Rap And Violence
Since the late 1980's rap music has been called
the Anti Christ
in our culture, because of it's so-called influence in
people's life. People
swear up and down that the music is why people,
specially the youth resort to
violent crimes. I think by saying this they are
trying to cover up the real
truth by giving simple answers. Rap is defined as
a style of popular music
consisting of improvised rhymes performed to a
rhythmic accompaniment. The first
rap song was made in the late 70's, the
songs were seven to eight minutes long
and was mostly used in small clubs to
dance to. It didn't really become popular
until the early 80's. Over the
years it has become mainstream music, everyone is
listening to it. In the
last four years rap made up 60% of music bought in
stores in the United
States. In 1989 a local group called N.W.A.(Niggaz Wit
Attitudes) came
from out of L.A. and changed rap, which was the start of Gangsta
Rap. In
their lyrics they talked about crime, street violence and killing. Once
they
were a huge hit, it caught on, and really that's when all this
madness
started. Everyone started rapping Gangsta style. More and more people
started
rapping about police brutality and killing people and with that crime
rose to
high levels. In my opinion it's not the artists or the record
company's fault
that crime rose. It's not their responsibility to look after
every person who
listens to their music. In all these years of rap though
there are three people
who took the most criticism from the public. Dr. Dre
was one, after N.W.A. broke
up he went on to do his own thing, and after he
released "The Chronic"
he became a star. He took rap to a higher level where
it never been before and I
think that scared a lot of people. He was rapping
about drive by's, having sex
with hundreds of women, drinking alcohol all day
and so on. By this time the
crime rate was sky high and a lot of people where
looking for easy answers. It
was mostly those few who just didn't like rap
from the start that spoke out and
tried to ban it. Most rappers loved the
style Dr. Dre created, and so they tried
to take the style and create
something of their own. Along with Dr. Dre he
helped a rising star Snoop
Doggy Dog to become a big star by guest staring on
his "The Chronic" album.
Snoop released "Doggy Style" and it
was a hit. His style similar to Dr. Dre
made it a hit. It was his best-selling
album to date. Congress tried every
way they could to keep youth from listening
to this music because they felt
it was making them commit crimes. Snoop was
charged not to long after his
release for murder which he soon was found not
guilty. They made a label for
CD's and tapes that said "Parental Advisory
Explicit Lyrics" which
actually in my opinion didn't do too much. This way
parents could be aware of
the type of music their kids listen to and could
choose if they would like to
allow them to listen to it. If you sit down and
think about it, when you buy
a CD you by it because you want to listen to it,
you don't really pay
attention to that little label. Besides you see little kids
no older then 11
walking around listening to Lil' Kim, Tupac, and all other rap
artists
cussing up a storm . . . what's with that? Why didn't the parents
say
anything about that, they have control over their children, yet critics
and
congress blame the rappers. The third man to take the most heat and who
still
continues to is Tupac Shakur. They say he was the best rapper alive and
the most
successful which I also believe is true. He has been in trouble with
the law and
public since his first album to even now after his death. He was
arrested for
numerous charges such as battery, attempted murder, and rape. In
1994 two
17-year-olds shot some police officers and said they did because
they heard it
in Tupac's music. Critics blamed him from the start with his to
raunchy lyrics.
Why blame him he didn't tell them to go shoot police
officers? For the past
three years, C. Delores Tucker has been talking and
protesting rap lyrics saying
that they are harmful to the spirit of black
youth. She also filed a $10 million
dollar lawsuit against the estate of
Tupac Shakur claiming that his songs
surrounding her in two songs on the 1996
album "All Eyez On Me" make
slander remarks. She went into a court and said
that the pain she suffered from
those songs has affected her sex life with
her husband. What kind of since does
that make? Just another person trying to
bad mouth rap music for they're own
personal gain. Congress says they are
"concerned about children's exposure
to music with adult content," but really
can't do too much because they
have to respect the first amendment which says
we have "Freedom of
Speech." In two states they have announced plans to
possibly ban minors
from attending concerts or buy things that could
contain
"objectionable" materials. I'm not going to say that some youth
won't
listen to some rap music and get the wrong idea, but that also can
happen with
other types of music such as Alternative music which artists like
Hole, Marilyn
Manson, and the group Korn are big stars. If you notice
Korn is the group that
the "Trench Coat Mafia" listened to before they
decided to go shoot up
a school. In the beginning the president, and all
other high profile people said
they should put a stop to all this music
referring to Korn and Marilyn Manson.
This was last year how many times
have you heard about that now. Sen. Joe
Liebermann, and Raymond Kuntz, a
Burlington, N.D., man said his 15-year-old son
killed himself after listening
to the controversial rock group Marilyn Manson.
Bands like that are noted
for explicit lyrics and concerts, how many times have
you heard about
stopping them. They don't put that much power in trying to ban
Rock or
Alternative music, but will use all their energy to stop a form of music
that
sells more then half of the United States music. John Woods, co-founder of
a
grassroots anti-censorship organization said in a statement that most
attacks
on the music industry are fueled by politicians and groups such as
the Christian
Coalition and the American Family Association. Later he
also said "Quite
simply, the federal government, state governments and local
governments are very
skillfully using the controversy created by religious
organizations in an effort
to completely render the First Amendment of the
United States Constitution to be
a relic from the past in the interest of
gaining greater control over society as
a whole." I for one agree with that
statement. Dave Marvin, a spokesman for
state Sen. Dale Shugars, said the
Michigan Republican is working on a bill to be
sent to the state Legislature
in July. The bill would fine site owners who
permit minors unless accompanied
by an adult to attend concerts or buy music
that has offensive acts or
speech. The manager of Pearl Jam, L-7, Rage Against
the Machine, and rappers
like JayZ, Ice Cube, Master P, and Russell Simons
recently said that they
will boycott any state that passes a law such as that.
"It's up to the
artists to provide a much-needed spine for the industry by
using their
celebrities' status to effectively draw the line in the sand to tell
the
would-be censors to stuff it if they are offended because we have a
First
Amendment guaranteeing our freedom of expression," Woods said. One
man they
asked off the street said "Why do I hate rap? Well I guess the
number 1
reason I hate rap is the lack of talent that a rapper needs. All the
music is
synthetic, made on machines. Another thing I don't get about rap is
that many
rappers use the "Gangsta rap" theme. Then when a rapper gets
killed,
it's a shock! They only rap about what they know! Yes, have someone
murdered is
horrible, but if they rap about it and they say how they were
brought up in it,
is it really a shock?" Lately a lot of questions have been
asked to anyone
trying to take up for rap music. Does rap music promote
violence? The most
common answer was yes, and the murder of Tupac Shakur and
Notoruis B.I.G. proves
it. Those were some sad deaths but you can't blame
just rap alone for that
happening. Tupac didn't kill Biggie, and Biggie
didn't kill Tupac some dumb
people who had nothing else to do did. When you
think about it, doesn't radio,
movies, and television promote violence also,
so you can't try to ban one thing
of violence and not another. There was
another question that was Should rap
music be censored? Some answers were
yes, but most were no. They couldn't do it
anyway it would be against the
first amendment. Another was Does rap music make
a positive contribution to
society? No one answered that question but I think I
will. Yes it does, rap
isn't just a money making thing to me it not only helps
us relate to people
who have gone through things we have, but it shows people
who don't know the
things that really goes on. Also rap artists don't just make
albums and stay
in there own worlds they also give lots of money to charities
and sponsor
programs that help inner city youth so violence can stop between
young
people. Does rap promote violence, gangs and drug use? Yes it does, but
there
was violence, gangs, and drug use before rap even came along, so you
can't
pin that on rap, it's something that has always been around and don't
see it
going anywhere. Is rap music degrading to women? In a way yes it is, I
don't
think any rapper would call there own mothers "bitches," and
"hoes"
but out of know where women rappers are coming out of their
shell and they
are doing the same thing, So really everyone is degrading each
other so it
balances out. You can't blame rap for everything that goes on, I'm
thinking
if they could find a way to blame rap for every death they would. Even
though
they swear up and down that rap is like the worst thing, it has done a
lot
for the music industry and youth in general. Before rap all kids knew
was
that you had to know how to sing to become a big music star, but now for
those
who actually have talent for rapping they can dream of becoming a
rapper. You
would be surprised at how much more violence would be going on if
rap wasn't
here. Youth would be out in the street selling drugs and killing
people all the
time, now half of them are working on demo tapes and their
talent so they can
have a career of there own. Also rap helps out inner city
youth so they can get
off the street and play sports and go to camp, it's
like for every bad thing you
say about how rap is bad and how it should be
banned, there is another positive
thing that can get thrown right back into
your face that would blow your mind
and actually make you want to say "hey
rap is doing more for us then what
the public really tells us." It would be
the truth. You don't ever hear
about how LL COOL J started a camp for youth
in Brooklyn, or how Puff Daddy
donated 10 million dollars to Biggie's
children. No you hear about how someone
got shot and the killer was listening
to Tupac right before he did it. People
it's time to wake up, even though I
can't force you to change your mind on any
subject I'm hoping I gave you some
type of information that will make you just
think before you speak about rap
music.
Bibliography
Opposing Viewpoints: Culture Wars p. 143-154
Opposing Viewpoints: Censorship
p. 33-35 The Web Courier: Rap & Hip Hop
Comment:
http://www.cs.fsu.edu:/80/projects/sp95sug/group1.4/russ.html
Censorship
of Music by Politicians: http://sac.uky.edu/~ywkho0/politics.html