rap culture - what affect is it having on youths?

Righty The Wonder Ghoul · Posted: Sat May 24, 2003 11:45 am Post subject:

first of all let me head this off by saying i will never judge a person by the color of their skin, what they look like or where they are from. I will however judge a person by their intellect, their character, and their attitude.

that said let me get this thing out of my system before i explode. why in the world is the culture that rap promotes so frikken popular? (i will not say black people because not all black people are like that). but seriously, todays youth is idolizing a culture that promotes spending more money on your clothes than you spend on your family. a culture that promotes smoking a blunt whenever you feel like it, and a culture that promotes treating women like pieces of property. this is so incredibly wrong it pisses me off. why in the fuggin world would you wanna idolize people who spend their entire 28 year lives living in the projects getting in gang fights until some one shoots you?

i got into a conversation with ming about this the other day and so many things were said by both of us that were so true it made me angry. see, i dont think all rap music is bad, some bands like Linkin Park put out good music with rap parts that at no point promote this sort of thing. the beasty boys who were very wrong in their portrayal of women in their songs actually apologized for it. when is the last time you saw a black rapper apologize for their songs? never.

but now, this culture is spreading, its all over. even here where i live in westport AKA "we have more money than you" town its cool to act black. its cool to spend $180 on your throw back 76ers jersey, $100 on your designer jeans that are big enough to fit 4 of you in them comfortably, and spend god knows what on your sneakers. whats the point of this? and when will people realize that they are wasting whatever they have by doing this?

so these are the questions i pose, why is this cool and what are other people thinking of it?

Ming · DOOM! Gender: Joined: 13 Jan 2003

Righty The Wonder Ghoul wrote:

when is the last time you saw a black rapper apologize for their songs? never.

Dude, while I agree with you pretty much 100% on this issue, as you already know, you have to be careful what you say. You must remember that in today's society, one of the most popular rappers is actually WHITE. (Eminem anyone?)

The problem is not "rap" itself, however. As Righty pointed out, some rap isn't bad. LP is half-based on rap, and its not discriminative, hateful, or inappropriate at all. Nor is it a question of white vs. black, and we don't want our white kids imitating black people. That would be racist, and that's definitely not what I am, nor would I advocate it. (I grew up in the Bronx for Christ's sake...if anyone knows tolerance, its me...) Eminem is a perfect example of how this has become so much more than a problem of racism, and rather a problem of content. Its a question of what parents are allowing their kids to listen to and imitate. Parents are letting their kids imitate these "role models" that talk about "slapping they hos, drinkin they fo-ties of Bacahdi, and shootin' up mothaf*ckas..." These are the people that kids are looking up to, and its my belief that that is why the youth of America is going to hell today. I think that if you are going to let your kids listen to this, then you had better damn well make sure they realize that this is NOT the way to behave in life, and that its NOT cool to be a "gangsta".

But that's just my opinion...

~Ming

Righty The Wonder Ghoul · Posted: Sat May 24, 2003 2:51 pm Post subject:

heh, like i said, i dont want this to be a question of race, just a question of ethics. and 50 cent is the most popular right now, just cus his cd is more recent

jezzy · crazy uncle Gender: Joined: 12 May 2003

i listen to a little bit of everything...and i know not to go smacking women around and not to go on a shooting spree...so it actually depends on the person thats listening to the music not the music itself...I know that what the music represents but i listen to like naz and he raps about good things...its actually refreshing to hear someone rap about how drugs are bad and that you should finish school and go to college....I think that some of the people that listen to it are impressionable young minds that dont know that its wrong...and thats why our youth is going to hell...

Righty The Wonder Ghoul · Posted: Sat May 24, 2003 3:27 pm Post subject:

jezzy of course you are right that it does depend upon the listener, but most kids teenage and younger who are idolizing this stuff are too stupid to understand what is wrong with it. when you see kids i take the train home with you might understand. these kids will do anything to be part of the crowd.

jezzy · crazy uncle Gender: Joined: 12 May 2003

its true some kids do try to fit into their world better, but i think someone should tell them to be their own person...it'd be better if we all had our own opinions and the such...but of course their are really retarded people that dont even have the brain capacity to have their own opinions

Righty The Wonder Ghoul · Posted: Sat May 24, 2003 3:48 pm Post subject:

would it be better if someone told them this? yes. will someone tell them this? no.

Ming · DOOM! Gender: Joined: 13 Jan 2003

It's a sad, crazy world we live in. But I would guess that its refreshing to hear someone who raps about good thing. The only problem is that so much of rap is about the bad, and if only a few talk about good, then its not quite enough to make a difference. For example...Will Smith is a "rapper". I actually have one of his CDs (got it as a present from my aunt...I swear!). He's not THAT bad actually, but he delivers a powerful message. But what happens? He gets made fun of because his rap is "soft" and he doesn't use curse words. The same thing occurs in the rock music world as well. One of my favorite rock bands is Creed. Creed doesn't swear and promotes powerful messages in their music, as I see it. And yet, they get made fun of by bands like Blink 182 and Limp Bizkit because they don't swear in their music and because they happen to be brave enough to have a belief in a higher power, which isn't really all that evident in their music in the first place. It's intimidating for bands/rappers to come out with positive messages because we live in a world with so much negative crap that the positiveness is chastised.

And Righty...I never said Eminem WAS the most popular rapper out. I said he was ONE OF the most popular, because I recognize the fact that 50 Cent is number one right now.

Tobias · *explodes* Age: 38 Gender: Joined: 17 Jan 2003

Quote:

It's intimidating for bands/rappers to come out with positive messages because we live in a world with so much negative crap that the positiveness is chastised.

This is exactly what ive determined...people are too into the negativity of things. Maybe if Rap wasnt about shootin ur hoes and kick people's a$$, and maybe if it was about feeling good, or getting a job promotion, or helping others out, then it would be quite interesting to listen to. That is why LP is decent rap.

i'll shut up now Very Happy

that is all Hmmm

Razer · 4934 5157 5662 5658 Gender: Joined: 07 Oct 2002

Ok, coming from a rapper I have issues with lots of the stuff said above. I have been in Rap from Day One. Pre-records, pre-Sugarhill Gang, pre weekend Rap radio shows.
1) KRS-One is one of THE most intelligent speakers, let alone rappers, on the planet. He speaks at universities as well as children's homes (he himself was homeless as a child) so it has nothing to do with being a Black rapper vs a White rapper.
2) You would have had to grow up with Rap to understand Rap. This may sound racial but...Rap wasn't meant for you, it was meant for us. Money just entered the picture. (Street) Rap was borne from house parties and block parties and was created as a form of braggadocio. It was all 99% lies and was clearly for entertainment. On the other hand it was not lies, it was fiction or "Rhythmic American Poetry" (as it was called years later in a marketing idea). Just as you wouldn't read a Stephen King book and call it "lies". Rap was a form of expression.
Jump a bit ahead. Rap transformed in popularity (read as "dollars") and it became a regional thing (this was once Rap left NYC). As such, you rapped about what you knew. It was still lots of lies but a Californian would rap about guns and drugs and a Floridian would rap about music and drugs. If this is what you see growing up then how can you be faulted for expressing it? Should everyone have rapped about big houses with kept lawns in suburbia? No. 50 Cent sold drugs, he got shot, what the Hell is he supposed to Rap about?
Fast forward to today. Rap is simply another form of entertainment. What sells will be sold, period. You want to comdemn the artists for creating it but no one condemns the consumer for buying it. If no one cared about Eminem's broken home stories do you think he would still be doing them? I doubt it. Rappers are artists, more so than any other form of musician possibly. Rap is negative but R&B is 99% about sex. Is that better? Rock used to be about killing and devil worship and once the hype died down and it didn't sell, the message changed.
3) Linkin Park is not a Rap group, never was a Rap group, and never will be a Rap group. Just because you can create a scratch on a turntable and drop 4 lines of rhyming words does not make you a rap group. Rap encompasses every type of music there is.
4) Rap is not about shootin', hoes, or anything else. If that's in a song then it's in a song. Is all R&B about sex? Is all Country about broken romance?

If you have a problem with any artist, not just Rap, then take issue with him/her and DO something instead of just bitching. If someone wants to buy a product you or I have no right to tell them not to. Same as if they choose not to buy it we can't tell them to buy it. However, if all you're gonna do is complain then at least do it intelligently and productively. Laying out "problems" with no suggested solutions is beyond ridiculous. Especially when it's your problems.