Miroku4444

True, but those certain songs as you called them probably make up like 2/3 of all rap music.

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BFmastermind

N.W.A. and Public Enemy were in a whole different league than gangsta rappers. They rapped about the black society being held back, the police being biased, and how equality wasn't exactly what everyone thought it was. They were basically telling life and how hard it was in the form of a rap song. Besides, back at that time, gangsta rap wasn't even reckognized yet, and there were barely any gangsta rappers. Gangsta rap became known and grew in the mid 90's. NWA and Public Enemy were mostly in the 80's.

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Meiwaku

True. Will Smith actually made a statement to fellow rappers to strive to become role models and stop putting out the gun wielding sex loving verbally abusive persona some of them are putting out. There are alot of clean rappers who don't have to use derogatory words to get their point across.

I understand that the words they use just roll off their tongues because it's their slang and how they talk. 'Ebonics' you can't just think by saying "Don't say that, it's degrading" that they will change the way they sing and talk. But it should be realized that it does offend people no matter what anyone says or how many excuses you can pull out. And I suppose it's not the visually degrading scenes they portray in the video's so much as the lyrics. They say "bitch" and "hoe" so carelessly that it ceases to mean what they originally meant. Same with the word "Nigger" it ceases to have meaning. But they do have meaning and the meanings can be very hurtful.

It's not so bad to the actual people singing the songs as it is to the people listening to them. They pick up the behaviours and the language and the attitudes, but the difference being they aren't putting on an act they think this is real. And that lies the actual problem, it's influencing people to act and say things they normally wouldn't because they are caught up in it. A guy listening to rappers going on about girls being bitches and whores is going to take it literally and they are not going to mean it carelessly when they call a girl that.

And that is the truth, these women are professionals, it's not like they walk around like that all the time half naked wiggling their butts around doing guys. But the girls who see these video's are going to think that is what's cool and hip and guys are going to take it the same way. It mainly degrades because people actually think this is how you're suppose to act. Because of rap video's we have a whole generation of girls who think they need to degrade themselves to get guys to notice them, and a whole generation of guys who believe that is how a girl should dress yet at the same time because they dress like that they have the right to call them a whore.

Maybe the real problem is the people who listen to rap and watch the video's and take them seriously and literally.

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BFmastermind

The level of influence depends on the age. The younger you are, the more you believe. When you reach your teenage years you begin to question many things and become more skeptical. But when you reach a certain age in your life where maturity just smacks you straight in the face, your views will change and you will be less influenced by things. If your views stay the same then you are stuck believing you are still young and can't change.

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Arrianna

It only has to influence them up long enough to mess up the rest of their lives. Like becoming parents at -16 or getting involved with gangs/crime. Stuff like that happens younger and younger these days and at an age where kids are easily influenced by music.

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Meiwaku

Actually once your brain has been hardwired to think a certain way no matter how old you get you won't suddenly change the way you think. Yes the level of influence does depend on the age, but once someone has been subjected to something for so long constantly, it doesn't matter how old they get they will continue to be influenced by this way of thinking.

How do you think cults drag people in? They find vulnerable lonely people who are lost and need to find somewhere they feel they belong, which pretty much describes just about every 11-17 year old. With enough conditioning you can influence anyone to do something they normally wouldn't. It has less to do with maturity and more to do with the brain and classical conditioning.

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BFmastermind

So what you're claiming is that even when people mature they act exactly the same way they were conditioned to be? I'm not sure if I understand this fully because it sounds like what you are saying is that humans are incapable of change through maturity. If that's the case, then just about everyone will act with the same degree of recklessness and irrationality they did when they were at a younger age, meaning they learned nothing at all from all they have experienced through life.

I can use a few examples of rap artists who used to rap in a bad way but changed over the time of their career. Jay-Z is one. Jay-Z just basically decided it was time to grow up. So he acted a little more classy and meaningful with his songs, then afterwards he retired. Beanie Siegel is another. Beanie Siegel learned from a bad experience and changed his ways of rapping, which is obviously shown in his latest album.

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tWoL8

personally i abhorr rap in all aspects. and think it is degrading towards all.

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