Hip Hop Responsiblity Draft

For over two decades now America has witnessed the change in the hip-hop scene from an art form born of a subculture to politically and emotionally express the views of the Black community and civil rights descendents to an idol and material obsessed culture that encourages and unapologetically boasts about the darkest, most destructive parts of common Black society.

The forty million people in this country who look like me know that single parenting, high crime rates, minimal post-secondary education, drug use, premarital sex and material obsession plague some but not ALL members of our society, so it strikes me as odd then, that so many blacks look the other way when black people (in the form of hip-hop artists) receive innumerous international attention for promoting these exact concepts. So much so in fact, an on-looker ignorant to predominant black America would use these images to paint an inaccurate picture of the Black Community that would likely hinder future progress- BACK to the high character we once displayed.

Several black scholars, intellectuals and students are aware that post-civil rights, as social programs and legal entitlement entities have been poured onto the black community, the general work-ethic, moral character, parenting and individualism has diminished and been replaced by a false sense of entitlement and government dependence… still no one (meaning none of US) are willing to address the dozens of music moguls making millions from our mistakes. Instead, they are exonerated, praised, and used as role models for black potential. This reverse psychology has had devastating effects on Generation Y and their children. While we should not give numbers complete merit as there are societal factors which influence how we view these numbers, and while we cannot perfectly compare the black race to others in terms of measurement, there are statistics undeniably proving (if you didn’t already believe) that Blacks are still not attaining what all of these “programs” were designed to enable.

As of today nearly 1/5 of our children will not graduate high school, 14.5 are immediately enrolled in 4-year or higher institutions thereafter according to the National Center for Education statistics. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/tables/dt07_375.asp

Now I’m all about subculture, bringing real humanity to the forefront, the issue is, this “lifestyle” of cars, clothes, money and women is not based on reality. Often rappers’ first single talks of such a lifestyle and high income, when they just “came from the hood”, its improbable, and destructive because it becomes something young black boys feel they should do.

I can not go further into this topic without dealing with the underlying issue: parenting. You do not have to be a conservative to acknowledge the lack of real strong, attentive, Christian, black male influence entices black children to find them via tv and internet. However, too often a blind eye is turned to these influences. Fifty percent of black children are living in single parent households, while it is difficult to determine how many blacks listen to hip-hop on a regular, BET has over 50 million viewers per day, and Facebook pages like “Hip-Hop Culture” and “I love Rap Music” attract millions of “like it”s from Black American Youth.
It is not difficult to see why these artists should NOT be confused with role models. One example, Lil Wayne and Mack Maine “Throw it Back” Lyrics according to elyricsworld.com

One Verse reads (in short) : “Blah, bang bang bang, shes in love with kisses, she got a tongue rang, now she got a pussy rang, she got a belly rang, I know its a BOOTYCALL everytime my celly rang, like burpp hello what you doing cutiee, bring ya ass over here and come and get my booty, oooo i will be there in a hot minute, count to 60 play with your pussy and get ya ivy in ya, you want it all ova ya, shit why not dawgg, ima but my weiner in her buns since she got me hot dawgg, she said i never gave head before until sittin dinner, with the biggest dick for breakfast and dick for dinner, she got titties like vyran dallipark, and she lick lick lick my chocolate lollipop, and she backed it up like burp burp and she threw that ass back like jerk jerk forreal …”

Granted there are two other verses to this song, they follow the same idea. History on Lil’ Wayne demonstrates he enjoys smoking marijuana recreationally. He also stated that he is "not addicted" to drinking purple drank (codeine cough syrup) any longer, like some claimed he was. He has been arrested for use or possession of marijuana and other drugs. As of now, he is serving 8 months in Rikers Island and has already been found guilty of contraband use while in prison. He has four children, most of whom by different women, and while the finances are there to likely keep them content, one must wonder how much “parenting” a man can do when he spends half a year touring in other territories, or even in custody.

Please remember, this is not a blog to critique Lil’ Wayne, he is a grown man and I have little interested on what he does and does not do, however I am deeply concerned with the detrimental effects the popular lyrics of himself and other rappers may have on the greater black youth. This appeal is to pressure him and artists like him to take their influential role more seriously. Because releasing a 20 track album filled with deviant behavior, selling tickets and making appearances all over national media and then releasing a 5 word statement saying “Stay in schools, kids!” just isn’t cutting it anymore.

Not for this conservative, the Young Black Conservatives at large, and hopefully the Black community in general.

Enough mindless chatter in songs and Black media hosts ignoring our issues because “we have more black millionaires than we ever have…” We also have more black teen pregnancies and abortions, dropouts, broken families, welfare recipients, criminals and murders than we’ve ever had. Which do they prefer?