Is Your Favorite Rapper Hurting You?

Contributed by AdamBernard:

Hearing Paula Zahn rant inaccurately, and fairly stereotypically, about Hip-Hop on CNN these past few days (“Hip-Hop – Art or Poison?”) has been, well, depressing. It really seems there’s a generation of folks out there who can’t, or rather don’t want to, understand the difference between reflection and causation (i.e. the music isn’t the reason for the actions, the actions are the reason for the music). A lot of people argue that mainstream MCs limit their topic matter to how much money they have, violent ghetto imagery, and their supposed sexual prowess. These arguments are, in some cases, valid, but the problem is they never address the real issues going on with our music and our culture and this is because people like Paula Zahn know nothing about Hip-Hop. Zahn and her friends ridiculed current songs for their misogynistic and sometimes nihilistic content, but very few folks emulate negativity, even if it’s shown in an interesting light. Plenty of folks, however, are attempting to emulate the supposed “good life” they see in videos. The question we need to start asking is “is this emulation of supposed prosperity hurting us?” For the full story, visit adambernard.blogspot.com.