Gangsterism ruined Latarian Milton

Last year, I proclaimed that "Gangsterism" was ruining hiphop, but I think I may have been mistaken. In actuality, excessive commercialism and an abundance of uninspired mediocre rappers is ruining hiphop. The aura of gangsterism that results from this is, however, bringing about gradual decay in another area--the community.

The latest example of this, which I know everyone has seen by now; is 7-year old Latarian Milton who went joyriding in his grandmother's Dodge Durango with his friend "who smokes cigarettes". His main motivations for this cruise (which included hitting several moving and non-moving vehicles and other structures), were because, as young Latarian put it, "it's fun to do bad stuff", and because he "wanted to do hood rat stuff" with his friends.


Despite the glaring fact that in his childhood ignorance, Latarian has misused the term "hood rat", there's no denying that the term originates specifically from within the vulgar lyrics of the rap music that many would agree are inappropriate for young children. And it's not just Latarian; I witnessed with my very own eyes scores of people who find law-breaking "fun", for no other reason besides the fact that it is, in fact, lawbreaking. I've seen teenagers get into drug-dealing, ostensibly partly because it something they grew up around, and partly because their favorite rapper convinced them it was cool.

Kids like Latarian grow up with the ideas of bad-equals-fun being consistently reinforced by their peers and the music they listen to, and they grow up into the drug-dealers and criminals that keep the impoverished sections of our cities occupied by the endless cycle of bullshit that is usually found there.

The local police in Latarian's town said they plan to bring charges against the child, and "get him into the system" so that they can teach him a lesson and possibly get him to change his mindset about the "hood rat" stuff he values so much. The sad thing is, Latarian will probably relish the possibility of being "locked up", as among his friends, it will probably give him a little more gangsta credibility.