Rap Violence Essay Example For Students

Rap Violence Essay Imagine an inner city kid having grown u in an environment where real life street violence is a way of life. His body, having survived personal experiences of violence, endured barely life sustained conditions, and many sleepless nights caused by the constant yet unpredictable call of death. His mind doubtful over where his next meal will come from, lost in search of some higher guidance, struggling through a world, not of innocent childish fantasies, but trapped in a forced reality. His only outlet is the loud blaring music coddling his already pent-up rage, an escape from these harsh realities, seducing him to a life of violence. In him is created a me against the world mentality that is manifested in the rap and hip-hop music that dominates his culture. Among the most common subjects of rap and hip-hop is violence and misogyny. They emphasize these two as inevitable regularities of the life lived in the streets. Their music reflects this fact by promoting violence and misogyny, which poses adverse influences on not only children and teenagers in the ghettos and urban cities but also other people affected by them. Violence and misogyny is a very serious problem that the American people have to face in todays society. It is rapidly growing and is more frequent in major cities and suburbs. Most random acts of violence are surprisingly committed in the streets by young teenagers and even young children, most of which are influenced by their favorite rap or hip-hop artists. The subject of violence and misogyny found in rap and hip-hop music promotes violent crimes in city streets as well as influencing our innocent youth to commit random acts of violence. The most common acts of violence committed are armed shootings and rape, many of which are commonly committed by teens and young children from urban cities living with poor family values. According o Senator Dole, The loss of family values is caused by the moral corruption of popular culture, and therefore we should hold rap artists, Hollywood moguls, and record executives responsible for our moral chaos. (Maker) Poor family values and influences from rap and hip-hop music may also tend to lead the young teen or child to commit acts of violence such as armed shooting and rape. Our kids have adapted the gangsta culture as a direct result of this music. We have kids killing kids, little boys raping little girls memorizing every word of these violent and pornographic songs (Maker). Sadly to say, the innocence of children across America will be lost because of the negative influences of sex and murder that is brought from gangsta rap. Violence has spread rapidly and has affected many innocent civilians in various urban cities and towns across America. According to a 1992 poll by Newsweek out of 1,000 people surveyed, 50.4% backs and 29,9% whites fell victims of violent crimes. (Graham) More and more people are becoming victims of such crimes that can easily affect a mass amount of people, fortunately, there is a less amount of innocent civilians of homicide and 52 white males out of 100,000 were victims of homicide (Graham). Soon, kids will kill each other and society in the future will be completely washed out. Most rap songs that contain violence reflects incidents that occur in todays society such as the Rodney King incident. Rap music brings together a tangle of some of the most complex social, cultural, and political issues in contemporary American society. Rap and hip-hop artists write songs that promote the killing of enemies as well as targeting institutions such as the church, government, and justice system (Ro 145) Most artists relive their own painful experiences over and over again though their music, delaying their own societys process of recovery . for example, in 1989 two years before the Rodney King incident, a rap group called N.W.A wrote a song that targeted blacks and police officers. The song was called Fuck the Police and some of the lyrics included Some people think they have the authority to kill the minority taking out a police will make my day (Ro 146) this type of hatred is what artists of rap and hip-hop music greatly glamorizes- killing people, especially enemies, for leisurely fun. History Of The Computer Industry In America (2767 words) EssayGang violence is a most common problem in urban city streets across the nation. It is a known fact that a large portion of gang violence is rape among women. These lyrics are derogatory sexual innuendoes viewed by many as promoting gang rape. (Ro 143) Gang rape is a serious problem today and is vastly growing. The reason why gangs are motivated to do these actions is because they want a sense of power, much like rappers. Their goal is to get as much pleasure out of women to earn and feel that sense of power. By calling women derogatory names, rappers and gangsters can feel the power over the women because they believe that calling women derogatory names brings the a sense of domination and more manlyhood. A former gangster rap group called N.W.A (Niggaz with Attitude) express extreme gang violence in their lyrics regarding rape This is the bitch that did the whole crew, She did it so much we made bets on who the ho would love to go throughAnd she lets you videotape her, and if you got a gang of niggers the bitchll let you rape her. (qtd in Ro 143) Women are not only raped violently by men, but are also physically abused. As quoted in on of Dr. Dres lyrics If your bitches talks s***, I have to put the smack down (qtd in Holmes 63) there have been countless reports of abuse to women in hotels, homes, and even in public places. Most often, rappers take pride in describing their abuse of power in sexual situations in their rap and hip-hop songs. As for women, they have no truly significant roles in the lyrics. They are simply used and abused such as describing in Dr. Dres popular song Nuttin but a G Thang in which he raps before you hit on the bitch you have to find a contraceptive, you never know she could be learning her manand at the same time burning her man (qtd in Sexton 62). This is a clear example of how men treat women as sex objects and they try to bring forth an image that all women are just looking for sex. If you though that song lyrics are bad, the song titles are just as worse. Most song titles are very extreme and have deeper meanings to it. For example Dr.Dres hit son Let Me Ride,: has two connotations: the first refers to sexual encounter and the second refers to the sexual act of intercourse. Snoop Doggy Dogs album Doggystyle refers to the sexual act of having sex through the rear entry position. Finally, K7s Come Baby Come, incorporates a catchy chorus line saying I come baby come, baby baby, come come if ya gotta give me loving then youve gottta give me some (qtd in Sexton 64) which basically refers to the sexual act. It is surprising that music can have such an impact on American society today. The truth is that rap and hip-hop music not only affects teenagers and children that commit violence, but also affects those victims who suffer from the violent acts, Violence and Misogyny is a very serious problem that Americans face today and in order to create peace in our city streets, we must set guidelines to what our children should or should not hear. Words/ Pages : 2,077 / 24