Rap Music
...TV so that is all they want to play. There are a multitude of rappers who haven’t sold crack and don’t rap about gun violence. Talib Kweli doesn’t want to be referred to as a conscious rapper simply because it means he wont get much attention from the public (Chang, 2003). His work definitely fits into the conscious realm of rap, but as Jeff Chang states, “to be a ‘political rapper’ in the music industry these days is to be condemned to preach to a very small choir” (p. 1). Conscious, or political rap, simply doesn’t get exposure. It can be argued if it is the media or the record labels, in my eyes they work together at causing the problem. We are in a country where “33 percent of of young Black men are under criminal supervision” (Rose, 1994). I am confident that figure has risen since 1994. Some people believe that black youth are simply emulating the behavior that they see and hear from Black artists. These people say that young children will always imitate what is perceived as cool. It is a known fact that the majority of rap albums are purchased by suburban white youth. While watching the news, I have never seen tales of gang shoot outs in any suburban white neighborhoods. Surely the children who form the majority of those listening to the music would imitate it, but they don’t. They don’t because the music isn’t what causes blacks to commit any crimes. The inner city environment is what draws black youth to criminal behavior. As I have grown up in a black inner city neighborhood in Washington, DC, I livedin the subject matter that “gangsta” rappers talk about. I watch people become crack addicts. I watch people I grew up with sell crack. One of my best friends was born to a mother who was addicted to drugs. It is no surprise that he now sells crack some 20 years later. There have been times when I seriously considered doing it. While thinking about, there were no rap songs playing through my head. Only images of what I saw on the streets with my own two eyes went through my head. Anyone would consider that crazy talk for someone in college. Why would a college student want to sell crack? It’s part of my environment as much as college is. If I wanted to do it, imagine how much the kid who barely finished high school wants to do it. The kid who didn’t have parents to send him off to school every morning and he certainly doesn’t have means to afford any type of college. What is he going to do? He is going to do what his older brother did, what his best friend does, and what the dude with the Lexus does. He is going to hustle because he feels his back is against the wall. Does he feel like that because of a particular album or music video? No. The black community has been in a terrible state for years. The plight of a black in the inner city is one of “massive unemployment for them, their parents, and relatives; constant police harassment and violence against their peers, coupled with limitied police efficacy against and in some cases complicity with the drug trade; routine arrests for ‘suspicious behavior’ (Rose, 2003) These issues sound familiar as they are what is talked about in rap these days. I put rappers in the same light as news reporters, they are telling what they know and what they have seen. YoYo, a rap star of the 90s said, ‘we see violent acts everyday” (Waldron, 1996). There is no positive functional point in attacking rappers as a cause of the street crime. They lived through it and now they are talking about it and the cycle will continue. The best way to stop rappers from talking about these issues is to stop the issues at their core. Increase the quality of life in black neighborhoods. Give blacks the same chance as the white kids in better school districts. What would gangsta rappers rap about if the conditions didn't exist? It is easier for whites in high positions to point the finger at rap music instead of pointing it at the numerous social wrongs that go on day in and day out in black urban society. Wrongs that were probably perpetrated by their ancestors. There is rhyme and reason to the actions of the corporate companies behind the scenes. By vilifying rap music they keep the blame away from the real culprits thus preventing the black problem from being solved. So they keep the status quo of blacks on the bottom and whites on the top while keeping the breeding grounds which give them chart topping rappers. In terms of media, it is much like an Akan proverb which says tales told by the hunter will always benefit the hunter. So it is no surprise that things are the way they are. The media is, above all, perpetuating racist ideas. While blacks are near the top of the music industry, they are still painted as gangsters. This sells records but it also only tells one part of the general picture of black males. Letting someone like Talib Kweli more promotion and media attention would lead people to believe that not all young males are gun-toting drug dealers. Keeping gangsta rap on top means that a person not normally around Blacks sees a young black male like myself and think I am a thug criminal. I see things like this in my own dorm on a regular basis. In many cases where I was on the elevator with one other person who was white, they acted very nervous and uncomfortable. The powers that be encourage rappers to rap about illegal activities even though they vilify it. There is a concrete example of this and of the notion that they want a black man viewed negatively. Rappers Jay-Z and Mos Def are similar in many ways. They are both gifted black male rappers with supreme lyrical prowess, and are both from Brooklyn. Their styles of rapping are similar; the only significant difference between the two is subject matter. Jay-Z raps about his times as a hustler selli...