by Joshua K. Bradshaw

Created on: November 04, 2009

Yes, I would certainly say it is. They (both artists and record producers) deliberately made it that way to rake in more profits. When rap started out, it wasn't about violence, profanity, the n word, the degradation of women or the selling and abuse of drugs. It did not endorse the degrading stereotypical imagery of urban African Americans so blatantly promoted by rap today. It started going downhill when the gangster image became cool in rap. Hip hop was co-opted by the criminal element of society and it brought the unsavory lifestyle with it.

Most of rap music nowadays promotes a hedonistic mentality based on drugs, sex, money, and violence peppered with profanity and misogynistic epithets. To be fair, most of the rest of entertainment in America is intellectually stunted as well. The most unfortunate side effect of brain cell-killing thug noise ( I don't think music is an appropriate term for such cacaphony) is the detrimental impact it's had on youth, specifically those from low income backgrounds.

If you're constantly bombarded by songs and videos glorifying self destructive behavior from an early age, you grow up thinking it's normal. Not only that, but you learn that education is unimportant and that the only way to succeed in life is to steal, murder, sell drugs, curse, and demean women. It makes me wonder how much of the youths who've entered the criminal justice system have been primarily influenced by the glorification of criminality from the entertainment they've been exposed to.

The myth of the cool gangster lifestyle is perpetuated by the few artists who've risen to the top. What about the countless others who've made rapping their life goal? Often, they wind up in the trap of the revolving door of the criminal life, along with it's negative side effects. Most don't have a decent education to fall back on, so they stay in the criminal element to support themselves. In addition, even the successful rappers are not immune to the hazards of involvement with criminal activity, as the tragic cases of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls demonstrate.

Rap needs to either change it's overall message or be thrown out like last week's garbage. No one likes literal garbage reeking up their house, but many will tolerate and even enjoy the verbal garbage coming from their cd players. There the best solution to combating such noise pollution is boycotting it. When people learn they can't make a decent living by degrading themselves, others, and society in general, they will change their tune (pun entirely intended).

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