My little brother brought up something today actually. I told him about this discussion, and he asked (in an antagonizing manner) to name one hip hop or pop song that has a "negative" subject matter. Since I don't listen to the radio very often, I was unable to give him an answer. I know for a fact that it's in the media because of the amount of hype and exposure of artists, such as Lady Gaga, receive. Yea, I hear the typical-sounding stuff in stores, other people's cars, etc, but do the songs themselves actually deal with "bad" subject matters?

Some people feel like talking about guns and going to kill people is viewed as negative, in the first post, he talks about how people are still rapping about drinking purple drank and he feels like it's a negative thing to be promoting that even though they aren't. They rap about it because they use it and they are grown ass adults, if they want to drink something that's harmful to their own body and they could possibly die from it then so bit it.

They do indeed. However, I think your experiences is a good example that many people aren't really aware of it. People really just listen for the beats.

A lot of popular hip hop songs discuss rape and murder in a positive light. It honestly doesn't bother me too much, but I'm so disencitized to it at this point.

^^they could pretty much keep it to themselves instead of "promoting" it

[2]

I personally as a women find rappers making light of rape still very offensive. I think it shows the lack of integrity they have, in terms of how they view women.

In the end though, I think society has become so immune to the hateful slurs of rappers, it doesn't even affect them.

There is some merit to thinking that young kids/teens listening to rap music could indeed influence their behaviours such as by getting into drugs and alcohol, but it's not going to be the sole reason. It's not that black and white. If parents have control over their kids then there should be less concern, but these days everyone's too busy to give a ****. So why not blame those who are drawing attention to themselves? It was no different in the late 50's early 60's when the conservatives tried banning rock and roll music.

When I was a teen I did drugs, smoked and drinked because I wanted to and my friends did too. It wasn't because music said to. So no, hip-hop is not being irresponsible, it's not their job to be role models or parents. The fact is people would still rape, murder and do drugs with or without rap bringing it to the spotlight.

Pardon my incoherent ramblings. I was thinking it through as I went along.

I don't know friend. I see your perspective but I disagree with almost all of it.

I was born in 87. By the time I was 11 I had Windows 98 and a slow internet connection. I was downloading free music by '99. That being said, most didn't and I was one of the few always coming up with new bands and even genres to listen to, etc. because most were just on CDs from shows and/or radio and/or tv. Yes, the playing field is level now that nearly everyone is online, but you must know that not everyone has computer, internet, or a smartphone, even in America.

Also, besides us folks on MB and the like, the general populace doesn't care enough about music or 'have enough time' to research their favorite bands music tree, or branch out to new things. The average person gets online, checks email and facebook, and signs off. Those in the position to download new songs might hear about a new artist from a friend or blog or something and download a few tracks, maybe an album. They might go so far as to check out older albums or maybe top recommended similar material, but that's about it. It's a snails pace in terms of finding new stuff. I treated finding new, great music like a job for a while, hunting, crate digging, staying up to the wee hours of the morning listening and rating, going through 10 albums a day at least, and still not had enough. I still haven't finished. But I have 5,000 5 star tracks and 16,000 5+4.5 star tracks, which is what I throw on random and chill to. Your average human being doesn't have that dedication to do that, or even half of that. Your average person is so distracted multi-tasking watching "Robot Chicken/So You Think You Can Dance", chatting/texting, and having other interests plus the false sense of contentment of having 'enough' music that most people don't realize there is anything else out there to be desired. Even when they come across something 'unique and different' aka they've stumbled upon a new genre or sound they treat that as an end, like "Oh man, this is all I need out of this sound of music, this is perfect" when they're barely brushing the surface, etc.

Long story short: they have the tools to do so, but most don't use them. Most don't even know there's better stuff out there, and most don't know the classics, of any genre.
:rofl:
Just... I'm sorry. Either I misunderstand or... I don't know. I find this thought to be either laughable or... I dunno.

I've spend over a year looking for certain albums. Torrents, Limewire, warez sites, Mediafire, Rapidshare, everything. Finally found a blogspot in Russian or something that had a link embedded.... Not so black and white. It depends how pop-ular the music you're looking for is.

For example, I've been hearing for the past week or two that one of my favorite guitarists fifth album is out, but I still can't find a copy. If this was a Lil Wayne album I would have had a leak last month.

I think you're vastly underestimating that thing called youthful impressionism and influence. A lot of these guys are idols, and anything they say they do, or find fun, at least a few people are going to try. It's just the way this stuff works.

I think there is a lot of negativity in Hip-hop/Rap. The posturing, the sheer aggression, the derision and degrading nature of the lyrics, be it sexist, racist or simply as insulting to someone else as the artist can manage. I think there is a lot of positive stuff in hip-hop as well; Striving to succeed, regardless of where you started in life, people like Jurassic 5 who rap about holding onto what's important to you, but I don't think it's possible to laugh off all the "gonna go shoot some drugs and **** some bitches" stuff in rap as "they can do what they want because they're adults". Adults have responsibilities, and one of those responsibilities is understanding the consequences of one's actions, something I personally feel is absent in much rap.

Eh. People have been saying these kinds of things about younger generations since the beginning of time. Thus far the world hasn't gone to hell in a handbasket, people just continue being people.

On a side note, as someone who was a teenager in the 90s, I can tell you firsthand there is far more access to alternatives to the mainstream now than there was then, thanks to the internet.

As much as adults have responsibilities, so do individuals. I think the blame needs to fall on the individual themselves if they can't handle any form of media that is supposed to be used as entertainment and becomes easily influenced by it. It's the individual that it falls back onto. Most of the rappers that have material that is considered "negative" don't go around saying that they are role models and you should do everything that I say in my songs.

Yeah, Janz, but that's cuz you're smarter than the average bear. You know where to look. Any of us on these boards knows how to find new tunes. But the average kid/teen/young adult doesn't know what to look for. Plato's cave'd.