Obscene And Rude Lyrics In Rap Music example essay topic

Gangsta Rap and Violence Go Hand in Hand 'Mr. Officer, I want to see you lay in' in a coffin, sir,' from The Chronic and 'F -- - the police,' from N.W.A., are few lyrics from the music genre 'gangsta rap. ' This kind of music is being sold to young children without any thought of concern. When many children listen to this kind of music they think that was being said in the songs is not wrong or against the law. The lyrics in many songs contain violent and explicit lyrics that usually talk about killing someone along with sounds of gunshots in the background.

It is also music that refers to women as 'bitches,' 'whores' and sex-dispensing 'hos'. 'Gangsta rap" has been criticized and debated over for its graphic sexual content, violent imagery and misogyny. When rappers were asked why they refer to women as bitches and hoes their replies were similar. 'Snoop's ays, 'that it is just for the women who are like that and if you " re a real women, you " re classy and elegant. Those lyrics should not necessarily affect you. You'd just groove to the music' (Farley 78).

If our society does not have respect for our women, why should anyone else? Do these rappers think that they can women and treat them any way they want to? If this is the way our black men really think about their Nubian sister. If we let this go on, then the media and the generation that follows us, would basically have no respect for women. Young children and adults, who listen and memorize these rap songs, think that it is acceptable behavior. 'Gangsta rap' is hardly the only source of violence, but it is a potent one.

Not only is the music violent but the rappers lifestyle is also. Many rappers have been in trouble with the law and young people see that it Okay, their rich and money talks. Today most people think that if your rich and famous then can get away with anything. Not all rappers have run-ins with the law, but the ones that do are very well known. Tupac Shakur, who was murdered in 1996, has had many run-ins with the law. Shakur was arrested for aggravated assault, charged with shooting two off duty police officers in Atlanta of 1993, but the charges were later dropped.

He was accused of beating a limousine driver in Los Angeles and found guilty of threatening a fellow rapper with a baseball bat in Michigan. He was also found guilty of sexual abuse in 1994 and was serving time up to 4 1/2 years in prison (Sims E 3). In some raps he glamorized the life of a gangster and fun gunplay. He lived the life tattooed on his stomach, 'Thug Life,' and died doing it. "Gangsta Rap' has attracted a high-profile of enemies and no one may ever know who really killed Tupac.

The police are still not sure of who shot and killed Tupac, but they think that it may have been linked to Death Row Record's ties with rival gangs. There are no witnesses who can identify the driver or shooter in the Cadillac that pulled up next to Tupak and driver, Marion Knight. Calvin Broadus, better known as Snoop Doggy Dogg, was arrested in 1993 on murder-conspiracy charges. He pleaded not guilty and was acquitted. He also has a police file that Hawkins 3 identifies him as a member of Long Beach Insane Crips, a notorious street gang (Cheevers A 1). He was also a drug dealer and user.

His music also glorifies violence and demeans women. Andre Young, a. k. a. Dr. Dre, served five months in a halfway house in 1993 for violating his probation for breaking another rap producers jaw in 1992. He was also convicted of hitting a New Orleans police officer in a hotel brawl and of slamming a TV talk-show host into a wall at a Hollywood club in 1991 (Sims E 3). His music demeans women and generates bad vibes against police officials.

The Chronic, an album by Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg, has many explicit lyrics and unnecessary foul mouthing. In one song they say, 'that if f -- - with Dre you f -- - with death row... ', more or less saying that if anyone messes with them they will have to worry about everyone that is with Death Row Records. In the same song they tell a woman, referring to her as a bitch, to yell-187 (police code for someone that has been killed). In another song they ask anther black man why he has been talking crap about them, he says it was not he. Then they put a gun in his mouth asking him, 'what's wrong can't talk with a gun in your mouth?

... Do you know Lucifer?', he replies,' no', and they tell him, 'well you " re about to meet him' (Rap). All of the songs on this album contain foul mouth language, violent and sexually explicit lyrics, drugs and misogyny. Is this the kind of music that young children should be able to listen to? William Drayton, Flavor Flat of the group Public Enemy, was arrested for attempted murder. The police were lead to his home after a source told them that shots were fired at a neighbor during an argument.

The police found a loaded 38-caliber semiautomatic handgun with one round missing. His music also glorifies violence. Hawkins 4 Eric Wright, known as Easy-E, has also generated bad vibes against police officials. This album He died at 31 years of age after revealing that he had the virus AIDS. From his deathbed he urged young people to learn about the disease. His music also talked about having the lifestyle of being promiscuous and that lifestyle killed him.

All of these rappers criminal records depict their lifestyles. They say that their music depicts the harsh reality of life in the hood. To these rappers, people dying young and going to jail is an everyday thing (Marriott 75). Tupak says that violence is all we know and telling it like it is a way of getting the people to listen to what is really going on. Ice-T's controversial album Body Count, produced by Warner Bros. Records, had provoked a sharp debate in 1992 when the album first came out. The song 'Cop Killer,' with obscene and violent lyrics, forced Time Warner to stop selling the album with the song on it.

The lyrics on the song said it was dedicated to the L.A.P.D. It also talked about 'dusting some cops off,' with sounds of gun fire he then asks the listener to sing along for their freedom-'cop killer' (Ice Body). 'Cop Killer' is not the on song on the album that glorifies violence. Even though the song was cut from the album the other songs on it were just as bad. Another song talks about killing his mother by setting her on fire, hitting her with a 'louisville slugger' and then cutting her up with a carving knife, all because she was racist. Is this reality and whats really going on in the world today? In other songs the lyrics talk about being promiscuous (giving very explicit sex lyrics) and yet the album was still being sold to young children.

Foulmouthed trash like this has been debated on whether or not it should be censored. Many think it should and are trying to do something about. Delores Tucker denounced Hawkins 5 companies that 'pimped porno rap' to children. She asks, 'What would Martin Luther King say about these rappers that demean women and glorify thugs, drug dealers and rapists?', and 'What kind of role models are those for young children living in the ghetto?' (Philips A 18). U.S. Representative Car diss Collins, a chairwoman of the congressional panel, complained that little was being done by the industry executive to cut out vulgar and violent lyrics. She said that 'a sticker is not enough' (Congresswomen 7). Some censorship has been incorporated in the radio industry.

Inner City Broadcasting has put a stop to playing hard-core rap and other misogynous and violent rap. It hopes to be a model for other radio stations to follow (Cleaning 22). Most radio stations now do not allow that kind of music on the air. Even though the radio has stopped playing hard-core rap, record companies are still producing this kind of music. Death Row Records, the top producer of rap music, has been under a lot of fire not only by Dolores Tucker, but by Bob Dole and others also. Death Row Records has recently had its own wake-up call.

The companies CEO, Marion 'Suge' Knight, has recently been arrested for violated his probation and is in jail. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon in 1992 and was sentenced to five years probation plus 30 days in a halfway house. A hearing later will decide on what kind of sentence he will receive. Knight could face up to five to nine years in prison if convicted. The company may suffer a great loss because no business actions or even phone calls are allowed from prison. Before he began his fortune as CEO he was an All-American defensive end and was on the dean's list at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

He the played pro-football for the Los Angeles Rams but later quit to become a concert promoter. Soon Hawkins 6 after this his run-ins with the law started with his arrest for trafficking guns. After other run-ins with the law Knight began recording 'The Chronic,' which refers or a type of marijuana, with Dr. Dre. He then was approached by Interscope Records, who wanted him to produce records. He negotiated a $10 million deal to start up Death Row Records (Cheevers A 1).

Now Death Row Records is known as the only label that can do whatever they want. To some listeners Death Row's music is powerful and is also reality, but to others their music celebrates drugs, murderers and misogyny. The FBI says that this rap label has ties to gangs and drugs. They are still trying to determine wether the company was involved in cocaine-trafficking, money laundering and racketeering (Leeds B 1). The FBI has been investigating Death Row Records and the individual members.

Death Row Records is not the only record company to promote rap, Time Warner has also been producing rap records. Time Warner has pledged to do something about obscene and rude lyrics in rap music. The new chairman of Warner Music Group, Michael J. Fuchs, was asked to talk with critics of rap lyrics and to work with other record companies to come up with some regulations for warning labels (Lander D 2). Warning labels have been placed on albums with provocative lyrics, but these warnings do little to prevent the lyrics from reaching children. The chairman and chief executive claims that 'music is not the cause of society's ills.

' That may be true but do they have an influence on the people that listen to the music. Many say yes and many say no. An experiment done by James D. Johnson shows that violent rap tends to perpetuate the acceptance of the use of violence and an anti-education mind-set. He thinks that this kind of music should have some regulation. He refers to rap music being like nicotine- it is addictive; it is mood Hawkins 7 altering and it is available with some strains (Raspberry, 'Does' A 27).

A person has to be 18 years old to buy cigarettes, rent X-rated movies, or get into a strip bar / nightclub and has to be 21 years old to drink or buy alcohol. There are age limits on these things that can endanger young people and there should also be a age limit on buying albums with explicit lyrics on them. Even though there is a warning label on the albums young children can still buy them because there is no law to prohibit sale. There are a lot of people who agree something should be done about the explicit lyrics on albums. Stanley Crouch, a music critic and writer, says that rappers are 'a bunch of opportunists who are appealing to an appetite that America has for vulgarity, violence and anarchy inside Afro America' (Sims 3).