Effects of Rap Music on the African American Society

Omar Waheed

E3 D3, 2079

IDND 018

Professor Bane

Effects of Rap on Black (African-American) Society

"Pimpin all Over the World", "Why We Thugs", "Make Em Get that Money", these rap songs are the symbol of African-American community. Whenever a person imagines an African American person living in the ghetto, or an African American person as a member of a gang he associates him with these types of titles. Among teens and adults in African American communities, these rap songs are well known. But what are the messages these songs and videos convey? If you listen to them carefully you will realize that these rap songs are basically promoting thug culture, misogyny and sexism by talking about things such as earning money the easy way by selling drugs or having fame and respect by killing other people or considering women as worthless "bitches" and treating them as objects of sexual pleasure. The audience of these rap songs is not limited to African American community but others too such as Latin American community. However, the effect of these rap songs is same no matter which community a person belongs to. Many of the listeners, after listening to these types of rap songs, follow the messages conveyed by them. The listeners might, under the influence of these songs, rob banks, rape women or sell drugs illegally to earn money and these facts should not come as a surprise to us. In everyday news we hear occurrence of such criminal activities for example a black person was caught by police because he had possession of drugs or a black person, having a knife or a gun, robbed a local citizen. The gangster rap song "9 pieces" by Rick Ross and Lil Wayne is a very good example to demonstrate how rap songs are promoting thug culture, misogyny and sexism in African American culture.

When the video, 9 pieces, begins an expensive white car is shown parking inside a restaurant's parking lot. By observing the opening scene in depth a pair of sneakers can be seen hanging on a wire (at the top-center part of the screen). The hanging pair of sneakers signals gang occupied territory or dealing of cocaine in that area; a fact that is common to African American majority areas. In this video, illegal selling of cocaine is exactly what the hanging pair of sneakers signifies as this video is dominantly about drugs. As the scene progresses we can see a black colored, number eight pool ball rolling in hand of Rick Ross. As Rick starts to sing, the 8 ball is mentioned again in the lyrics "I'm smoking dope, I'm on my cell phone, I'm selling dope, straight off my IPhone... 9 piece, straight 8 balls. MJG bitch, I got 8 balls." Obviously the 8 ball shown or talked about in this video is not used in literal sense. Actually an 8 ball is a slang term used by drug dealers which refers to one-eighth of a gram of cocaine. So in this video Rick Ross is talking on the phone and selling dope and he is telling his customer that he has got 8 balls.

As the video continues we see another car, entering the parking lot, in which two African American people are sitting. A little while later the two African American people and Rick Ross look at each other. Meanwhile, the police also arrive. The officers park their car next to Rick and watch him and the two black people with suspicious eyes. Due to the suspicious activities of Rick and two persons in the other car, the way they watch each other, and explicit reference by Rick to selling drugs, we can infer that Rick Ross is the drug dealer who is selling drugs to his customer, the two black people, and the police are there to catch them red handed (that is, if the officers see them handling drugs). After a while Rick gets off his car and walks into the restaurant, followed by the police. Later on, the two black people also follow him into the restaurant. Inside the restaurant the two black people are frequently making eye contact with Rick, but the police are prohibiting them from taking any explicit actions, as they are continually being watched by the cops. The scene goes on in the same manner until Rick's customer gets up and walks to Rick's table. There he puts a black 8-ball keychain. Then one of the officer looks at them, puzzled, as Rick and his customer were doing something but he was not able to figure it out. Actually Rick's customer laid the 8-ball down on Rick's table which signaled Rick that his customer wants the cocaine and, therefore, the deal is successful. In short, this scene showed that drug dealers are smarter than the cops as Rick and his customer fooled the cops Secondly it showed, dealing drugs is as easy as sitting in your house's lounge (when he referred to "selling dope on my IPhone") and the money you earn from it is huge (the white sports car, gold watch, the gold chain and Ray Bans that rick Ross wears in the video depict Rick's wealth).

By analyzing this scene, with respect to effect on young and adult African American people, a person can imagine the degree of devastating effects it would have on many of the African American individuals. According to national poverty center (University of Michigan) "In 2010, 27.4 percent Black....were poor" ("Poverty in the United States"). These poor people are always in search of means of earning money. When they see videos such as 9 pieces, that glamorize illegal activities, they are dazzled by how easy it is to earn money by selling drugs and to gain respect by committing violence or killing other gang member. Therefore, they start adopting such means of earning money and respect. Even if a person is not poor he may be influenced by these rap songs. Cynthia Tucker said in her essay "Gangster rap is fueling a "thug culture" that is destroying the lives of black Americans by glorifying violence, misogyny and thuggery" (326). Today we can see many black teenagers, from different backgrounds, forming gangs or being involved in gangs to be a "gangsta" like Rick Ross, Snoop Dog and gain respect and money as they are shown in gangsta rap videos. They might kill or rob a person or ambush a place of a rival gang. Recently an incident occurred in which seven black kids were involved in brutally stabbing a white boy and killing him. The news reported, "Seven teenagers have been given custodial sentences totaling 74 years for the killing of a 16-year-old boy...The attack on Nicholas came after two local gangs - the Shanks and Guns gang and the Black Mafia group, also known as the Sydenham Boys - had an argument at school"("Nicholas Pearton Killing"). The life