BPI seeks talks on gun lyrics issue.

The BPI is calling for direct talks with the Home Secretary over the issue of gun references in lyrics after government ministers linked the rapid rise in UK gun crime to the influence of gangsta rap.

BPI chairman Peter Jamieson last week wrote to David Blunkett agreeing to discuss the matter after the minister was heard on Radio Two describing some urban lyrics as "appalling" and calling for talks with the producers behind rap and garage music.

Blunkett's comments followed the killings of two teenage girls at a New Year party in Birmingham and came just a day after culture minister Kim Howells accused rap music of "glorifying" violence. Howells, who has ministerial responsibility for music, suggested on Radio Four's The World At One that rappers were partly to blame for the deaths of Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespeare in the Birmingham drive-by shooting.

He also singled out So Solid Crew, describing the Independiente act as "idiots" who glorify gun culture and violence. A spokeswoman for the band refused to comment.

In his letter to Blunkett, Jamieson offers to discuss the voluntary sticker scheme it launced last year, advising the public about explicit lyrics, and also ways this could be improved "in a way that you might believe would assist in diminishing the likelihood of a further tragedy".

Jamieson says, "The Government wish to meet, we have to step up to the plate. We are bound to help in any way at all." However, he stresses that it might be more useful for the Government to tackle the root causes of crime, suggesting the negligible increase in hip-hop album sales in the UK between 2001 and 2002 (from a 4.2% to 4.4% market share) cannot account for the 35% rise in gun crime in the past 12 months. "I ...