I’m tired of people criticizing rap music. It has been a longstanding practice for parents and authority figures to blame rhymes on school shootings and urban violence. The media also furthers this popular stance with its various news talk shows.
Scarborough Country, featuring a one-sided windbag, posed the question, “Is rap music bad for kids?” It’s already a loaded question; it has an inherent bias.
On that show they featured Berkley professor Dr. John McWhorter, who wrote in an article for City Journal, “By re-enforcing the stereotypes that long hindered blacks, and by teaching young blacks that a thuggish adversarial stance is the properly ‘authentic’ response to a presumptively racist society, rap retards black success.”
Although I know Dr. John McWhorter is African-American, I feel that these feelings towards rap music is a subversive type of racism against the black rap artists.
People listen to a couple popular rap songs about money and sex and stereotype the music as such. However, most rock and country pop music deal with much of the same topics.
Rap music should be viewed as a wonderful medium, that flows more like poetry than any other lyrical genre. Most of the time rappers are the first to push social awareness and ethics on a culture that is fixated on immorality and selfishness. Here are some examples of recognizable songs with a good message for youth and adults.
Black Eyed Peas, (Where is the Love?): “If love and peace is so strong / Why are there pieces of love that don't belong / Nations droppin' bombs / Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones / With the ongoin' sufferin' as the youth die young / Can you practice what you preach / And would you turn the other cheek / Father, Father, Father help us Send us some guidance from above / 'Cause people got me, got me questionin' / Where is the love.”
NAS, (Rule): “Call a truce, world peace, stop actin like savages / No war, we should take time and think / The bombs and tanks makes mankind extinct / It’s time that we stand together (yeah, for the world) / Everybody wants to rule the world (what, what, what, what, what, c’mon) / World (peace), world (peace), world (peace).”
Talib Kweli, (Manifesto): “From open mics to solutions I got a collage of answers and a ten point program, just like the Black Panthers / One: First respect yourself as an artist / [...] / Ten: Every MC grab a pen / and write some conscious lyrics to tell the children.”
Tupac Shakur was another rap legend, oft criticized for his violent lyrics. Ultimately a shooting led to his untimely death, beginning his legacy.
On November 14th, his life will move to the big screen in a documentary entirely narrated by the deceased. Even seven-years posthumously, Tupac is making a positive impact on society despite the critics. Here are some of his best lyrics and poems.
5. Dear Mama: “You're trying to raise two bad kids on your own / And there's no way I can pay you back / But my plan is to show you that I understand / You are appreciated.”
4. Changes: “I got love for my brothers but we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other / We gotta start making changes, learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers / I wonder what it takes to make this one better place, let's erase the wasted, take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right.”
3. Hold On: “So keep ya head up / And make ya mind strong / It's a struggle every day but you gotta hold on / Hold on / Be strong.”
2. Keep Your Head Up: "I know it seems hard sometimes, but remember one thing, through every dark night, there's a bright day after that. So no matter how tough it gets, stick your chest out, keep your head up and handle it.”
1. The Rose That Grew From Concrete (a poem): “Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete / Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet / Funny it seems but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air / Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.”
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Copyright 2004, Kevin Semanick