All over the globe, hip-hop has taken over the minds of the youth and all races, from European Drill Music, China Alleged Rap Scene, Canadian Rap Artist, and, most of all, the Hispanic/Latino Trap culture. Often we like to think that music can be a way to escape the mental issues that set us back, but also it has become a nest for promoting way too much violence. These violent practices and outrages activities have influence over 65% of the culture to take the definite route, but the other percentage has chosen the path to follow instructions from their favorite rapper music. Let's talk about the hip-hop culture at HipHop Over Everything round table and hash this out.
Hip-Hop has always been the mecca of expression and unfiltered music way before the FreeBandz Future, Cash Money Lil Wayne, and one of my favorite artist Chief Keef. Even thou I came up in an era of 90's Gangsta Rap, my thoughts on promoting violence have always remained the same. I can remember listening to Snoop Dogg and thinking about what a rough life he has to live and still compose the life of a musician. The Godfather of Hip-Hop never motivated me to do the same thing through his lyrics. Really his music opened my eyes to the world, from the hoods to the suburbs. Similar to a life lesson from your grandparents or mother about their experiences in life. This helps us all to develop and progress into a self-conscience person with knowledge of what is wrong and right.
After a couple of years of learning about the gang culture of California through rap music, a new kind of Gangster rapper appeared by the name of 2Pac. 2Pac Shakur shocked the culture with his lyrical reflection of the growing up in the ghetto and living a thug life. His rebellious thug life movement influence a lot of inner-city hoods, suburbian kids, and poverty communities. Personally, I had friends who played his music 24 hours a day with no breaks included. I'm from the rural south, and Pac music hit us like a tidal wave because his message was strong and direct. The people in my small town started to all get tattoos, sag their pants, yell thug life, and wear bandanas to represent their sets. The message 2Pac was delivering was even across the field. Also, it didn't take a toll on me in a negative way. This was when the violence in hip-hop began to influence the youth, teens, and grow-ups looking for a leader in their communities.
Later down the road, rap took a turn for the worst and began to become a platform to express how artists and musicians fell about their opposition and enemies. Social Media has become the primary network for promoting violence. Its almost like a show and tell culture now. Showing guns in music videos and telling the fans what they do with them. This incites people to do the same thing, especially some young teenager with no guidance but music and phone. Now, what are our next steps to hinder this type of movement within our community? It's a lot of different approaches we can take, but first, the problem has to be measured.
If we can only go back to the days where a video was more exciting and well thought out, that could eliminate some of the poor performances by the artist. There is no reason to flex a gun through a whole music video and yell about popping your opp. I understand the culture well and believe that you should be able to rap about your personal life and problems, but there is no reason to glorify killing your op or rival gang member. Most people move in silence and don't display anything they want to do to their enemy, which can start a federal case. Let's be real, are you tired of this as well.
NFL Cartel Bo was Indicted on Gun Charges from this video with Maxo Kream
With all we have discussed in this blog, I see violence in hip-hop getting worst. No one wants to take steps towards dismantling the display of guns. We can express our selves in more than one way because our fans and culture deserve that. I love how hip-hop has progress over the years from the sound, look, and fashion, but the guns glorify nothing but problems that creates more problems. Let's start today and make a change because every other week or month, another artist either gets killed because he is actually living the words he rap or a rapper killing someone defending himself from the image he has painted from the lyrics and music.
Written By HipHop Over Everything (Posted here first on August 5, 2020)