Part 2 of the death of rap - 3.1.2007.2

Continued from part 1 The reported decline of rap music - 3.1.2007.1...

And the issue of what ‘gansta’ rap addresses needs to be addressed. This is supposedly the life of Black Americans, the ‘truth’ of being African American in America today. Perhaps I grew up in the wrong time in the world, or the Bronx is not large enough, or the apartment I grew up in was too rich, but few of the ‘truths’ rap speaks about are what I’ve encountered. While my experiences show that the police are not the most friendly group of individuals (to say the least) they are far from the Klan. While the materials I was taught with were sub-standard, nothing stopped me from seeking more knowledge or furthering my education. While I’ve seen and been in many fights, there was never a need or reason worth killing someone over. And drugs have always been present, though as a child they were beyond the reach of kids; and I’ve seen more childhood friends become addicts, locked up in jail, and dead by the time I graduated high school because of them than I wish to recall.

If the ‘truth’ that ‘gansta’ rap speaks of was true, then my younger siblings should all have very different lives. [I am the oldest, my siblings range from 3 to 14 years my junior] My sisters should all be baby-mamas with 4 kids each from a different father without an education and living off any man that regards their bodies as ‘doable’. I’m happy to say that this is not the case, like many other women my sisters have all attended college (one with a Masters, another with a BS, and a third in school now) and the only one with children is married (with her husband the father). According to rap today, that isn’t the truth yet I see it often. If my brothers were to live by the standards espoused in songs today, I wouldn’t be able to own a company engaged with computers and the internet nor would my brother be able to program computers. None of us would be able to even spell computer, and my other brother would be dead. All of the males in my family would have 6 kids, all from different women, we would sell drugs, kill other Black men to prove we are important, and be addicts. None of this is accurate for my family, nor the vast majority of African Americans I know and have seen across this country.

Continued in the final part 3 ...