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.
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.
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...
But once again, any uptick or shift in societal behavior amongst the youth is traced back to music, for every generation, every genre, every race. Music created the rebel and rioters, music created serial killers, music increased vandalism, music birthed the gang culture, music created the dropout/vagrant/hoodlum, music birthed drug addicts and alcoholics, music caused promiscuous teenagers and led to teen pregnancy, created the runaway, now music is turning them into murderers.
The numbness I do agree with, but I think that more of a reflection of society as a whole. When securing the bag by means became of more worth than everything else, that allows for the rules of anything goes to be more prominent, and now we are where we are as material things replacing values. Teenagers arguing that "music is just a reflection of the emotions that we have - we have no outlets, so we live through the music. we live our music" has been a talking point as long as elders were questioning their actions and blaming the music. It's a cycle. So at which point did the whole human race devolve? And if you're talking about a downward spiral and what's it mean for the next generation, then that same argument is once again applicable to the previous generations. The only difference from now and 80's - 90's hip-hop is what side of the coin you're now on. You saw G Rap's On the Run video? Or countless other videos that depicted murders and other activities. Hell, those type of videos don't really even exist anymore
Takeoff got shot over a dice game/basketball argument (RIP) y'all have to realize that art imitates life in 90% of these situations. I doubt gangsta rap/drill/trap rap made the shooter shoot takeoff, he was going to do that if they were gospel artist. In the 70s people were getting they ass beat to Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye, the mafia were killing people to Frank Sinatra, I doubt those artists were trappers or drill artist.
Frank always faced criticism for "wanting to be a gangster" in the media. He was connected to the mob. Later reports clean it up saying that he was a pawn or being extorted, but early stories told that he was connected and in...in deep enough to engage in racketeering and such. I'm not sure about Curtis but Delphonics were in the streets, Chuck Berry, Barry White, James Brown...hosts of other musicians from the 50's, 60's, 70's etc.
