Rap’s Contribution to Violence Debate Thread

[Apprentice]

@Houston911 @hex

Please can we pin this? We gotta clean this shyt up a lil bit, the Takeoff news thread has turned into straight arguments

Jus let these nikkas bicker here so people can discuss the actual news in the thread


Last point I seen was sumbody said Smino jus dropped a tape and it wasn’t associated with violence or crime

A nikka rebutted and said young urban youth ain’t crankin Smino

I'm not linking it to Hip Hop, my critique of Hip Hop is that it is largely anti-Black (because it is)

A culture that celebrates and promotes the deaths of Black people is faulty. Hip Hop as we know it today literally serves to reinforce white supremacist views, it's an evolution of Blackface.

That isn't Hip-Hop culture.
Your post reeks dishonesty.

Smino, a dude with 5 million listeners just dropped a record about being an everyman.

You are nowhere to be found.

You are not a Hip-Hop fan.

I'm tempted to call you a fraud with an axe to grind.

Continue yall debate here please cuz nikkas really ain’t tryna see all that in a memorial thread or fr fr when the next rapper dies

 

[Matt504]

I'm not going back and forth with Black people about whether or not content that is obviously anti-Black, is anti-Black.

At this point it makes more sense to let the content do the talking.



Here's a brother claiming to be a member of Aryan Nation to illustrate how much he "doesn't fukk with n*ggers" he even adlibs the bar by yelling "KKK"

But we have to pretend that this isn't anti-Black

 

[JustCKing]

I'm not even going there today because the only reason I kept posting in the Takeoff thread is

1) It was like people wasn't even acknowledging that a human being just lost his life. He was reduced to "another slain rapper"

2) In the very same thread, a poster said something to the effect of "lining them up and executing them".

 

[Apprentice]

I'm not even going there today because the only reason I kept posting in the Takeoff thread is

1) It was like people wasn't even acknowledging that a human being just lost his life. He was reduced to "another slain rapper"

2) In the very same thread, a poster said something to the effect of "lining them up and executing them".

Do we even consider Takeoff a street rapper? In 2022? Don’t really think he applies in the anti-black rap narrative

 

[Apprentice]

I'm not going back and forth with Black people about whether or not content that is obviously anti-Black, is anti-Black.

At this point it makes more sense to let the content do the talking.



Here's a brother claiming to be a member of Aryan Nation to illustrate how much he "doesn't fukk with n*ggers" he even adlibs the bar by yelling "KKK"

But we have to pretend that this isn't anti-Black

This is egregious but how does this apply to Takeoff who isn’t really one of those types?

Wouldn’t it be more fair to blame the culture of violence in America in general in this case?

 

[Matt504]

This is egregious but how does this apply to Takeoff who isn’t really one of those types?

Wouldn’t it be more fair to blame the culture of violence in America in general in this case?

I'm not saying it applies to Takeoff at all. My commentary in the other thread was to only to add context to what's being called anti hip hop backlash. What the backlash is really about is incessant anti-Black themes in hip hop. An artform where it's become completely normal to rap about murdering Black men in celebratory fashion.

 

[Pop123]

How can an Adult hear the content in most of the commercial Rap on the radio and playlists, etc... knowing damn well that this shyt is marketed mainly to the youth...knowing damn well that the youth is very gullible and impressionable, etc...and still go out of their way to pretend that there is no problem here?

I know the defenders are just numb and are so used to hearing this content that it doesn't even strike them as awful anymore. But at some point you gotta stop that willfully ignorant shyt and just be honest and real...you got ears and a functioning brain, you know this content is valueless, ignorant fukkery.

Does rap glammorize and endorse gang culture and youth violence and promiscuity and poor values in general? Of course it does...how is this even a debate? The babies IDOLIZE Durk and Youngboy and Kodak and them...they're their role models. You sound insane denying the influence they have over them, all bad.

Is Rap solely responsible for the violence and awful shyt plaguing the hood and society in general? Of course not. Awful shyt plagued society long before Rap. Letting this fact somehow completely absolve Rap from the obvious negative influence it has over the babies is disgusting tho, and anti-black, imo.

 

[JustCKing]

How can an Adult hear the content in most of the commercial Rap on the radio and playlists, etc... knowing damn well that this shyt is marketed mainly to the youth...knowing damn well that the youth is very gullible and impressionable, etc...and still go out of their way to pretend that there is no problem here?

I know the defenders are just numb and are so used to hearing this content that it doesn't even strike them as awful anymore. But at some point you gotta stop that willfully ignorant shyt and just be honest and real...you got ears and a functioning brain, you know this content is valueless, ignorant fukkery.

Does rap glammorize and endorse gang culture and youth violence and promiscuity and poor values in general? Of course it does...how is this even a debate? The babies IDOLIZE Durk and Youngboy and Kodak and them...they're their role models. You sound insane denying the influence they have over them, all bad.

Is Rap solely responsible for the violence and awful shyt plaguing the hood and society in general? Of course not. Awful shyt plagued society long before Rap. Letting this fact somehow completely absolve Rap from the obvious negative influence it has over the babies is disgusting tho, and anti-black, imo.

Nobody denies the influence of rap music. Saying that the music is turning the youth into murderers is a stretch though. I'm sure we all know people and have even influenced by Hip Hop to some degree ourselves, but do we know any lone that has actually taken a life because they were influenced by Hip Hop?

And to further my point, if we take this stance of rap's influence on youth, we can't escape accountability when a lot of rappers, including our favorites, perpetuated a lot of the violence that these drill rappers rap about.

 

[nieman]

How can an Adult hear the content in most of the commercial Rap on the radio and playlists, etc... knowing damn well that this shyt is marketed mainly to the youth...knowing damn well that the youth is very gullible and impressionable, etc...and still go out of their way to pretend that there is no problem here?

I know the defenders are just numb and are so used to hearing this content that it doesn't even strike them as awful anymore. But at some point you gotta stop that willfully ignorant shyt and just be honest and real...you got ears and a functioning brain, you know this content is valueless, ignorant fukkery.

Does rap glammorize and endorse gang culture and youth violence and promiscuity and poor values in general? Of course it does...how is this even a debate? The babies IDOLIZE Durk and Youngboy and Kodak and them...they're their role models. You sound insane denying the influence they have over them, all bad.

Is Rap solely responsible for the violence and awful shyt plaguing the hood and society in general? Of course not. Awful shyt plagued society long before Rap. Letting this fact somehow completely absolve Rap from the obvious negative influence it has over the babies is disgusting tho, and anti-black, imo.

So in the decades of this debate being had, what it comes down to is music IS the primary cause of most of the problems/recklessness/lack of moral center/rebelliousness associated with youth? Pick a generation, pick a new genre favored by the youth and you will see the same arguments being had.

 

[spliz]

So in the decades of this debate being had, what it comes down to is music IS the primary cause of most of the problems/recklessness/lack of moral center/rebelliousness associated with youth? Pick a generation, pick a new genre favored by the youth and you will see the same arguments being had.

Literally every generation. Even Jazz and Blues. Lol

 

[FunkDoc1112]

Literally every generation. Even Jazz and Blues. Lol

Word, like weed being illegal is literally a product of Jazz being labelled degenerate music

 

[Complexion]

The key difference is previous generations could still tell the difference between art and reality.

We have officially entered proto-Idiocracy.


Also how many people went from "Not smoking weed or sess because they're known to give a brotha brain damage" to "Yeaaahh, heayullllll yeeahhhh....Knowhadamsayin?" or its modern equivalent of double cups and whatever it is the cool kids have been told to do. Its a very influential tool and whilst previous movements had talent and were originally organic the current state of rap is a trap to fill as many children as possible with the lowest frequency resonance as they fiend for questionable financial investments and generally detrimental ways to live.

That tiny sprinkle of wisdom where knowledge was kicked is long gone and all thats left now is getting extra ratchet for more shock value because people are numb and need more and more as they feel less and less. Art represents the people of the time and how they feel inside, just like back in 93 something flexed that had everyone feeling real froggy and its happening again at the present moment.

 

[Matt504]

The key difference is previous generations could still tell the difference between art and reality.

We have officially entered proto-Idiocracy.

Perhaps the difference between the rappers then and now is the fact that the rappers now go to great lengths to impress upon their audiences the fact that what they are saying is completely authentic, "no cap in my rap".

There was a young brother that made a song called "Corvette Corvette", when he was younger, he witnessed his best friend be murdered and he cooperate d with law enforcement (under duress) to bring his friend justice.

Lil Uzi was featured on a remix of this song. Once he learned that the brother cooperated with law enforcement, Uzi asked to be taken off his LP.





Let me make this more clear. The young man was cancelled by his peers for cooperating with law enforcement as a child to help solve his friend's murder.

 

[Complexion]

That is definitely part of it.

Whereas once rappers were street influenced poets that were usually one or two steps removed from what they spoke about now its became a need to be a real life Don who rhymes, brags about his crimes online and leaves a nice evidence trail for the Feds thanks to his antics. Its ridiculous when you think about it but the kids are easily impressed, as they've always been and follow the trends.

Its what I meant about people losing all sense of discernment and its actually a reflection of the dropping of intelligence as a collective, hence Idiocracy Effect. For anyone who is a true fan of the contact sport known as hip hop its very sad because the greats pushed the pen with such skill whilst the producers created hits by pushing the limits. The artform was truly the rose that grew from concrete and now its a plastic imitation draped in lab grown diamonds presented on a pillow of silk thats been dipped in poison. The original rage was real. Now, not so much in that sense because it was flipped from being against the System to redirect at those with nothing whilst those who build for profit prisons, sell name brand clothes and expensive drinks rake it in.

Like many things in the modern age of rap it can all be traced directly back to Pac who was an exceedingly potent and equally corrosive influence on future generations as the emulated the worst and disregarded the best and this links in to what I said about numbness. His antics laid the blueprints for a lot of what followed in many respects but honestly its way bigger than one man or the rap game itself as it speaks volumes about the whole human race and our currently devolved state.

Nobody seems to question this. Like they're third eye blind to the bigger pic of what is quite obvious to those who know the ledge...

 

[murksiderock]

Do we even consider Takeoff a street rapper? In 2022? Don’t really think he applies in the anti-black rap narrative

Takeoff has many, many bars where he talks about "wiping nikkas noses"; keeping the stick on him in various creative ways; his homies being shooters; him letting it blow; and dealing drugs...

Is there another way to look at him?

These guys came of age during the time I was in The A in '13/'14, I'd always been told they weren't really street, they were affiliate type nikkas, and I never heard anyone whose word I trusted say anything otherwise...

That doesn't change that they promoted the streets in their rhymes. And of course, I understand that, that isn't the entirety of his promotion, in general Take and them all are highly materialistic and self-promoting, but there are plenty of rhymes about gunplay...

And we know that he and his family have been stopped, pulled over with weapons on them before...

All accounts say that he was a "laid back, calm" personality, so then the lesson to be taken from his death specifically, is if this isn't who he was, the gunplay he himself perpetuated in his art, why portray yourself in your art as such?

And if this was in fact who he was, at some point given the fact they've been celebrities for years, the expectation would be to separate himself from people and situations who don't mean him any good...

My personal opinion is that most of these rappers, even today, are affiliate, sideline nikkas, but don't know how to, or don't want to, eschew the popularity and profitability that comes from talking that gangsta shyt. And that leads directly to the root problem, we didn't need gun bars from Takeoff, so why was he still doing it?

These dudes as a collective are highly, highly influential, and that takes us to the point of your thread, there's people who listen to these dudes and hang on their every word and follow their social media's and move in the image of how these rappers present themselves publicly...

And that's the problem. Muhfukkas gotta see the direct correlation and the challenge is to break it so that not just rapper violence, but violence among Black America, decreases, because these images of blackness broadcast mainstream are highly, highly intoxicating to many black folk which directly feeds into our behavioral supposition----->including, though not limited to, black criminality...

Great thread idea by the way, don't know how no one thought of it sooner! And it should be stickied, and maybe seemingly insignificant spaces like this can be the catalyst to sea change over time!