Influence of Rap Music

The Influence of Rap Music

The controversy over rap music is something that has been around for over two decades and is an ongoing debate, whether or not it is influencing violence in today's society. I personally am not against freedom of speech and expressing your voice. "Rap music is a creative expression and metaphorical offspring of America's well-established culture of violence" (Waters, 1995). The lyrics in rap music can influence society in many ways through its lyrics. Does rap music influence people to commit violence or promote sexist attitudes toward women? Does it undermine values? Everything we encounter in society has potential influence on us--movies, music, television, government, advertising, business, schools, our friends, neighbors, and co-workers (Waters, 1995).

The history of rap music and where it came from, all started here in America. Rap music is part of a history that all music derives from Jazz. "Rap music is an interesting phenomenon. Rap music was created in garages, basements, and backyards. What emerged were a new-beat, a new sound, and new lyrics that were not accepted by the music mainstream. Young black artists literally sold their product out of the backs of their cars and on street comers. This music from the underground became No. 1 on the record charts. Not No. 1 just in the African-American community--No. I in America" (Waters, 1995). The first version of real rap started in the West Bronx, New York. This was in the mid-70s and the first well-known rappers were Mel Melle, Kool Herc and Run DMC. Grandmaster Flash is also known as one of the foremost rappers of our time. It was started in the beginning as a way to start and through a party. Rap music began to make some changes in the content of their material in the late 1980s. Rap music shifted from party times to social messages. The message in the beginning of rap music was to start a party and have a good time. It was then changed to describe the real lives of the slums of America. It was a way to express the everyday life in the African American culture. Rap music revolutionized hip hop by transforming it into a more mature art form. It was a way to show each rapper's talents, with the beats that they used and how the lyrics flowed and rhymed in each song. In the early 90s the music industry labeled this new music (rap) form "Gangsta Rap."

There are many reasons rap music is viewed as violent. When the 90s came around rap turned into gangsta rap. The new generation of African Americans that lived in low income slums of America or the ghetto wrote lyrics about gangs, being a gangster, killing, discriminating women, and hate on the police and government. Many Americans viewed this as being violent and trying to get everyone else to be the same as them. "...this isn't the first time that rebellious music has been blamed for society's ills. From Elvis to Columbine, the songs of music-obsessed youth have often been blamed for anti-social behavior. But rap -- and in particular, the especially violent and sexually-explicit gangsta variety -- has raised special concern" (Kirchheimer, 2003). In reality, the real message depicted from "gangsta rap" was to express the real lives of living in the ghetto and trying to survive. Rap music also expressed the hard lives of being poor and being treated differently from the outside "richer America." "I am moved by much of what I hear. I am moved by some young people who are obviously hostile and alienated and who communicate frankly about the harsh realities of their neighborhoods. I do believe that many of them have come into this industry relying on the shock value and that they may yet end up as the greatest poets of our times" (Waters, 1995). The reason rappers expressed this is because it was the only way to express their feelings and to show the rest of America what they went through every day. It was also used as a tool to become rich and get out of the ghetto. Rap music is looked at as being rude and cruel, but the way rappers were raised, and surviving in the ghetto. That's the lives that were formed because of the environmental problems that formed these people. Changing a person's