by dennie hayes

Created on: May 03, 2009

It's official that rap music is garbage.

And although I've grown to dislike the so called artform over the years, it's stupid for anyone to solely blame rappers and rap music for destroying this country's future. That's always been the job of our trusty government.

But the burning question being posed is what's it going to take for diehard rap fans across the country to get it through their thick skulls that these catfights or so called "beefs" between two rappers is usually orchestrated by the rappers and greedy record execs to make millions and sell records?

It's a deceptive ploy that worked during the East Coast, West Coast rivalry. And it's an underhanded method still being used by record companies to this very day to trick an impressionable public.

Just ask rapper 50 Cents, he'll tell you personally that the "beef" between him and The Game made him laugh all the way to the bank.

Sadly, rap's present culture is totally different from the days of the Sugar Hill Gang and De La Soul. Today's rap music has evolved into a pathetic form of meaningless, self expression laced with violent overtones and ghetto clichs. Rap is also responsible for influencing and brainwashing our youth into believing that living a life of "thuggery" and "lawlessness" will get them adulation from the opposite sex and garner them respect from their male peers.

But it's the choice of today's youth if they decide to participate in a life of criminality.

It's also annoying when some black women's groups often complain about rap music's misogynous tone and what they feel is a stereotypical portrayal of black women in rap videos as oversexualized and vindictive vamps.

It wasn't that long ago that St Louis rapper Nelly found himself embroiled in the middle of a firestorm over his controversial "Tip Drill" music video, where the St. Louis rapper can be seen swiping a credit card between a stripper's buttcrack. The rapper was eventually boycotted by an angry mob of black female students at the historically black Spellman University when the rapper showed up on campus to promote a bone marrow drive.

But these are the same hypocrite black females who'll wear provocative clothing to a nightclub and "Drop it like it's hot," to some Hot Boys.

And when it comes to the argument that black women are often stereotyped as bitches n- hoes in rap videos. I don't remember seeing anyone putting a gun to the heads of these women and forcing them to do anything against their will. As far as I'm concerned they're old enough to make their own choices, and it's obvious they've chosen the almighty dollar over self-respect and dignity.

In this case the only people responsible for degrading black women are black women.

So spare me the "I'm a strong black woman hear me roar!" rhetoric because I'm not buying it.

I've personally witnessed an intense level of hypocrisy coming from within the black community and some of its so called black leaders that it's sickening.

It's always interesting to watch Al Sharpton work his mojo on a gullible public as he recently made headlines accusing the recording industry of what they called a longtime exploitation of black artists.

The irony to all of this controversy is that no one has ever questioned Sharpton's ties to rapper 50 Cents and super producer Dr. Dre. Or the fact that Sharpton is a major stockholder in Interscope records, the very same label that houses both 50 and Dre.

But in all this hoopla over who's exploiting who. We've all forgotten one major factor.

For now we still continue to live and breathe in a free country and if you don't like what you see and hear on television and the radio, then don't watch it or listen to it.

It's that simple.

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