[quote]masterblaster wrote:
Issac117:
Its the philosophy and the life-style that is in question here…rap thugs promte and seem to take some perverted pride in this gangster mentality and so they and their followers fall victim to themselves. Another poster stated “you reap what you sow” and this is the point.
Other genres of muisc(respectable true music) do not enourage this type of life. Old school rock for example addressed social ills and encouraged social change all for the good of society and the betterment of the future. You can’t find that type of value in this gangster rap crap. Have you ever listened to the lyrics on Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me” or John Lennon’s “Imagine”?
And I do not understand why they have to infuse every lyric (if you can call it that) with “fuck” and “bitch” and other like language…this comes from a lack of intelligent vocabulary. These dudes ought to take all that money they’re making and invest it in a college education or perhaps, to start, a GED or HS education.
I truly believe that neither Martin Luther King or Malcolm X would approve of this “music” and the message it sends to youth, especailly black youth.
I know my father, who was Black, would never have allowed this shit in our house when we were growing up and I do not allow it with my kids…they know better.
MB[/quote]
You seem to be under the impression that all rap is akin to what you see on BET, when, as has been said probably a dozen times thus far in just this topic - it isn’t. And there aren’t very many, if any, rappers that I can name that base their entire portfolio upon a thug image. To this end, you must not let your kids play violent videogames, either, because if they can’t tell the difference between the lyrics of a song and real life, they sure as Hell can’t tell the difference between Grand Theft Auto and reality.
Claiming that rappers are just “reaping what they sow” is a joke. Does anybody blame Pearl Jam when a kid kills himself in front of his classmates? No. And yet Proof - unknown circumstances notwithstanding - is blamed for black on black crime.
And if you want to talk about greats like Marvin Gaye, at least bring up a comparable rapper - Proof was a good man and a good rapper, but he’s not going to go down, in the grand scheme of things, as a legend. Why not talk about Tupac? Oh, right, because then your argument would hold no water. Tupac - on his very first album - goes to great lengths on social inequity, rape, molestation, and other topics. On his second he talks about the effects of lacking a father figure, about single mothers, and about the abuse of women. On the third… Do I really need to go on?
And calling a rapper ignorant because he uses profanity is the weakest excuse for defamation I’ve ever heard. Here’s the thing: I use profanity. Quite a bit. It’s not a replacement for “intelligent vocabulary,” it’s a method of emphasis. There are certain ways that words with moderate social taboos can get a message across that denotatively equivalent words can’t. It’s that simple.
Finally - calling it all shit is avoiding the issue. There are rappers out there that are smarter than you are. Chances are - however slim - that there are rappers out there smarter than I am. They can put together lyrics, which, if your life depended on it, you couldn’t. These same rappers are the ones who inject vulgarity into every line, and yet, they’ve got the active vocabulary of a Rhodes scholar. Do they talk about women in a negative light? Probably. Have you? Probably. They’re not perfect - they’re people.