There was a time when the “Public Enemys” and “Kurtis Blows” of rap were in the majority; now, they’re a reduced and silenced minority, playing second fiddle to egotistical psychopaths who define their music by how much money they have, what they spend in strip clubs and having no remorse for even suggesting taking the life of another man.
Worse, with these changes has come a diseased state of mind that seems to reinforce the destructive behaviors that plague our community — in contrast to proffering change and enlightenment. The lyrics now support practices that aren’t productive and even worse, advance images of men and women that are negative and lack the ability to empower people.
It’s not just the myopic focus on materialism and self satisfaction that creates this dissonance, but more so the lack of concern and acceptance of responsibility that may be advocating self-destructive practices that do more harm than good in our communities.
Now, I know many will get defensive and suggest the Freudian excuse that I don’t understand or that I’m “hating on hip-hop.” Such isn’t the case. I’m the age that created this genre and I’m one of the individuals who believe in taking responsibility and, for lack of a better phrase, calling a spade a spade is needed. Our kids consider prison as being more important than graduating from high school, and have more tennis shoes in their closets than dress shoes. White t-shirts are more plentiful than suits. Yet we wonder why our kids want to be musicians and athletes. Hip-hop is killing the intellectualism in our children. It asserts violence, mistreating women, drug abuse and materialism. Education is looked down upon as being negative when it was once the primary definition of revolution.
