Lyrics Of Rap Songs example essay topic

"I'll make you suck it / Maybe I'll put a hole in your head / you know, just for the f of it" (Nine Inch Nails quoted in Rauch). Vulgar... ? Obscene... ? Offensive...

? Irrelevant... ? Profane... ?

OR absolutely indispensable? Appealing beats, a layered chorus and most importantly a good lyrical flow is very essential in good music. But a hindrance in the lyrical flow by the American censor board leads to a lot of complication. Therefore, I sturdily believe that lyrics of rap songs should not be censored in America because besides losing the song's essence, it deprives the artist of his basic rights and it also leads to increase in piracy. Music without lyrics is like a flower without any fragrance.

It is the lyrics of the song that give the spice and adds to the meaning of the song. Most of the time artists speak about their own childhood miseries or other bad experiences or about horrific developments in society. The artist wants to inform people how he / she feels and the troubles he / she is going through. An artist such as 'Limp Bizkit' urges listeners not to suppress anger and bitterness. Many artists strongly feel that can let out their frustration by telling it to others. But in the process of doing so the artist steps over board crossing the limit by swearing and using other obscenity in their songs.

Nonetheless this is widely in demand by the public as they get to know more about their favorite artists and also about recent happenings in the society. But this is where the censor board comes in to picture and makes sure unwanted material doesn't reach the ears of young children thereby influencing them drastically. The censor board consists of authorized officials who listen to the song and together come to a decision on whether the song is too violent for the society and how much of the song should be edited or even whether the song should be released. But to what extent should the editing procedure play a role and how much material should be allowed or removed. Unavailability of full versions of the song leads to pirate recordings where unauthorized duplications of the copies are made and sold at a higher prize illegally. These rap songs contain nothing but irrelevant content, which is of no importance to a normal man.

"In Eminem's bizarre stories he battles his conscience in exploits such as robbing an old women, drugging and sexually assaulting an underage girl and murdering his adulterous wife". (Baker par. 3) Do people really need to know about this? These kinds of songs with such immense obscenity may seem to be meaningless but can impinge on children if not controlled.

According to statistics, media influences majority of the crime committed by young children where these songs play an important role. It's a shame that rapper's like Eminem who is popularly known for the vulgar lyrics describing maternal rape and violence against women in his songs can actually win Grammy Awards and MTV Europe Awards in spite of his album not even releasing in certain places due to its obscene content. It might be true that the first amendment states that 'freedom of speech' is protected, but what exactly is freedom of speech? Is it the right to express one's feelings and view points or is it the right to speak out profanity and obscenity with no respect for self and others. There undeniably has to be a limit to the first amendment! How can rap music even be called an art?

Such kind of music is a disgrace to art. Very soon people will start claiming that human body is art and then run around nude. The censor board cannot be blamed if there is an increase in music piracy. The censor board does its duty of protecting the American people from listening to blasphemy and cannot be blamed for increase in music piracy. On the contrary it is the urge of the evil-minded people to acquire instant popularity and dirty money.

By putting a check on these kinds of people the American society will be a much cleaner place. Firstly, by editing out certain parts, which maybe the most essential parts, of the song the complete essence of the song is lost. A song has a lot of depth and meaning, which the artist tries to get through to his audience. The songs basically depict the artist life during his / her good, bad or ugly times or alert the audience on dangerous happenings in the society especially focusing on violence, child abuse, drugs, and racism. 'Rap music is merely a reflection of the environment' although people argue that rappers are responsible for violence and crime in the American society it is not true as they do nothing more than bring the present situation to the knowledge of the public (Salem par 1). In order to get the right message across to the listeners and make them really understand the seriousness of the situation, it is natural to use a couple of rude words and foul language, not simply for the fun of it but to emphasize either on the feelings of the artist itself or on the current situation in the society where actions have to be taken immediately.

According to Salem, "Artists do not create the environment-they dissect, critique, evaluate and offer it back with a unique twist and fresh perspective. Artists have never been anything more than mirrors of their surroundings. Rap music is also a form of art, rather poetry, as Maxwell claims, "The real truth is that rap is poetry, some of it brilliant, some as lyrical as the best of Wordsworth" (par 3). Rap music is an art of its own having its own specialty. If famous nude pictures and paintings drawn by artists like Picasso and Michelangelo can be considered works of art and great masterpieces there is unquestionably no harm in calling rap music an art too. Setting aside the artistic side of rap music, Kuntz, a poet laureate strongly feels "Rap is part of that spoken tradition and representative of the spontaneity of invention, and is associated with the broad base of our Democracy" (Sieg al par 13).

Secondly, by censoring songs the rappers cannot entertain their freedom of speech. America being a free country, which protects the rights of all citizens, must let rap artists' freely express themselves. Freedom of speech is the first amendment in the U.S. constitutional laws but for some musicians however this right is being taken away; this happens when their music is censored or edited. "However, theocratic's have failed to realize that any form of repression against any kind of music form constitutes a violation of the basic right of freedom of speech". (D'Entremont). Every individual has the right of freely speaking and expressing himself and by cutting out parts of the song no justice is done to the artist.

Doyle Rose, general manager of KPW R (Radio Station) stated "We " ve got to speak their language, if the message of the record is, 'Don't call me bitch,' we have to allow the artist to get the message across. And sometimes it is necessary across. And sometimes it is necessary for the artists to use language that grabs people's attention". (Vines par 4). On the contrary even the audience have to suffer because listening to a song with words missing is completely senseless and absurd. For example on FM 106.7 'Everlast' rapped that he 'smoked the finest green' but when the same sentence had to be played on FM 98.7 it turned out to be 'bleep the finest bleep' (Boucher par 2).

Thirdly, to add to the agony, by cutting out words from the lyrics provides a stepping-stone towards increase in piracy. Most people do not spend an approximate of sixteen dollars to buy the album (CD) just for the shine and glimmer behind it but on the contrary to understand the message the song is trying to convey. If the song were going to be repressed then after every third word one would be hearing sonic squiggles going bleep... bleep throughout the album. No one would waste money on purchasing an album and on top of that waste precious time in hearing songs that have words missing at regular intervals.

In order to get the complete unedited version of the songs people are ready to do anything regardless being a crime as serious as piracy. Laws, according to criminals, are made not to stop them from committing the crime but so that they find alternative ways to do it as a result making them law abiding citizens. Full versions of songs are unavailable in audio shops as all of them undergo censorship. And there are people who are desperate to hear the original versions of the song. Songs, which are not censored as yet, will only be accessible before they reach the censor board. There are people who manage to get hold of these copies thus recording them and making illegal copies of it.

This is a serious offense that can adversely affect the music industry. If original version of music is available outside who will want to buy a version with words missing from it? This will eventually lead to a drastic fall in sales of albums making piracy rise to its highest peak ever. According to DJ N itr 8, who played for parties in the US for 2 years 'Censorship is the height of vanity' - Martha Graham.

I strongly feel that the censor board should not rip out the soul of music out of songs. All my life I have been listening to this sort of music and never has this influenced me in anyway. I even have friends who listen to them and there has been no affect on their behavior either. After all we are mature enough to understand what is right and what is wrong we don't really need a censor board to cut out things that we hear. It isn't as bad as pornography or anything its only music. Although a good number of rap albums are not being played on radio stations, due to explicit content, many of them still make it to the top of the charts and eventually sell.

This clearly shows that people appreciate this kind of music. Besides Eminem's album 'Marshall Mathers LP' being one of the most obnoxious albums to be released it managed to be America's number one album for seven consecutive weeks and even sold over five million copies. This is a clear picture of how much his song is in demand regardless the explicit content. Instead of the censor board acting like a parent let us people decide what is good or bad for us. In the process of the censor board doing their work they only aggravate the situation by destroying the song, carting off the freedom of the rapper and also leading to a crime like piracy. Kill Piracy, Save Music, let original music live.

For all you know next time you turn on the radio to listen to some good music you might find yourself listening to three minutes of sonic squiggles going bleep... bleep!