a gun nut." (Pg. 183)

They note in conclusion, "When we speak of Babylon, we are not referring to skin color, nor are we pointing to any place on a map; we speak instead of a blinding and destructive greed as visible in the grimiest street as it is in the squeakiest-clean office." (Pg. 322)

This is a creative and original look at a not-often-STUDIED aspect of gun culture.

[Quintin Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are lots of good points made in this book. It’s an important book and I appreciate the authors were not constrained by traditional academic limitations and could editorialize more than others could. Unfortunately I felt that the chapters were too long to be really cohesive. The arguments often were a bit meandering and there was almost too much data that wasn’t focused. It made it difficult to follow at times. However, the major points were all clear and my favorite chapter described how the companies that make firearms are complicit in the illegal trade was fascinating and well done.

[Hans Klis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched book - it's like Glock by Paul Barrett but then with a totally different, unique and very well thought angle.

[Musa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read and worth picking up if your interested in gun culture in Canada.

[Max Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful Canadian book is so highly recommended. It was written by the editors of Pound magazine, which is, in my opinion, the best hip-hop magazine out there. The book explores gun culture, as the subtitle states, from its earliest inception all the way through to its current glorification in the media, particularly in rap music. It lays down the framework, describing the issues and introducing the makes and models of guns and their histories... Desert Eagle, AK, etc. Then it takes you on a whirlwind tour of aficionados and detractors, rappers, enthusiasts, woman's rights advocates, everybody. In the end, you have a newfound respect for guns and gun culture but a simultaneous desire to become a pacifist. It doesn't really resolve much. I don't know whether I want to boycott guns or buy them. But it sure crams a lot of information into just over 300 amazingly well-written pages. I couldn't put it down. On a final note, if you liked Bowling for Columbine, check out this book.

[Drick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is written by a couple of younger folks involved in the hip hop movement who look at the gun violence issue from the perspective of hip hop artists, their experiences and how that is reflected in their music both promoting and challenging the gun violence in urban centers. While largely a book for hip hop insiders, which I am not, it does provide insight into the persepctive of those who live and work most closely to the "street" where much gun violence occurs. The only thing I wished was that the book was a little better referenced (citations, footnotes, etc) because it alluded to a great deal of good research information that was hard to follow up on.

[Richard Crevier]

I found this to be a very interesting read on how hip-hop culture, accessibility to guns, poverty and street gangs are all strongly related to one another. In the end, it's all a very vicious circle; youths from broken homes integrate street gangs then a few become successful rappers claiming to represent their neighborhoods, celebrating the same violent culture they came from and thus becoming inappropriate role models...

[Murtaza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book by some Canadian authors about global gun culture. Runs the full gamut from contemporary rap critiques to global capitalism to America's NRA. Well written in documentary style, I had this on the shelf for years and was glad that I finally breezed through it.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helped me consolidate my own feelings about the epidemic ofgun violence rampant in the U.S., which the first section of my book Cowboys and Bleeding Hearts explores further.