Morgan fears that black men and women are in a perpetual state of anger, willing to sacrifice themselves and each other in their despair and feeling fatalistically sure that they will hardly live into responsible adulthood. She is aware that one sign that rap music is not a productive solution— in addition to the misogyny it promotes — is that women participate in the sexism of rap videos and seem all too willing to sacrifice self-esteem to be a part of the rap culture. Thus Morgan’s call to address the problems rap music identifies is really a call for two things: an outlet for black men’s frustration that enables their voices to be heard without requiring black women to be demeaned in the process, and a change in the opportunities available to black men. She also fears the violence in the music and points at this as evidence of despair.…
The Current Message Portrayed in Hip Hop Music’s Effect on the Increase in Police Brutality Towards Black Males. (Outline)…
Though many have protested that “gangsta rap” is to blame for its influence in the violence, female discrimination and violent behavior that take place throughout America, others argue that it is simply the other way around, implying that the artist is influenced by his own personal experience of being a part of and/or bearing witness to violence, drugs and crime that have taken place around him thus influencing him to express himself through lyric and rhyme becoming “gangsta rap”. This leaves us to question does gangsta rap music encourage violence or does violence influence what the artist raps about?…
Hip-hop can destroy other citizens. For instance, violence in some songs cause the youth to starts fights and also kill themselves. On the other hand, gangs and street thugs are a few examples. However, teenagers are starting to kills, steals, vandalize. Therefore, hip-hop culture and movement has an negative impact on contemporary African American identities based on how they represent themselves. This is due to the fact it promotes an unhealthy lifestyle towards attitudes and behaviors of American Youth. In addition, it teaches African American youth to use profanity. Furthermore, American youth do not have a role model when listening to hip-hop.…
Hip-Hop is the top selling genre in the U.S. today although over the years, critics have suggested Hip-Hop has no real future [Kubrin 2005]. Hip-Hop’s emergence into mainstream culture and its success across America has continually caused tension with not only the media but politicians and other members of society. This has been due Rap artist’s explicit view on society from the Black perspective. The extensive use of curse words has been just one battle between rappers and American censorship. However, one theme that has caused great controversy, most apparent in the ‘Gangsta Rap’ genre, is misogyny and sexism. In a study of the 2005 U.S. Billboard Charts, Rap…
In the 1980s, we saw many different genres of music emerge, genres such as Pop, Rock, and R&B. But a new genre emerged that sparked a lot of controversy: “Gangsta Rap” otherwise known as Hip Hop. Rappers/Rap groups such as NWA, Run DMC, Big Daddy Kane, and more changed the industry with catchy tunes and lyrics that talked about hard topics like slavery, violence, and police brutality. These lyrics sometimes caused major conflict, whether between races or with civilians and police. Hip Hop was very controversial in the 80s. “Gangsta rap” has caused a lot of controversy, many people protested this music in the late 80s and 90s due to the message within its lyrics and what those lyrics conveyed. Many accused “Gangsta Rap” for promoting things such as crime, killings, profanity, drugs, sex, racism, and more. But Gangsta rap doesn’t influence this type of lifestyle; it’s telling a story/conveying a message of the individuals who wrote the lyrics.…
Herd, D. (2009, Spring). Changing images of Violence in Rap music. Journal of Public Health, 30(4), 395-406 12p. EBSCOhost.…
Media often paints a different picture than as seen by the eye. Often heard on the headlines are the bad and the ugly never the good. One picture that is often skewed by the media is that of hip hop. It is often heard that this genre is a negative influence on children, as the message put out by these rappers is not appropriate for today’s youth. The lifestyle is too violent and the lyrics are too harsh. All this is skewed in the wrong direction. As the hip hop genre is impactful and helpful for the youth of the world.…
“The debasement of our culture, of which gangsta rap is a big part, has coarsened children in general and put high-risk kids in a dangerous place.Taking drugs,carrying guns, and disrespecting human beings is now not only socially acceptable in many situations, it is downright glamorous”(O’Reilly).This shows how we as a society can reduce one aspect of violence in a violent society and expect real results. Youth violence will not be seriously reduced without violence in other aspects of our culture being addressed. In the same vein, modifying media violence alone will not have much effect but to ignore it will make efforts on other fronts less successful. Despite the fact that the media have limited independent effects on youth violence, we need to expand the focus on them.…
The association of violence with alcohol also increased, but the relationship was not as pronounced as that with drugs, Explanations for the rise of gangster rap and violence in rap music have tended to focus on two basic themes. Representatives from the music and other media industries have argued that media violence is a reflection of actual social trends. Echoing this perspective, some scholars have focused on the structural conditions – oppressive economic and social conditions, the crack cocaine drug trade and ensuing drug war, and high levels of police brutality – within urban ghettos that promote violent themes in rap music. Within this framework, other writers have focused on the violent lifestyles of major rap artists as an explanation for the rising tide of violence in the…
In recent years, controversy in Hip-hop culture has been in the mix of America media. From the hype of the lyrics and the impact that Hip-hop music has on the youth. It seems that political and media groups have been quick to place all of the blame on rap music for the trend in youth violence from the murders and the gang related problems. However, forms of music cannot be understood unless you study the fame of its historical and social context. Hip-hop culture reflects the young, urban, working-class African Americans and uses the voice to express the views of the everyday life and the struggle. Now in the pop culture Hip Hop music popularity has grown, and now commercialization has took place and the culture and the origin is controlled by the music industry.…
Scott's article, "Rap Music and its Violent Progency: America's Culture of Violence in Context” approaches the issue of "rap music as a creative expression and metorphorical offspring of America's well-established culture of violence. Richardson and Scott's point of this article was to answer the question to what the role of rap music is and how it contributes to voilence in society. Richardon and Scott pulled different statistics and data from violence within movies, video games, and music. This artical states, "Violence in music is not by any means limited to rap or gangsta rap. Folk and country music have contained references to murder, killing of police, and domestic violence for decades" (181). The method of the authors was to place rap music in a context that was unusual to the audience, the authors grabbed several different ideas about rap music such as; capitalism and rap, political and judicial scrutiny of rap, rap in the scholorly literature, rap within cultural capital and social reproduction, violence in rap music and overal rap musics effects on the culture. The authors did not exaclty answer their research question, they merely just implemented different ideas about violence and rap in order to increase the audiences knowledge on the given subject. The authors arrived to the conclusion that "[r]ap music has drawn attention to the subjugated life and senseless violence the mainstream culture attempts to…
When hip-hop music emerged in the 1970s, the American people did not foresee the growth and influence the music would gain. First, during the popularization of Hip-Hop in the late1980s, music artists such as Ice-T and Public Enemy used this “art” form to express their frustration with the American political system. Thus, this artist quickly turned the music into “poison” for the American culture resulting in rise in violence. Ice-T wanted to take a stance against the corrupt in American society, but ended up negatively adding to the situation, and driving the youth to murder white police officers. Secondly, NWA (Niggas With Attitude), another popular hip-hop group, comes to mind when examining violence in American hip-hop culture. NWA’s controversial lyrics consist of topics such as gang banging, drive-by shootings, and police confrontations. For instance, two of the most admired hip-hop artists, Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace were killed in drive-by shootings, which influenced gang activity, the source of a large percentage of violence in America. The Bloods and Crips, two large gang groups, were linked to the murders of these music artists. The American youth were negatively effected by the violent behaviors that hip-hop music promotes. Violent connotation shown through hip-hop music is popular in the media, but the attention quickly shifts to the…
Music Lyrics being NON-VIOLENT Rap music can be considered a style of art, and a way for the artists to express feelings through their words on paper. However, there are quite a few rap artists that get criticized for their lyrics. In my essay, I want to discuss why rappers use certain lyrics in their music and why people shouldn’t believe that it causes violence among the younger generations. People shouldn’t censor the music just because of violent, vulgar and abusive messages it promotes to the world. I believe in my own mind, that there is a reason for these types of lyrics that rap artists use and I will simply explain those reasons in this essay. Rap has been called one of the most important music forces to emerge in two decades. It’s pounding beats and staccato rhymes exploded on the streets of the urban America in the early 1980s and since have become the theme music and lyrical heart of the vibrant youth culture called hip-hop ( SIRS 1993). There are many different types of rap artist. There are some that talk about money, some talk about righteousness, and the list goes on and on. Every rap artist had their own way of expressing themselves. There are those that talk about sex, drugs, and violence who receive the negative attention( SIRS 1993). People, think this so- called gangster rap is a bad influence on children in the world and that it promotes violence and that it also is abusive to women. Delores Tucker, head of national congress of black women has been among those pressuring different record companies to stop distributing gangster rap music. There were other significant names that participated in this action. Names like Senate Majority leader Bob dole, and former education Secretary William J. Bennett(Surveys, pg. 1). There are some rap artists that have been openly criticized for their lyrics. Rappers like Lil Kim, Too Short, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and a member from “Too Live Crew,” named Luke Skywalker. These rap artists in the past have been…
This article elaborates on the negative effects of Rap Music on the minds of young people. In a specific example, Too Short, a rapper well-known for his degrading music, is chastised for promoting sexual assault to woman among middle school aged boys. He profusely apologizes for his behaviour and uses…