"I Think I'm Big Meech, Larry Hoover"

Needless to say, I love rap music, but lately I've been struggling with its content and message. There is nothing better to me than to go out and dance and rap word for word my favorite rap song. My issue is this,  the content in rap music has grown increasingly negative. Dont get me wrong, there are some good rappers/rap songs out there that promote a positive message. Most of those individuals are few and far between. Most, if not all the rap music I listen to, seemingly degrade women, gorify drugs, money and cars, and promote violence as a nessessary evil.

Rap music over the years has changed drastically. In the beginning rap was more about having a good time, celebrating the accomplishments of others or used as a form of expression. Rap has been used for political messages, as well as a message of uplift and progressiveness. Rap music in recent years have been just the opposite. Rap now seemingly focuses on violence and rap beef's. East verses West, North verses South, big rims and country slang. It has become cool to use broken english and to wear the latest trends seen in rap videos.

In a lot of ways, what you digest, listen to and read, will determine who you will be become and the decisions that you will make in the future. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, rap music has a huge influence on its consumers. For example, if you live a negative lifestyle, eating bad, never working out, smoking, sooner or later that lifestyle will catch up with you. I feel the same way about rap music. Rappers/rap music glorify a type of life style that is not realistic. A lot of the times the things we see in music videos are not a realistic view of how this individual may live. Its a fantasy life created by a director to sale a record but we as viewers will try and mimic what we see and hear. I know for myself, I have tried to mimic something I've seen/heard in a music video simply because I felt that was something cool, something that would be accepted by my peers.

So whats the answer to this problem? Thats a hard question to answer. The easy answer would be to have the rappers take more responsibility in the material they put out to the public. But is that really going to happen? I think not. A better answer would be to put the responsibility on the parents and have them censor what their kids are listening to and watching. If the parents would take a bigger role in censoring what their children digest, then maybe we could limit what material they are exposed to. Or maybe not.