In today's hip hop music, gangland lifestyle and violence is glorified in lyrics without any social commentary about the day to day struggle facing impoverished families living below the poverty line, which previous rappers in the 90's would somehow find a way to incorporate within their lyrics so that there is at least a positive hidden message under the surface of their explicit content. In today's hip hop music videos, young rap artist perform violent gangsta rap lyrics while flashing stacks of money and sometimes narcotics, and today's music videos of up and coming talent are almost certain to show a heavy display of artillery, and in some places such as Chicago, military styled firepower that is unavailable to the general public. This should cause any person with a functioning moral compass to question the motives of social media companies who on the one hand will ban the President of the United States for inciting violence on our nation's capitol, but on the other hand will host violent content to be promoted, sold, and distributed on their platforms despite the negative repercussions and causes of death that the content is having on urban communities all throughout the world. In the year 2020 alone there was 6 high profile hip hop murders which can be indirectly or directly related to rap music "beefs"; Pop Smoke, Lil Marlo, Tray Savage, Huey, and Mo3 of Dallas, Texas who was gunned down in broad daylight on a Texas highway only 5 days after King Von's murder in Atlanta by a rival rap group.Is Hip-Hop Culture too Toxic for Humanity?
Face tattoos, drug abuse, prostitution, gang violence, and several dead rappers later, is hip hop toxic?
Tekashi 6ix9ine "Gooba" Music Video (YouTube)
Published By: News Desk
at 12:00 p.m. January 25, 2021
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If you grew up following hip hop and were born in the 70's, 80's, or 90's, chances are the style of hip hop that you grew up listening to has drastically changed and perhaps not for the better. During the 80's America gave birth to more than just a raging crack cocaine epidemic that caused an unprecedented drug wave throughout the urban communities of the United States. A new genre of music was made, and it had emerged from the ashes of the new drug induced violence that would impact and hinder African American communities for decades to come, and it was appropriately titled for the audience of which it was intended, as we all came to know it as "gangsta rap". The crime music genre was pioneered in the 80s by rappers such as Schooll D and Ice-T, but wasn't popularized in the mainstream music industry until the manifestation of Eazy-E and Ruthless Record's notorious gangsta rap group "NWA." At the end of a span of three decades from the conception of gangsta rap, Trap Music would make its way on to the hip hop scene in the early 2000's, but in 2012 when a 17 year-old Keith Cozart, better known as Chief Keef, would enter the rap scene with heavy baselines and simplified gang affiliated bars in tracks like "Don't Like", in addition to the 2013 release of "Versace" by Migos, the fathers of mumble rap, the hip hop music genre as a whole would never be the same.
Too explicit for public radio
On a public radio station which elementary children have access to, your local hip hop radio station will proudly blast songs such as Blueface's "Thotiana" where the 24 year old rapper describes explicit sexual acts and engaging in drug abuse in his racy and controversial lyrics. However, the explicit nature of Blueface's "Thotiana" pales in comparison to "WAP", the smash hit by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 with 93 million U.S. streams. The term WAP (Wet a** P****) is an acronym that literally translates to a sexual reference which is too explicit for this article, and has already become a house hold brand with young children being able to recite the highly charged sexual explicit lyrics of the song word for word. In a recent statement rapper Cardi B stated that she doesn’t make music for kids and that "parents are responsible on what their children listen too or see". However, working parents cannot monitor their children 24hours around the clock, and as responsible citizens, should be able to live in a society where a public radio station would have enough decency not to play sexually charged lyrics or music that promotes a gangland lifestyle or in many cases, encourages young people to sell drugs.
Atlanta Rapper Future
Move That Dope
Lyrics by Future
Young ni**a move that dope
Young ni**a move that dope
They move that dope,
they move that dope
Young ni**a move that dope
Young ni**a, young ni**a
move that dope
Young ni**a move that dope
They move that dope,
they move that dope
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Culture of Violence
In today's hip hop music, gangland lifestyle and violence is glorified in lyrics without any social commentary about the day to day struggle facing impoverished families living below the poverty line, which previous rappers in the 90's would somehow find a way to incorporate within their lyrics so that there is at least a positive hidden message under the surface of their explicit content. In today's hip hop music videos, young rap artist perform violent gangsta rap lyrics while flashing stacks of money and sometimes narcotics, and today's music videos of up and coming talent are almost certain to show a heavy display of artillery, and in some places such as Chicago, military styled firepower that is unavailable to the general public. This should cause any person with a functioning moral compass to question the motives of social media companies who on the one hand will ban the President of the United States for inciting violence on our nation's capitol, but on the other hand will host violent content to be promoted, sold, and distributed on their platforms despite the negative repercussions and causes of death that the content is having on urban communities all throughout the world. In the year 2020 alone there was 6 high profile hip hop murders which can be indirectly or directly related to rap music "beefs"; Pop Smoke, Lil Marlo, Tray Savage, Huey, and Mo3 of Dallas, Texas who was gunned down in broad daylight on a Texas highway only 5 days after King Von's murder in Atlanta by a rival rap group.Mo3 True Story Music Video(YouTube)
WARNING: EXPLICIT/GRAPHIC CONTENT
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Hip Hop's affect on Society
Alongside NBA star Steph Curry, former President Barack Obama appeared at an event for My Brother's Keeper Alliance in Oakland, California, where Obama criticized Hip Hop culture and its many negative stereotypes. At the event Obama particularly spoke of the "violence and pain" that communities suffer from men "seeking respect". In today's hip hop culture rap artist are notorious for trying to align their stories with past hip hop greats such as the late Tupac Shakur. But when interacting with fans today's hip hop artist are more likely to be rude, condescending, and arrogant toward everyday working people, which is in contrary to how Tupac Shakur treated his fans and supporters as he was known in the industry to do private charitable acts for people without seeking publicity for those acts through the media. In today's hip hop culture, rap artist have doubled down on their hard edged lyrics with extreme and vulgar expressions, and have created a culture of disrespecting one another for attention which opposition artist describe as "clout chasing". The era of social media has proven itself to be a tool that only exacerbates the potential of hip hop violence. While rival rap groups boast about how much money they've got and poke fun at how poor you are, and seek to build on their street cred by attacking other artist for showing the slightest sign of disrespect, children that are looking up to these artist as role models begin to imitate their personalities, thus harming our society by infecting our youth with antisocial behavior that is not conducive to building friendly communities nor the morals and empathetic values that are expected in humanity.
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