what yall think about the new attack on the rap industry?

[Sydal]

You say that rap didn't create the problems and that it just exposed it, well you forgot that it perpetuates it and glorifies them. Rather than describing black on black crime as negative and horrifying in songs, it is used in lyrics to show how "hard" a rapper is. Rather than taking a stand and abhorring what the government did in the eighties by implanting crack into inner cities, rap glorifies the drug. Rather than making music that would make people in inner cities say "hey we should fuckin do something about this." most popular rap music just glorifies the disempowerment of people living in inner cities.

I don't see how you can use double standards as an argument in support of the word "bitch" when a man that gets a lot of girls is looked at positively while a woman who gets a lot of men is described negatively. If I recall correctly, most men who buy into the habit of using the word "bitch" to describe females loosely will use the word for a woman based simply on what they look like and sometimes not even that. Extreme feminists aren't questioned for what they say because their message has not proven to be as dangerous and polluting to society as those in popular rap music. You say that you have the right to speak your minds, of course that's a given, but the white men in suits decide what will be put on mtv and on the radio. They love seeing the perpetuation of inequaltity and chaos within non-white communities. Sow ho is more to blame, the white man in the suit who seeks out a black rap artist to promote and glorify a message of self-destructive violence and anti-education or the rapper who signs the contract and further feeds the message to the community he came from?

Hardly anyone I know would deny that our government is corrupt and that our system is set up to keep non-whites powerless, but what do you expect to happen? These rich white people in power magically saying "you know what I'm tired of my race of people having all this fucking power, let's equalize education, teach people how to make changes and actually start to enforce anti-discrimnation policy". Fuck no, change has to start from the people who are suppressed not the suppressors. Does glorifying self destruction, degradation of women and mterialism act as a catalyst for social change? no it's the opposite. You made a lot of complaints about society, as you should, so I find it confusing as to how you can not acknowledge the role of popular rap music in programming the minds of our youth to not strive for change. No one's just gonna hand you justice.

You raise valid points, and I disagree with NONE of them. I personally hate the shit that is pushed to MTV and Radio, but I love real rap music. See, not all rap music is bad. It is the MEN in suits who push it, and who rubs shoulders with these guys? People in Congress, politicians. They're all buddies, but the politicians don't blame the companies, they blame the artists for not being responsible when ultimately, it's the company they are under that tells them what they will put out. You have people who speak out against the companies, but money speaks a lot louder.

On another note, yes, lyrics do glorify certain things. BUT, if people would listen to these artists TALK, they tell a very different story. They didn't see when 2Pac was doing shit for people, they only saw him being pulled out of a hotel after "sexually assaulting" somebody who admitted to having consentual sex with him. They didn't hear him when he was speaking positively about shit, they only heard him say BITCH and saw him spitting at cameras.

They don't see 50 Cent donating money to help others, they hear about him getting shot at and engaging in rap wars. They don't see Snoop Dogg coaching football and doing shit for the kids, they see him on TV after getting arrested for whatever he did that time.

Fact of the matter is, rap artists do MORE for people in this country than the government does. I understand that young people are influenced by rap artists...but if the media showed the young people that rap artists do VERY POSITIVE THINGS, these kids would know that rappers, for the most part, promote positivity. Nobody sees that good shit though, because POSITIVE doesn't sell...even in the news. There was a news reporter that said, if there was a shooting and a child drowning at the same time, he would cover the shooting...because it makes good t.v.

 

[The Visualizer]

Yo J.COLOMBO is this from a movie or just some random pic cause I wanna d/l that shit

 

[RealRich]

rappers kill on cd: national outrage.

bush kills 650,000 iraqis: everybody yawns.

Exactly...Army commercials do more damage to people of color than any video BET will EVER play.

 

[TRAJIK1]

Here's what I posted on myspace yesterday on the whole shit...interesting you brought it up...

So I've been seeing on the news lately that people across the country are blaming Rap music for Don Imus' stupid remarks on his radio show. Well, they aren't really BLAMING us, but we are now the ones being looked at.

First off, Don Imus is a grown man, and I doubt he figured he'd say what he said because he heard it on a rap record. GET OVER IT! Do I agree that rap artists need to change their direction and try to teach a better way of living? Of course I do...but why attack us when we point out the negatives?? This shit came from higher powers. We, as artists, did not create what is wrong with America...we simply exposed it all.

If a woman can call another woman a bitch, or if a woman can call herself a bitch, what is wrong with us doing it when necessary? You all have to understand, we know the difference between women and bitches...and if women call men assholes when they act like assholes, why is it frowned upon when we turn it around? What's with the double standards here? We have extreme feminists that say all men are bastards and women don't need us...why aren't they ever questioned on national television? GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASSES AND LET US SPEAK OUR MINDS...the constitution allows for everybody to do that...but you people who run this country don't like that artists can reach a million minds everytime we say something.

Why don't you worry about more important shit? For example, how stupid our children are getting every day because you keep cutting educational programs and telling people how they should raise their kids!?!? Get it together. Were you spanked? I was, by hand and kitchen utensils...and look, I'm not in prison. It seems the less people discipline their kids, the more their kids act like complete jackasses.

So, instead of focusing on US, focus on YOU and what is really important. Rap artists saying what they feel doesn't ruin a country or youthful minds. What ruins a country and youthful minds is, a bunch of hardheaded jackasses in business suits that only give a fuck about their own bottom line....and will do anything to keep their dollars rolling in. While you government officials are at it, why don't you ban cigarettes and stop fuckin' with people who smoke weed to gain an appetite and ease the pain of terminal illnesses. You made it legal for people to get lung cancer, and you made it illegal for them to self-medicate. Why don't you tell my deceased grandmother why you allow people to smoke?

While I'm on a tangent here, why do you think it's ok to spend money on impotence before we have a cure for the most deadly diseases rocking the world today? Are old men going to die if they don't get a hard-on? Don't blame Hip-Hop for societies ills, thank your fucked up politics and unimportant shit that, for reasons uknown to me, are at the top of your to-do list.

well said