America's Problem with Hip-Hop

So even though a lot of the more overt conversations about hip-hop have decreased, I wanted to write my thoughts because I still see random people taking shots at rappers and hip-hop culture in the media. This may rub a few people the wrong way, which leads me to believe it is true.

Hip-hop is no stranger to criticism; throughout its existence it has been
forced to defend itself. The most common argument against it is that the music is degrading and vulgar, and it portrays a bad image to young society. However, not only are these arguments coming from uninformed, close-minded individuals, they also do not represent the real problem America has with hip-hop. Mainstream white America could give a damn about black women and men being degraded, and they sure as hell don't care about vulgarity seeing as though the rest of the entertainment business is overflowing with it. The real concern of rap came when little Tommy and Sally came in the house rapping Jay-Z songs and emulating what they saw on television. When society saw that these messages were beginning spread to white children-and even worse, the children were listening-that's where the problems started. The fact that another culture is influencing young whites is the issue here.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't like 99% of the rap released today, nor do I support the use of the n-word or calling women of any race bitches, but that simply isn't the issue here. It seems as if many of the critics attempt to make it seem as if hip-hop was the first to degrade women or even use the n-word. But to quote Phonte of Little Brother, "like yall wasn't calling black women hoes before Rapper's Delight!" Gimme a break! And then they try to claim that rap artists have a responsibility to become role models, while taking personal responsibility away from themselves. What ever happened to being a parent to a child? What ever happened to taking personal responsibility to educate a child on what is real and what is fake? Rappers (and any entertainer for that matter) have about as much responsibility to be a role model as the actors who make violent and sexual movies and tv shows.

This is simply another attempt to force a different culture to assimilate. Simply put, "we don't approve of your influence on our children, so therefore you must change your message." That's racism at its finest, putting a culture under a microscope and attempting to "fix" the "problems" by making them more similar to dominant tastes.