The reported decline of rap music - 3.1.2007.1

Finally there is an outcry about rap music. I must say that while I am glad this is finally happening there should be an understanding that such an outcry should not be all inclusive. I do not recommend abandoning the music genre en masse. I do not think that it should be censored, or limited. In fact I want it to be widened, more like its original format than the narrow range seen today.

I have long stated that rap today, and hip-hop, is a waste of time. There is far too much copy-catting of the same 3 themes: drugs, sex, and violence. Virtually every rap song, and hip-hop to a large degree, discusses to some extent at least 2 of those 3 themes. Those themes are used to promote the use of drugs, the use of sex as a means of status and degradation, the sale of drugs, and violence to support status, gain income, and further the degradation. For more than a decade this has been the voice of rap.

Yet this was not always the case. Those roughly 35 and older recall that there was more to rap than this. Rap music initially was a statement of fun and enjoyment. It evolved to discuss social ills, individual empowerment and positively being around friends. That’s when it was killed off to be replaced wholesale with what is now the mainstream (formerly the splinter genre ‘gansta’ rap).

Rap is not responsible for someone being so vile as to go out and shoot a cop, or rape a woman, or any other offensive action. I’m sure lawyers wish they could prove that, but it is no more responsible for a thoughtless action than Rock & Roll is for suicides (examples include Marilyn Manson or Metallica). That being said, I do feel it is responsible for praising such actions. Rap today nearly requires its top stars to be convicted felons, drug addicts, and uneducated.

The growth of ‘gansta’ rap is not the fault, or cause of, African Americans. While entertainers emphasize their Black heritage the fact is that sales have been predominantly fueled by White Americans. As the need to ‘express the truth of our lives’ became more violent, sales to White Americans grew. So the claim that, “...the truth is at least us talking about what we're talking about, we can bring certain things to the light,” seems to be reaching a group of people that neither knows what ‘we’ are talking about nor capable of making it change [those changes being a personal responsibility not a societal one].

Continued in part 2...