In recent years there has been controversy surrounding the topic of rap music. From the rivalry’s and deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls to the aggressive trap music of G.Herbo. The American society have tried to place a lot of blame on hip hop for violence among the African American community. Rap music hasn’t been the most understanding genre to understand for those who don’t relate to the realities faced by the different artist, therefore it is easy for people to say that rap music incites violence. But have we ever thought about the individuals who experience these lyrics every day? Rap music is a freedom of expression, could be used as a political movement to promote change, and also could help form identity of black youth.
Since the beginning, hip hop became an outlet for the African American people. Rap is poetry, literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm, which helps the black community when they feel as if they have no voice. Rap music has recently been developing more and is being recognized as nonsenses, or ratchet, when all it is African American expressing their feelings. For example, my cousin who was suicidal often wrote raps to express what was bothering her and also issues that she was dealing with. When she felt like she had no one to depend on. To this day my cousin gives credit to rap for saving her life. That’s just one of many stories on how the expression of rap has impact our culture.
For years artist have sang about the racism, police harassment, poverty and desperation that exists in America’s inner most parts of our cities. Rappers use their relevancy and power to bring attention to real life issues, that often occurs around us to possibly bring change. For example, This is America by Childish Gambino, he felt that the problematic situations weren’t being recognized, so he brought attention to it with his lyrics and visual. This politically-charged anthem finds Childish Gambino addressing the police brutality, gun violence and racism that continues to ravage America. The video is now at 404 million views and has been mentioned on major websites such as CNN and New York Times. This was necessary because for the first time, hip-hop surpassed rock as the most popular genre in the US last year, according to Nielsen’s year-end report. So the many rap artist took advantage of the opportunity to try to influence the masses.
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Hip Hop music can help form identity of black youth. Hip Hop can be used to help form identity with positive role models. Rap helps our youth develop a sense of importance. Seeing our rapper with the money and the cars could inspire our youth to believe that they could succeed pass their situations. Our rappers often give the youth a sense of what is right and what isn’t right. Some people may argue that many rappers glorify dropping out of school, but there are several rappers such as J.cole, and Nick Cannon who recognize the strength of knowledge and mentions it regularly to our community. The black youth communities could look up to rappers as role models and idols to help them maintain through hard times.
Rap music is a expression of a daily life for many people; in my opinion it is something that most political and media groups will never understand. Hip hop promotes freedom of speech and expression, change, and give our youth hope. The music of Hip hop, like any other music, is a direct way in which all Americans can exercise their first amendment rights. And for these reason Rap music is not harmful for America.
