If Rap Didn't Exist, Would There Be Less Crime?

They themselves do not just play rap, and the question posed on the thread was a general question, I answered in same. Look at the sheet music of most of it, children nursery rhyme songs have more substance. I would imagine many of those artists are just being kind, PC carries into music as well. Sheet music does not Lie, people do...
Now can there be a few musically talented people that put more into it? sure. In general it's bad music and it's intention was to be marketed so that untalented stars of the black community could be exploited. They had not had any real talent for years, and something they could manipulate for fast cash was needed, Rap was perfect, a dummy could play it and many did. They could then just pick the persons that fit the bill, mold them and own them. A perfect cash cow, now they did not have to wait for real talent to surface, none was needed.
It's popularity is finally dwindling hopefully it will continue and it will turn into some other form of music. I hope so, the black community certainly deserves better than that.

 

and then what you actually did was make a rather ill informed suggestion based on your personal preference. Let's take a look back:

How often do artists like John Mayer & Elton John engage in rap music? They don't, yet they've been vocal in the past about select creative minds that exist in the Hip Hop arena with much praise. You also suggest that said defenders know "as much about music as a log"... inherently false for the same reason. Point being you're much better off claiming it's not for you vs. attempts to claim it as some universal negative on society.

 

You misunderstood, when I mentioned defenders I was referring to people here on the web[I thought you may have understood that], not real artists. As I mentioned guys like John I think are being a bit condecending as they are aware most of it has very simplistic composition, it's more of a pat on the head. How could a man with talent like his look at that stuff and give it any musical credibility,,a two or three chord song is the work of bird brains, try and compare it to most of his work,,it's a laugh.

 

The ears are a pallet much like the mouth, Flounder. Some like pizza, some like burgers, most like both. If rap was the same as the others, it wouldn't be rap. Rap is about lyrics, the beat just has to have rhythm, its only requirement. I know a lot of people who would argue golf isn't a sport, yet hit the course and tell me how easy it is. Sure there is a lot of repetition in rap lyrics overall, as well as a lot of records sold more for hype than skill. Rap isn't even close to music like pop when it comes to such complaints, so that should be a moot point. Rappers have to constantly think of something new to say, while still keeping it street, to sell albums and be considered great. Modern rock, which is basically metal mixed with rock, smothered in pop commercialism, has far more lyrics than music ever had before. The lyrics have far more substance. Why do you think this is? The influence of hip hop's dedication to lyrics on American culture made all genres dedicate more time to what they were saying than just repeating a catch phrase over and over while the instrumentals stole the show. Rap made rock better, a beautiful thing, and as American as apple pie.

 

I would say yes, actually.

Unfortunately, a good portion of rap glorifies crime.

 

That's like saying Picasso's "Guernica" glorified carpet bombing. You're smarter than that serfin.

 

I will repeat myself: do you consider criminal minded to be gangsta rap?

except the lyrics I think are about different things, I mean if semantics is so important, and its obviously important because i stated "rap" instead of "gansta rap", then I don't really see how the lyrics correlate to each other.


This is why I use you as a primary example of my observations, which aren't very aggressive btw. You associate "street culture" with gangster rap as if there exists some parallel, when in actuality... the street culture present in early records were self-appreciative and boastful in nature, which is going to reflect the stances of it's inner city pioneers... like Kool Herc. Early rap was primarily to add funk or poetic expression to dance/party music, then developed into a form of political expression... serving as a pulpit or soapbox for rappers. Let's take a look back at your statement:
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that is a strawman, you can't tell me what I am saying and then argue against it, that is not how debating works. you can quote me, or ask questions, but don't tell me what I am thinking and saying because that is a fallacy.

semantics. you just called it the hip hop genre when refering to me using rap instead of being specific. Make up your mind.

 

I will repeat myself: do you consider criminal minded to be gangsta rap?

that is a strawman, you can't tell me what I am saying and then argue against it, that is not how debating works. you can quote me, or ask questions, but don't tell me what I am thinking and saying because that is a fallacy.

the street culture is in most forms of rap, derty. different genres display in in different ways. so do different localities. Myself I am from tha STL ( 618 ), its a very violent city, very grimey. There is also Nelly and Chingy who represent that Lou, but are not gansta (IMO), still though, its all street culture, it does not have to be gangsta rap.

semantics. you just called it the hip hop genre when referring to me using rap instead of being specific. Make up your mind.

 

Hey, I like some rap artists myself. I just don't like a large portion of them.

After gangsta rap, a lot of the genre went downhill.

Nowadays, it's not as much a matter of glorifying crime as it is just encouraging rampant materialism.

Granted, a lot of pop is guilty of that too.

 

Everyone complains about "gangster rap", but that was when the actual music was the best. The 90's. Rap sucks now days. I seriously don't have any music I like at this point. It has all become as lame as movies from Hollywood. Well not quite, but almost. LOL. I think music is just finding itself again. Coming anew. Movies are in dire straights. I think original writers must be banned. But that is a different thread. "Fresh Prince" rap was always corny. It will never have a wide audience outside of pre-teens. The only rap that is classic in my eyes, before "gangster rap" would be Beastie Boys "License to Ill". That album will always be good. Young MC "Stone Cold Rhymin" was a good one too.

 

Don't get me wrong. Snoop was better when he was gangsta. I have to admit that I liked a lot of the actual music behind gangsta rap songs, even if I didn't care for some of the lyrics.

A lot of current rap is basically soulless and seems to encourage the hollow pursuit of money and sex. A lot of pop can be like that too.

It's just that I feel like the bulk of rap has a negative influence on society.

Here's an example of that in my hometown... Every year, SuperJam comes to my city of Greensboro. It's a hip hop event that brings increased crime which requires increased police presence.

Even a lot of black people here don't go out during that weekend because of the dangers involved. Clearly, there is a correlation between the music involved and the crime, because you don't see this happen when any other music event comes here.

Now, admittedly, this is partially because of a regional concern. A lot of the people who come are from Durham, and that city is one of the most dangerous on the eastern seaboard. About half of my state's crime happens in either Durham or Fayetteville.

 

Rap has had a negative effect on the black community. It started off pretty positive, but once the 'gangstas' took over it was finished. Rap's lyrics are incredibly violent. And this violence has rebounded on the black community. Some would argue that Heavy Metal, a predominately white music, also has violent lyrics, but few fans of that genre have joined gangs and committed acts of violence.

 

No. Are you stupid??? Music didn't cause the crimes. The crimes inspired the music.... FYI not all rap is about crime or (*)(*)(*)(*)ing (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)es or whatever (*)(*)(*)(*) lil wayne raps about. There is rap about actual things that is vulgar at all.. THere's even christian rap..

 

So? What right does that give you to pass judgement on a whole group of people? What are you even suggesting be done about it?

 

It's also false, as I proved earlier

 

No. So much music contains lyrics involving violence (including opera). Hip hop is constantly scapegoated and singled out, like heavy metal was in the '70s and '80s.
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And I wonder whether this violent gang culture evolved from hip hop or whether hip hop evolved from the violent gang culture.

 

Well, all i know is that the blacks i grew up around in the 70s/80s were a lot nicer than today's blacks, and nowhere near as violent. They weren't listening to rap. They were listening to reggae, soul, and other peaceful music.

 

just less noise.

 

Definitely!

Just like how the Blues keep blacks poor in the 1920s.

 

Fortunately, your experiences were out of the norm. By every metric, violent crime is down.

 

Its like asking - If emo didn't exist would there be less suicide?

 

If blacks didn't exist there would be less crime

Blacks don't need motivation to act like savages.

 

If white supremacists didn't exist, there would be fewer stupid comments on internet forums.

 

This is stupid, the lyrics you sometimes hear in rap are made by people already messed up in the head.

 

I agree. White supremacy is a failed 1950s concept that never had any logical foundation.

But again, getting back on topic, if blacks didn't exist there would be less crime... BY FAR actually.