How Does Rap Music Affect Teens

Malik Chisholm
Mrs. Fiedler
English III
23 October 2013
GP Paper 1st Draft Ever wondered why young people find trouble so often? Or why every other sentence that comes out of their mouth’s contain a form of profane language? It’s because of the negative effects of the “hardcore” or “gangsta” rap music that they bang through their ears at some point in time everyday. From Tupac Shakur’s “Makaveli” album to Chief Keef’s “Finally Rich” album, the teenaged/ young adult mind is filled with drug use, violence, physical and verbal abuse, and in some cases suicide. This form of negative music is doing major damage to the young people of today affecting daily decisions and the willpower to do right. It is a known fact that majority of the daily crimes teens commit are due to their “daily playlist” (what they listen to everyday”. The bad music that teens often listen to- songs that portray negative actions such as the Notorious B.I.G’s “Who shot ya?” where he speaks on attempted murder and the use of deadly firearms. Artists like NWA, 2-Pac, Big Punisher etc are prime examples of the use of racial slurs, gang violence, drug use, and abuse and portray it in the worst way . . . their music. The listeners they attract take their “showcased” lyrics literal and go out and act on the words that flow through their mind after listening to some Eazy-e
or some Big Punisher and they end up apart of the group of misguided young people who end up either in jail, strung out on drugs, or worst of all . . .dead. Today isn’t really a “level-up” as far as making music safe mentally for teenagers because crime rates have skyrocketed and the common denominator remains the same; the music that young people listen to influences them in many ways but the most common way is by action-negative action. Nothing is really being done about this problem other than more police officers put onto the street. Nobody is standing up and addressing the REAL issue. Instead, society presents what they feel are “bigger” problems than the next generation losing lives and potential future leaders at a fast pace. People continue to go through their days pretending to act like they don’t know why banks are getting robbed or students cut class and find trouble elsewhere or innocent children become guilty in the space of ten days after hanging with the wrong crowd and listening to the wrong music. One way that schools can aid to making a change in the futures of young men and women is to encourage students by playing inspirational music as the bell instead of the dull tone that wakes the average student up and put in their mind “ugh I gotta go to my next class”.
This will make students look forward to heading to their next class and drain out the filth that was playing through their heads before the way walked through those front doors. Also, when students leave school, they will go home playing whatever their favorite “school bell” was that was playing through the day and go home and do something
productive. In this day and age, social media plays a MAJOR part in this generation’s lives whether it be television, the internet, cell phones-you name it. Unfortunately, it can be mostly a bad influence on them as well. By creating social network pages that are able to repost clean versions of some of the most popular songs of today, hopefully, teens will gravitate to the page and begin to encourage others to follow, add, like, and/or subscribe to the page and turn their mental “playlist” around.The page can hold contests for whoever can find the most songs without any vulgar references that still keep it “real” but to an extent. Another way of getting young people t “fall in-line” as one might say is by starting an annual “Better music, Better future” FREE festival that provides performances by pop culture’s most influential artists performing clean versions of their most popular songs. This tactic will definitely be effective because teens will have a bigger positive platform to look forward to every year instead of going to clubs or just standing outside finding trouble and taking up space.
This form of negative music is doing major damage to the young people of today affecting daily decisions and the willpower to do right. Think about it; when you made your most successful decisions, what kind of music did you listen to prior to? Same thing goes for your most unsuccessful decisions. What did you always do after listening to your favorite song? Where are you in life right now? It’s a fact that the music you listen to can very well make or BREAK your future.