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I disagree with the OP, it's not the music. The reality is many of the black youth are influenced directly by their environment, the music tells their story how they sees the world.
I listened to a lot of aggressive and violent music but it has never made me a violent person.
The Black Youth are lost and there is nothing that will turn that around. There are more different ethnic groups moving into this country with zero "slave guilt" so they have no guilt or concern how the Black Youth waste their lives.
Hip Hop is Huge and Widespread. I saw a nad for the new Rio 2 movie and all the cartoon birds were dancing and rapping and acting all street. What I don't like about that is all kids who see the movie will emulate the characters and start talking and acting like little smart a**es. Most modern Disney movies have a smart alleck tough talking street character. I don't know if this is so kids from the hood can identify with the movie or if it is what is now considered COOL.
Hip Hop can be fun but most of it is sounding more and more angry. The rappers do take slices of their environment and rap about them. What is scary and sad is that most of their experiences are negative.
What I consider sad is with all the strides made in the black community, such as their influence on pop culture, dominance in sports, and doors opening up all over including 1600 Pennsylvania ave. I believe that civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King would be upset about the negative impact many black youths are having on their communities and violent rap is only perpetuating the problem.
Rap is the most misogynist form of music ever. No expression of any form has every held women in more contempt. But far more destructive to black men and women is welfare. It has destroyed the black family. This disaster, as bad as it has been, has still not played itself out completely.
I grew up on speed/death metal (still a practicing headbanger) and I never worshipped satan, killed animals, or did the things that people think of when they hear the word "Slayer." So I don't blame Rap music for the violence, but I also can't honestly say that it may not play a role in some of the negative behaviors as they try to mimic their idols.
Obviously not all hiphop is so nihilistic, but a lot of the mainstream stuff is so hard for me to swallow, I really can't believe that people can truly appreciate it on any level. It glorifies some of the most disgusting human behaviour possible, and then people just seem to mop it up and try to compensate for how obviously ridiculous it is by 'kind of' mocking it from time to time.
I know people who are right in to it and they always say things like "yeah, but it's great because this person was so poor and now they have so much, so that's what they write about. They had to sell drugs to feed their kids and now they are world famous!"
So? Why does it have be so degrading, chauvinistic, and material-wealth oriented?
Also, it's important that I should point out that I don't think this is damaging to specifically black youth either. Tons of kids of any race or age are in to it. From my observations, the greatest demographic seems to be the least educated populations. Honestly, I think youth are impressionable to this stuff, and I'm not haywire enough to militantly go around berating music, but I don't understand why more artists don't have the brains and guts to be more positive and/or thought-provoking within the hip hop community.
I don't think it makes people necessarily violent or ill-behaved, but it seems to at least perpetuate this cycle of being completely indifferent to developing in to a well-thought out, intellectual person.
yes, but you will be bashed and called a racist for saying so...
Maybe. But white folks have never bashed anything Afrocentric right? Or have you not noticed the inspiration for this thread? Oh and by the way, I guess heavy metal music is more wholesome, regarding its influence on young white youth in America? Especially since Jimmy Hendrix practically invented the genre?
Right or wrong, I still think of hip hop as old school music - like something you could breakdance to. A lot of it had a positive message attached. Then what I call the "don't give a f" craze entered we got gangster rap. Ruined the beauty of hip hop, imo.
Does Hip Hop culture contribute to the destruction of young Black Youth in America? It seems that many young Americans(especially young black males) idolize and look up to rappers who perpetuate negative stereotypes they portray like materialism, solving every problem with violence, degrading females, not valuing education, homophobism, etc. Is Hip Hop destroying the young Black Youth of this country?
However, what I perceive through the media (which may be totally incorrect) is that a lot of youth seem to see that the only way out of poverty is to either become an athlete, drug dealer or hip hop/rap artist. Like, even Eminem raps about how he has to do well with his music career or he won't be able to afford diapers. As if there are no other options to be able to afford diapers? I grew up poor in a trailer park too, but I knew that there were more practical ways to get out of the trailer park! Anyway, that mindset seems kind of rampant (although I may be wrong!) and that is hindering a lot of people's ability to get out of poverty, probably.
There are fewer than 2000 black professional athletes in the US (meaning: Paying their mortgages through their sports, either as players or through endorsements). That includes the baseball minor leagues.
There are fewer than 1,000 black recording artists paying their mortgages through their music.
There are more than a million black doctors, lawyers, and architects. Probably a million black computer programmers.
Who is it pushing the idea that athletics and sports are the only way out? Someone is doing it...we need to find those people and stop that message.
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