Hip Hop's birth is often characterized as an explosion. At it's emergence, it embodied youthfulness, rawness, and innovation. Hip Hop rappers such as LLCool J, RUN DMC, and Dougie Fresh combined a movable beat and message that appealed to a youthful audience begging for a venting outlet. It was healthy and cathartic. In the years to come the innocence of Hip Hop was lost. The same venue that allowed so many youthful minds to express themselves began exploiting them. With the advent of gangsta rap came the destruction and commercialization of the once innocent Hip Hop culture.
When gangsta rap began it set out to enlighten the world to the pains of the inner city life. It connected to so many black people in peril. The artists of this genre had a mission, that no matter how harsh and cruel the message was, they were going to spit about the realities of inner city life as black person. The same is not true today. Rap has gone Hollywood. It is this combination that makes Rap music and Hip Hop culture so harmful. Artists no longer care what the implications of their records bring, but how much money it amounts to. It is through the world of Hip hop we have taught our children the main goals in life are materialism and greed. It's through Hip Hop that stereotypes of black men and women are continuously manipulated.
A lot black people were insulted when celebrity Bill Cosby criticized parents for letting the media raise their children. It's not that Bill Cosby was being offensive or cruel; plain and simple, the truth hurts. The well known comedian made a point of citing Hip Hop artists influence on not only black communities but, also the white communities around them. He was basically saying rap music portrays the black community in a negative light; and African Americans feed into that self image. It's almost like a self fulfilling prophecy. And, white communities embrace the images of black people through the eyes of Rap and Hip Hop artists. The result is a wider gap amongst the white and black community.
Rap music is laced with so many mixed messages it=s hard to decipher what the artists are trying to say. At one instance, a song will depict the troubles and hardships of living in the ghetto. On the next spectrum a song will down right slaughter the image of women, and black men. Women are often typecast as sex objects, gold diggers, and deceitful back stabbers, often using the baby mama card to manipulate the black male. Black men are depicted as relentless, thugs whose only choice is to break the law to get ahead. Somehow this is justified in the Hip Hop/Rap world because the system of the so called normal society is not helping them. It's victim rationalization that rap music has been playing on this for quite some time. This rationalization describes Black men as mere victims of society and the blame is not on them but the world they live in.
The essence of infidelity in the Hip Hop world is all too common amongst black men. Almost all of them cheat but, that too is justified because women are simply trying to take advantage of them financially. How can these rap songs claim to being helping the black community? What do songs like 50 Cent's P.I.M.P have to do with cultural need for change? By depicting what the inner city black person is like? Is that what these songs think they accomplish? Not only does this destroy the image of the black communities but it adds to an already huge pile of stereotypes, black people are still trying to overcome. When does it stop? What is also interesting about this type of music is that it sells greatly among white consumers. No wonder they hold so many misconceptions about black people. If a foreigner were given one type of music to describe the African Americans race in America, I pray it would not be rap music.
The music is not the only factor of the Hip Hop culture that stifles the black community, the artist all too often play into the roles Hollywood has set for them. Rap music is a profitable business, the more realistic the artist, the more profitable their music. Artists who claim to be only story tellers of the inner city all too often live the life long after they are famous. The deaths of rappers Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur are a huge examples of how many artists get caught up in the hood from which they came. This is not to say they should forget where they came from entirely. But, what was the struggle for, if not to escape the hood ? Why are rap artists constantly emerging themselves in the cross fires of violence? Are they in need of more material? What a impact it would make if a rapper admitted, 'Yes I came from the hood, but I don't have to stay there.
It is no surprise that the spending potential of Black America is powerful. It'ss for this reason so many Hip Hop fashions and apparel companies target blacks communities. In a census done in 2001 it was shown that African Americans spent a whopping 24.7 billion dollars on apparel and services. While expenses like computer equipment were only 1.6 billion, books were 356 million. Blacks spend more money on apparel and image products than educational tools. Don't you think rap artists know this? Of course they do. They claim to be helping their hood, how are they helping the hood by focusing on materialism to motivate social status?
Rappers parade around with name brand clothes and drive expensive cars. Through music videos and television they send the message that these things are synonymous with power and respect. It's often this element of hip hop that separates the youth. In inner city schools, lower income black families have children pleading to have the latest Baby Phat or Sean Jean , and for what? By having these fashions the children feel they are like the rappers they admire. The hip hop industry has made a killing on encouraging blacks to succumb to these guilty pleasures. At a time when black ownership of houses and literacy rates among children are extremely low, fashion should be the last concern of the black community.
Rap music depicts a image of the black community; that is harmful to communities of all economic status. It has almost become a signature of what is and is not black. As a genre of music that is supposedly representing the black culture it is doing an awful job. What about all those black people who are succeeding in America? Where is their credit? Why are things like violence, sex, and drugs glamorized and not more important things like college, abstinence, and awareness? What is the rap community doing about all of this? It is fair to say there are some artists doing something positive. Artist such as Russell Simmons and Sean P. Diddy Combs are making waves in encouraging the black community to vote this coming election. Sadly, their efforts are overshadowed by all the damage rap music has left.
There is no doubt that rap music has had a negative effect on the black community. This can be seen in the increasing rates of teen pregnancies among black youth, increase in violence, and illiteracy rates. If statical factors aren't enough it is seen in the eyes of our children, in black schools, and inner cities where raps impact among black youth is undeniable. This is not to say all the blame is on Rap music and the hip hop culture. We as parents and as Black Americans need to wake up to the ever increasing crisis in our communities. We are losing our children to the wrath of the media a.k.a rap music. It is now time, more so than ever to strengthen the family unit, inform kids of the dangers and precautions of sex, drugs, and violence. It is time to come together as a community to raise our children, It takes a village. It's time to pull our children away from materialistic vices, such as hip hop fashion. These things do not build character or personality. It is now time to talk to our children about what they hear in rap music. Rap music has become a kind of video game, where we all are having a hard time deciphering what is fantasy and reality. Let's un-blur those lines. To fight back on rap's influence, it's going to take a village.
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