Despite the sudden unbelievable demand for hip-hop in pop culture, there still remains a host of people who don't care much for rap music or hip hop culture in general. Their criticisms often include the assertion that hip-hop music essentially consists of thugs bragging rhythmically about drug dealing and violence over sampled loops. While this notion is generally poorly founded; based mostly on MTV's limited repertoire of hip-hop videos, these dissenters do bring up a point worthy of discussion. While not all, and probably not even the majority, of hip-hop music is violent and drug-laden, the part that is is becoming a rapidly spreading virus that is both detrimental to hip-hop and to this generation.
Hip-hop started in the streets. This is something that most everyone knows, and what most people would cite in opposition to the idea that "gangsterism" is ruining hip-hop. What those people don't realize though, is that early gangsta rap musicians weren't gangsta because it was cool to be gangsta, and they didn't necessarily want you to think that it was cool either. Gangsta rap pioneers like Schoolly D and Ice T were being frighteningly personal and intentionally antisocial because it was a way to express themselves and shock people, all while exposing the harsh realities of their lives. It was new. It was, for all intents and purposes, experimental. It was, by all definitions of the word, art. The key difference between Schoolly D and 50 Cent is that Schoolly D would have repped his gang and rapped about gunnin' down his enemies whether it was marketable or not; and to be quite honest, until NWA arrived (and Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg in particular), that brand of hardcore gangsta rap wasn't very commercially marketable. The difference between Schoolly D and 50 Cent is that Schoolly D says “I'm a G, and I don't give a fuck what you think about it”, while 50 Cent says “I'm a G, and it's important that you think that's cool”. Schoolly D wants you to think he's different from you. He wants you to fear him. He wants you to think he's a menace.
50 Cent, on the other hand, wants you to buy his G-Unit brand socks. He wants to be accessible to you and your family. He wants you to think he's cool. He wants you to accept him; and through some kind of strange industry magic, we have done just that. We have casually let admitted murderers into our way of life. We have let supposed drug dealers become role models for our society. Someone might say, “Well, if his music is entertaining, who cares what he talks about or what life he lives?” The problem, however, is not in the live he lives, but the fact that we accept the life he lives. Some people, for example, might know that Charles Manson was a musician and songwriter, and not a half bad one to boot. His songs have been covered many times since his incarceration. However, I would wager that most, if not all, of the people who like and/or cover his music do not accept the things he did as okay, much less cool!
Why is that? Frankly, it's because murder (and subsequently the conspiracy to commit it) is not okay, and it's not cool! Distributing harmful drugs (especially crack, which, although people are becoming more educated about it, has continued to contribute to the debilitation of several communities and families for decades) to your neighborhood is not okay, and it's not cool! Somehow, though, the hip-hop industry has convinced this generation that the life of a gangsta is not only both okay and cool, but also preferable. This is something that I'm certain both Schoolly D and Ice T would have nothing of. Mainstream hip-hop has become largely a breeding grounds for criminality, when it was supposed to be one for art and expression.
I want everyone to just sit down for a minute and be honest. These people are our kids' role models, whether we like it or not. Celebrities dictate which styles are fashionable. They introduce new words into our vernacular. They tell us what products to buy. Parents have a job to monitor what their kids subject themselves to, and kids have a responsibility to respect and trust their parents' judgment. But rappers, and celebrities in general, have a responsibility to refrain from misusing the tremendous influence they have on our society. It's okay for Tom Cruise to star in a movie with swearing and violence, because children are not permitted to enter the theater without an adult present. It's not okay for today's rappers to glorify an obviously detrimental and amoral lifestyle in an industry whose target audience is impressionable pre-teens and adolescents.
