Rap & Gangsterism

A lot of people, from authors, to the American government have accused Rap music of promoting violence; they have strongly tied rap and gangsterism together. Some individuals and bodies even put the sole blame on rap music for all the violence in America. I want to try and tackle this subject the best way i can. First i would like to give a short history of what hip hop stands for, and what it is all about. Hip Hop, which started back in the 70s, was about expression of self. It had the elements of Brakedancing; Graffiti, DJing, Beat-boxing, and Emceing/Rapping. Basically, it was some form of music the African Americans created for themselves to express how they felt artistically. Of course, from reading the title of my blog, you would know that Rap is Hip Hop.




Judging from what i have written so far, it is clear that Rap music is essentially people expressing how they are living. Rap music has evolved, and has seen different era's, just like any other thing that depends on the social behavior of a people at any given time. Rap music has gone from people dancing and just having fun in the mid 80s, to people teaching and educating the masses to fight for their rights (Public Enemy); to Gang Related issues from NWA. And from there on, it has been a mix of Conscious, Gangsta Rap, Braggadocios Rap, and Party Rap songs since then. But all in all, it has been a reflection of what was going on in the society...or more about what was going on in the society of the people that are making the music. Rappers just tell stories of what they witness or what they hear about in their neighbourhood.

So what is my point? My point is that Rap Music does not really instil the will to be violent in its listeners, it just talks about what they can relate to. Although some rappers celebrate that lifestyle, and it might make the people already living that lifestyle feel good about it, it didn't make them start living that lifestyle in the first place. If rap music causes people to act violently, i would probably have killed a hundred people since i started listening to rap in 1994. I mean, the volume of rap music i have consumed since then, every day, every hour is enough to have made me the leader of a gang, but i am nothing close to that kind of person. Neither are all the other millions of people in my country (Nigeria) that listen to rap music. The thing is that we do not have a case where thousands of a race of people are huddled up to live without a system that supports them in a way to make easy for them to get jobs to sustain their lives, which leads a majority of them to find others means of survival...prostitution in different levels for the women and a gang related life for the men.





Like Nas said when he was accused of being pro-violence in his music- what about grindhouse and kill bill? These movies have sold millions and are celebrated, but they portray more violence than Nas's artistic display of story telling in a less than 5 minute song. You see kids trying to fly, or making fingers in a shape of a gun after watching a violent movie, but you can't see a kid looking for where to get a gun after listening to a Jadakiss song. The kid might want to dress as cool a Jadakiss; or might want to get girls like how rappers talk about in their songs, but he definitely wont be looking out for the next gun battle in the hood.




I would end by saying, in no way does Rap foster the mind for gangsterism in the youth; and if it does to a level, the system does more damage than rap music does.