I do think that rap music (specific rap music, of course, not all) enforces a VERY negative stereotype about successful black people.
Rap artists and sports stars are the most predominant examples of rich black people. By virtue of their position, they are idolized by kids. What do they teach, though? Being successful includes lots of drugs, lots of money, lots of sex, and lots of violence. Engaging in that violence and even
getting murdered is honorable to rap music. The rappers frequently live their songs, thus encouraging younger people to do the same.
What's the result? Widespread use of ebonics and otherwise horrible grammar, widespread lack of respect for authority, almost no family values (what's the ratio of black single mothers to married parents again?), and a striking disparity in violent crime rates.
The people who have all those problems? Embodying rap music. That's tantamount to success.
There's a serious problem with recursion in the black community. Whom do kids have to idolize? The upstanding, successful black men and women like Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice? No, they're deemed "not black" by the black community! Bill Cosby is berated and discredited when he tries to suggest that the status of black culture is in a troubled spot, and that other black people are to blame for it! Sports stars? Okay, you've got your Michael Jordans and others in there who try to make a difference and do, but you also have the Kobe Bryant rapists and the Michael Irvin druggies and whoremongers.
Then you have the rap stars, who are a huge part of the black community as a whole. These people are, for the most part, societal vortices. They spiral down and away from anything that is sensible, decent, or worth encouraging and bring down anyone around them, too.
And these are the people who are idolized. Those kids who successfully live the rapper life only continue to reinforce the stereotype that successfull black people are thuggish, sex-craved, and have no respect for authority or education.
Not only that, but it also reinforces the thought that black people are
victims.
You're damn right I think rap music is a bad influence.
@jewpin: can you name a white rapper who popularized and glorified the gangsta life so much that white kids sought to emulate it to a large degree? The reason the black artists are so targeted is because they're one of the biggest media influences on black youths. If you ask me why racism is as prevalent as it is today, it's not because people somehow think that they're inherently superior because of the color of their skin, it's because the black community has become an extension of the gangsta rappers' lives, something that is NOT desirable by any stretch of the imagination.
--Guido
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