Rap

Rats fed fructose-laced drinking water for six weeks performed more slowly in a maze-navigating task, UCLA researchers have found. (Read this L.A. Times opinion article .) They think the effect is due to changes in the way the brain responds to insulin as a result of exposure to fructose. “Our study shows that a high fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body,” study senior author and UCLA professor Fernando Gomez-Pinilla said in a release about the finding, which was published in the Journal of Physiology (postdoc Rahul Agrawal was first author)

Re "Running on different kind of record," May 5 Drunk driving, shoplifting, carrying a loaded firearm onto a commercial airliner, lying about place of residence and then voting fraudulently. Sound like a laundry list of charges against members of the Mafia? Think again. This is a list of alleged improprieties involving five California state legislators and one former state senator. And these bottom-feeders have the audacity to present themselves to the voters of California as candidates worthy of reelection.

In 1985, Los Angeles rapper Toddy Tee released what could be considered West Coast hip-hop's opening salvo against police brutality in black neighborhoods. The electro-grooved "Batterram," named for the battering ram that then-LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates used to smash into homes of suspected drug dealers, was a hit on local radio station KDAY-AM. The track went on to become a protest anthem in minority neighborhoods around the city where the device was often deployed against homes that were later proved drug-free: "You're mistakin' my pad for a rockhouse / Well, I know to you we all look the same / But I'm not the one slingin' caine / I work nine to five and ain't a damn thing changed …" rapped Toddy Tee. The L.A. riots of 1992 arrived with its soundtrack in place.

In 1985, Los Angeles rapper Toddy Tee released what could be considered West Coast hip-hop's opening salvo against police brutality in black neighborhoods. The electro-grooved "Batterram," named for the battering ram that then-LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates used to smash into homes of suspected drug dealers, was a hit on local radio station KDAY-AM. The track went on to become a protest anthem in minority neighborhoods around the city where the device was often deployed against homes that were later proved drug-free: "You're mistakin' my pad for a rockhouse / Well, I know to you we all look the same / But I'm not the one slingin' caine / I work nine to five and ain't a damn thing changed …" rapped Toddy Tee. The L.A. riots of 1992 arrived with its soundtrack in place.

What a sick, perverted life these rap people must lead; and what is worse is the example they set for youths. Come on, folks, let's face it: Rap is crap! MARK PAVLOVICH Long Beach

Grammy viewers might have wondered what the bleep happened to the music. During a medley performed near the end of Sunday's award show by rappers Lil Wayne, Eminem and Drake, CBS silenced the audio at least 10 times, presumably due to salty language. Grammy executive producer Ken Ehrlich said Monday that the hip-hop era has created a tricky situation for award shows, which must keep up with the culture but also abide by broadcast decency standards. Indeed, networks have spent years battling the Federal Communications Commission over curse words uttered during national telecasts.

Call the RZA hip-hop's foremost alchemist. The self-professed former drug dealer-turned-Grammy-winning rapper-producer has defied all odds to spin not lead into gold, but démodé pop culture and arcane philosophical beliefs into platinum disc upon platinum disc. And now, after spending years under the tutelage of several high-profile filmmakers, including Quentin Tarantino, he's preparing to unleash his unique mash-up sensibility on the big screen, in a project that will be part chop-socky flick, part spaghetti western and all RZA. As founding father of the hard-core Staten Island rap collective Wu-Tang Clan, RZA (pronounced "rizza," given name: Robert Diggs)

Revolutions are still televised, but they get Tumblr'd, tweeted and YouTubed first. This one started last summer when music micro-bloggers began deifying a pack of nine skateboarding, freewheeling teenaged rap vandals from Los Angeles. Full name: Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All -- or OFWGKTA if you're into brevity. Like most Internet contagions, the first germs of information spread via viral video. Directed by the crew's founder, Tyler the Creator, the clip for a song called "French" felt like Larry Clark's "Kids" updated for the "Jackass" and American Apparel generation: full of skateboarding, vomiting, automatic handguns and suggestive maneuvers with a plastic Ronald McDonald statuette.

According to reader Robert T. Leet, "rap 'music' is literally not music--no melody or harmony, no notes. It is rhythmic, rhyming talk . . ." (Letters, Jan. 10). Poppycock! I looked up "music" in my dictionary: "vocal or instrumental sounds having rhythm, melody or harmony." That's or, not and. A composition need not have all three components; any one is sufficient. Rap has little, if any, melody or harmony, but it most indisputably has rhythm, and therefore meets the definition.

In Philadelphia last week, a child sexual abuse trial involving Catholic clergy led to a bombshell - a bishop from West Virginia was accused of abuse. In Kansas City, a Catholic bishop goes on trial in September, accused of failing to report suspected child abuse. Last year church officials paid $144 million to settle abuse allegations and cover legal bills, and although many of the cases went back decades, church auditors have warned of "growing complacency" about protecting children today.

President Obama's nominee to head the World Bank, Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim, is more than just an expert on global health issues -- he's a pretty mean rapper and dancer. Kim busted some moves last year in the finals of a music competition called "Dartmouth Idol," performing in a studded, white leather jacket, white fedora and funky sunglasses along with the Dartmouth College Gospel Choir. Kim sang parts of "The Time of My Life" from the movie "Dirty Dancing" and "Dirty Bit" from the Black Eyed Peas.

Spoek Mathambo grew up in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, where his adolescence was defined by the end of apartheid. Now 27, this South African singer-rapper-producer has emerged as one of the year's most exciting new artists, with a bold sound bent on stylistic desegregation and an unlikely relationship with an American indie-rock label. Mathambo funnels a dizzying number of influences - both musical and cultural - into “Father Creeper,” due out Tuesday on Seattle's Sub Pop. His music is an electro-acoustic melee of swaggering rap verses, scratchy rock guitar, singsong vocal hooks and staticky white noise.

Patricia A. Disney Philanthropist, ex-wife of Walt Disney's nephew Roy Patricia A. Disney, 77, who grew up as a neighbor of Roy E. Disney in Toluca Lake and was married to him for more than 50 years, died Friday of Alzheimer's disease, her family announced. She was the vice chairman of Shamrock Holdings Inc., the investment company for the Roy E. Disney family. Patricia married Roy, Walt Disney's nephew, in 1955, and they had four children, who survive her. After the couple divorced in 2007, he remarried in 2008 and died at 79 in 2009.

On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, I spent half an hour or so discussing Stephen King with my colleague David Lazarus on Patt Morrison's KPCC-FM radio show. The news peg, such as it was, involved the decision by the New York Times to include King's new novel, "11/22/63," on its list of the 10 best books of 2011. But the bigger question had to do with King's merit as a writer, which, almost 40 years after he began to publish, remains a source of conversation, if no longer quite debate.

Producer Rodney Jerkins is a heavyweight in the pop music world who's worked with an array of A-list artists, including Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Mary J. Blige and Britney Spears. But now, the urban music hit maker has set his sites on a new kind of star — one who can sing the praises of two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese.... Well, you know the rest. Jerkins and his Chicago-based company Artists & Brands are mining new musical talent from the rap and R&B world, coaching young artists on the art of a catchy hook, then offering the tunes to companies such as McDonald's (their main sponsor)

A music video about "fracking"? Last week, Time magazine named a funny video about the natural-gas extraction process called fracking the No. 2 most creative video of 2011. It may be fun to say, but fracking is hard on the environment and local water safety, and that's the message behind this video, which has now gone viral and has over 200,000 views on YouTube. “It's a word you hear but you don't exactly know what it means or what it all entails. So I think it helps get people interested in the topic, and hopefully, if they watch the video, they'll go read an article about it or find out more information about what it is and what the effects are,” says Lisa Rucker, an editor in Los Angeles for  production company Pictures in a Row. She called from a set in Kentucky where she was helping to shoot a commercial.

Bret McKenzie is the music supervisor and primary songwriter for "The Muppets," and his biggest competition for award consideration may just be himself. He has at least three compositions from the film being touted by those who track such things: gleeful production number "Life's a Happy Song," disco anthem "Me Party" and existential '80s-ish power ballad "Man or Muppet. " Sporting a comfy-looking green hoodie and unruly hair and beard — exacerbated by early-morning dad duties — the affable "Flight of the Conchords" musical comic discussed marrying his adult and meta sensibility with the Muppets via video chat from his home in New Zealand.