Rap not cause of crime
While all types of violent music have some negative influence on young people, I would not go as far to say that it prompts one to commit serious crimes. I also think making such comments (as those made by the police commissioner recently) discredits all the hard work and commitment that persons such as local rapper and recent Grammy award nominee, Jason Gilbert, and his group “The iZ” and others like D.L.S.have accomplished.
Rap music has come a long way since the 1980’s and early 90’s when “gangster” rap music was much more popular. Many rap artists these days are actually entrepreneurs, often wearing business suits, most having their own clothing line, fragrances and record labels. A few even have ownership in professional basketball teams (NBA). Hip Hop artist Jay-Z was recently featured in Forbes magazine alongside billionaire Warren Buffet. Although most focus on wealth and fame, I think they also inspire young people to do something positive with their lives and to dream big.
There are a number of things that contribute to our young people committing crimes and rap music, in my opinion, is not the main reason. I am not suggesting that parents allow their children to listen to violent music, but not all rap music is bad. I personally feel that the main reason for the increase of crime among our youth today is the breakdown of the family and society’s lack of patience and tolerance in grooming our youth.
Looking on the Economics and Statistics website, it showed that in 2009 Cayman had 232 filed divorces and in 2008, 196 divorces were granted, the highest in 24 and 23 years respectively. Any single parent can tell you how hard it is to raise a family on their own, whether it is financially, physically or mentally.
I read a study online by Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org) that said: “The absence of the father is the single most important cause of crime and the percentage of single-parent households with children between the ages of 12 and 20 is significantly associated with rates of violent crime and burglary.” Material things can be replaced, but a great father missing from home is irreplaceable.
Many studies show that the breakdown within the home can be detrimental to young people, causing many to commit crimes. If you do not believe in the studies, just look around and watch from experience. Where do young men learn to assault women? Many times they see it happen growing up right in their own home. Where do young people pick up drug and alcohol habits? From their parents, relatives or persons close around them — actually many teens have admitted that their first alcohol drink came from their parents.
Young people not working or attending full time school is another cause which bolsters crime.
We all know that idleness and too much free time causes young people to get into mischief.
I think poor modeling also has an impact on our youth: every person on earth has thesocial responsibility to be a good role model within the community. However, a lot of the bad habits that our young people pick up, they pick up from adults — foul language, selfishness, anger, negativity, just to name a few.
I think the lack of positive role models within our community also has an effect on our youth.
A recent poll done by Gallup/USA Today showed President Barack Obama to be the “Most Admired Man” for the 3rd straight year. Whether you like him or not, it is evident that he is a family man and demonstrates and conducts himself in a very professional and admirable manner, which is very appealing to the younger generation.
The reason we have so many young people looking abroad and being influenced from overseas is because of the lack of role models here in Cayman. I am not saying we don’t have some in Cayman — I personally know several of them — but it is not to a magnitude of what is really needed. We need more role models and leaders who stand out, Caymanian role models and leaders, who aspire to inspire this new generation.
We as a nation need to start encouraging our children more and instilling positive things into their minds on a consistent basis; it has a negative influence on them when all they hear is negative things. I do not think we encourage our children enough to dream big, think positive, instill into them that they can do anything they put their minds to. Growing up I did not have much confidence in myself until other people took notice of my potential and started encouraging me, and I suspect many young people are going through the same thing today.
When I attended school, I recall one teacher telling me that I wouldn’t become anything. I also had people comparing me to family members who had certain addictions. We need to let our children know that their past, neighborhood, race, wealth or educational background does not affect their future.
Not to my surprise, the same study done by the Heritage Foundation, which I truly believe to be accurate, stated that “Neighborhoods with a high degree of religious practice are not high-crime neighborhoods.” I do not think that anyone can argue that the principles and morals that Christianity teaches us have been diminishing within our community.
Many of our elders will tell you that Cayman has changed significantly, and although I believe in change, there are just some things, such as our moral integrity, personal responsibility and community involvement, that should not change.
I call upon families, fathers in particular, to take your rightful place in society, to shelter your sons and daughters from destroying themselves. Teach them the right morals and principles that will help them to be successful in life and help build their characters, that will not allow them to bend under negative influence. These things cannot be taught in colleges or universities but can only be obtained within a loving home. In doing so, we will build a stronger community in the fight against crime, both locally and internationally.
Richard Christian is the president of the Young United Democratic Party (YUDP) and was responding to comments made by Police Commissioner David Baines in a presentation at the Caribbean Conference on Economic Co-operation held at the Ritz Carlton last month.
Category: Viewpoint
What no one has brought up is the fact that rappers, musicians, successful people in general don’t necessarily grow up to be good parents… something’s missing in your analysis here. Are you bashing rap lovers or bad parents?
What no one has brought up is the fact that rappers, musicians, successful people in general don’t necessarily grow up to be good parents… something’s missing in your analysis here. Are you bashing rap lovers or bad parents?
I have red this article, and the comments, I’m very disappointed ! XXXX Mr Banes is comming from a society, where White Cops, target black, in pursuit to makes us all criminals ! I have expereince this, as a Caymanian live in West Yorkshire Leeds UK, for two years.
No one mention, one of the reason for the rise in crime, on these Island, is locking-up a lot of the young Caymanian, for smoking Ganja ! that had no criminal back-ground prior to their lock-up ! after the punishment, another criminal, is created ! for the Cayman capitalist, that good for business ! time to send Mr Banes home !
Thanks
If it weren’t for the ghettos and the sufferation. Then rappers wouldn’t have anything to rap about no would they?
Let’s understand that it is not a genre that is voilent but rather the content of that genre. And while rock is said to be condusive to increased adrenaline & rap to increase tension and produce anger, these are from merely viewing these genres from a tone perspective. The heart of the matter is that the lyrical content is laced with so much flamable topics that a vulnerable person listens and a match is lit. Boom!
Instead of battling genres, let’s battle the mad men & women who we allow into our lives (or rather allow to destroy our lives). If all of societies issues are made celebrities in the music, how can we expect anything but more issues and for those that practice to be proud?
Let’s evalute what we take in… content wise.
Most rap is ego centric shouting about money, clubs and "shorties", and usually about what a rapper with money would like to do with the "shorties" in or after the club. Hardly inspiring messages for the youth. . .
HI My fellow Caymanian Richard. I totally agree that it is some of the more " established rappers" like JZ that is now Entreprenuers. Rappers like JZ
have no longer reasons to rap with the derogatory language and disrespect to women .
He is now making millions for his life in a new clean way now
But look around at the MAJORITY of the rest of the rapppers. Just listen to the killing, sex, promiscuity, and voilence and disrepect for women and their " baby mamas’ that is so entralled in the words of their music.
But you are right on target that it is the lack of good fathers in our homes that is causing too many young girls and boys to " connect" and " relate" to too many of the rappers unfortunately .
Truthfully Weststar TV should be blocking MTV and BET because of the NEGATIVE influence those mediums have on us a young black people accross the whole carribbean ,
It is quite amusing that what this article does illustrate is that neither the author of this article nor David Baines has any clue what it means to grow up dirt poor and surrounded by violence on the streets of Detroit or in the back roads of Swamp. Rap is music usually performed by not very well educated young men singing about their usually miserable existence.
In truth that is only one facet of Rap music. The rest is exploitation of that for financial gain saying whatever is believed to sell CDs.
I actually have no issues with rappers who simply speak of their hardships and how the system is not working for them the way Bob Marley did in Jamaica. However there is a line you cross when you start telling your listeners to kill people or rob or do drugs or to hold women in low value to achieve a lifestyle. All the cursing and swearing F this F that hit this hit that.
The problem is two fold really. The greater majority of listeners of rap are struggling in life and reach out to grab hold of anything. They are highly impressionable and will do anything if they thought it would make their lives better and the rappers they know this and they use this. Their lyrics is like a drug and they use their drug in such a way to increase sales. They care not for the results only that it means more money for them.
The sad part is this. It’s like crabs in a bucket really. They were down and now they are going up a little and so they do stuff not fully realising that they are damaging their listeners by saying things that might influence them to worsen their lives.
Just take a look around and see who’s doing the crimes. See who’s not working. See who’s abusing the young women. See who’s making single parent mothers. See who’s driving around with their music blaring not realising they could be driving cross a potential employer or walking around with their pants round their ankles not thinking about who might be seeing them.
It’s sad but true that you must respect society and always try to be at the top of your game at all times.
Both Rap and reggae came from the same hardships and both have taken the same path towards ruination of their listeners by exploiting them. I give props to people like Shaggy who always try to put a good song or two on their albums that shows respect to women or family. It’s not to say that even Shaggy exploity his listeners but atleast he took the time to try to give them something positive to listen to.
Anyone who doubts that rap causes crime should take a read of Fur-Q’s lyrics:
"Uzi like a metal d*ck in my hand / magazine like a big testicle gland / b*tch wanna try it/I said ‘keep her quiet’/shove it up her motherf****n’ ass and fry it."
Who could dispute that this is the product of a sick and depraved mind.
The Police Commissioner should look at other genres of violent music – like C&W:
"Before He Cheats": Carrie Underwood – violence against men
"Good-bye Earl": Dixi Chicks – murder your boyfriend
"The Thunder Rolls": Garth Brooks – beat your wife
"Burn Down the Trailer Park" Billy Ray Cyrus
And yes, Reggae is violent. Perhaps that old classic "I Shot the Sherrif" by Bob Marley should be blamed for inspiring certain acts.
You know only reason I won’t post RAP songs with violence in it?
Cause it would take me so long to decide which ones I should list down. Fact is you featured 5 country songs and it probably took you a few hours to research. In that few hours I probably could find 50 or more rap songs.
It’s not that there are no R&B, Country or Rock songs about doing something bad it’s just that RAP out numbers all of them combined by like 40-50:1.
Rap does not cause crime thats crazy.
Say a guy kills someone and he happens to listen to rap it dosent mean that song told him to kill someone, that was his decision and his actions no one is forcing him to kill someone.
Say another guy killed someone and he dosent listen to rap his favorite artist is Lady GaGa. What I’m saying is music may infuence you in someways but at th end of the day your in control of your actions and you should know right from wrong.
Of course little kids should not listen to rap, but teenagers know right from wrong. If anything would be influencing it would be their friends and parents. Maybe those same kids grew up to be murders is because there parents beat them or caused them sort of pain. Not all rap is about drugs and sex ect. Any type of music you can think of has an extreme.
Rap does not cause crime as gun do not kill people but they both contribute to crime. Gun provides an avenue to achieve the crime and the rap sets the mental tempo for weak minded people.
Let’s be clear all music styles probably with the exception of opera has sang about something criminal in nature when it comes down to it no other music style has sang about it as much as rap has and the terrible thing is that many (not all) of it’s listeners are mentally challenged. NOT ALL but many and this is evident by:
Driving round in cars with RAP music for the deft.
Walking around with pants waist around their ankles
Abuse against women
Shall I continue.
Hey,genius: it IS influencing them because their fathers aren’t present, and a mother cannot teach a boy to be a man. Fatherless black kids turn to the only role models they have available to them: rap artists, who’s sociopathic, criminal-enabling messages can be heard literally every 3 minutes, from a turned up stereo in a passing car to BET playing from an open apartment window. Or they seek acceptance from their peers…who (surprise!!) idolize rap artists. I LIVED in the projects till I hit 17, and saw this crap happen firsthand. Everybody I knew who had no father at home and looked up to a rap artist started getting in trouble committing crimes like selling rocks and stealing cars: the MAIN 2 causes of black kids getting criminal records. I had a father present, and didn’t like rap in the first place. I looked up to characters in novels and comic books. I was a “nerdy” black kid who “talked white” (having a good vocabulary and speaking without an ebonics accent), liked to read, and never wanted to cause trouble for anyone. You sound like some caucasian guy who thinks things in the projects/inner city neighborhoods are the same as where you live, and think that every black kid has a father at home to shape their morals and values. Guess what: what you think you know is a lie. You’re on the outside, BARELY looking in. There are no positive role models in black neighborhoods. Anybody that doesn’t act like a media stereotype of a black thug is “corny” and “lame”. Black kids who have their act together are effectively shunned by black women until their 40’s because they don’t have “swagger”, or basically don’t exhibit thug behavior. The inner city black world is a LOT different than you know. ABC oughta do an expose on it. White america would be shocked at how f***ed-up it really is, and it would explain SO much. Maybe then people would stop buying it and feeling bad when black america keeps trying to blame everyone else for the problems they themselves create, and tell them to get their crap together and stop the nonsense.
I wish i could illustrate effectively how silly this argument is.
I would never say all people are bad, all caucasions are racist, all blacks are lazy etc etc etc. It’s offensive to stereotype and smother people with blanket statements.
I have listened to many secular rap songs that did not promote violence or other criminal activities so if your child has also had that same experience, imagine how silly you sound to them running around declaring how bad rap music is for the youth.
Old head caymanians are so out of touch it’s disheartening. This ain’t 1970, I can talk to somebody in china and england at the same time on the same device about the same song that we just hear on the same website. how can your old ‘get off my grass’ a$$ even begin to relate to our likes or dislikes. we live in a totally different world from the one youre pulling your opinions from. I’m not disrespecting the older generation on a whole either because then i would just be acting like the bad apples from the old generation that i am criticizing. But if people continue to attack whole genres, i guarantee the people will pay less and less attention to you and your whole generation will end up labeled as generation out of touch.
Just because you grow old doesn’t mean you grow up.
Mr. Iton has a valid point. The article points out the breakdown of the family unit as a major cause of crime and we can’t lose sight of it. This has played a significant role in most societies and Cayman is no exception. There are many aspects of West Indies culture that I never grasped. The view of some men towards their woman (women?) that they were their possession? I thought gender equality was improving… apparently not. Then there is the need to spread their ‘seed’ without regard. I suspect this is tied more to the rap/gangsta culture and is really a very poor mindset by the young men. I so admire the women who are able to ignore and avoid the trap of getting involved with the thugs.
An enlightening snapshot into the future of Cayman can be had with a couple hours of viewing the profiles of the youth of Cayman on Facebook. It would be an interesting social experiment and research to compare the correlation between the gangster thugs/wannabes and whether they come from broken homes with little or no father figure in their lives. Likewise, it would be helpful for society, if/when a young adult has gone wayward, committed a crime, and been convicted, and then as part of the coverage of the court proceedings, have social services do an investigation into the home life and upbringing of said child and share it with the public. I think it would be revealing on many levels and help us determine if there is a pattern behind criminal behaviour.
Repair and heal this aspect of society and the future may look a whole lot brighter than it currently does.
For real.. Music does play a role & other faucet’s that you’ve touched on. That said, it paramount to have other positive influences (like values & morals) issued from long established,truth bearing bodies. Who continue to carry the torch for love,humility & the teachings of Christ. A million thumbs up for your comprehensive piece.
I think you’ll find dancehall reggae to be more influential here than rap and look where that has gone to…
There is some reggae now that’s only a Caribbean version of rap.
Reggae has lost a lot of what it once was. Today most of it is about sex.
So I can agree with you to a point but it’s Rap that’s brought more people down than any other style of music in existence today.
Rap has degraded women, glorified the thug lifestyle which includes poor dress habits, low value for work, high potencity for gun tooting and little value for parents, women, teachers and the law. What this has lead us all to is too many boys making babies, too many youths involved in gangs (trying to be the thug) which leads them to crime.
You can try to glorify Rap all you want but the truth on the ground says this simple fact:
More kids today go bad being to addicted to the rapper and their lifestyle than actually succeed in life because of it. I would dare say it’s probably a 10:1 or even as high as 100:1 ratio of failure to success and my friend that is nothing to be proud of.
YES there are those like Jayzee who has made a life from rap but you can count them on two hands those who have but you would need a state in the US to count the digits of those who have lost their lives, jobs and/or families because of it and that’s directly or indirectly.
And don’t get me wrong. I like some rap but the quality of rap like the quality of reggae has taken a serious step backwards.
The rappers of tomorrow need to seriously take a good long look at what they are preaching. They need to start trying to motivate their listeners to higher levels of aspiration such as getting a good quality education, repecting their teachers, family and the women in and around them. Try to break out of the box and take a new direction.
Th best way I can describe the rap today is lyrical cocaine. Addictive and destructive.
you make a lot of generalizations and sweeping statements that are not backed up by fact my friend.
while i agree with your sentiment regarding the demand for ‘aspiration rap’, you look silly to anybody remotely familiar with the historyof rap and reggae and it’s influence on caymanians. if you are going to paint with such a broad brush why don’t you include the lyrical content of soca and calypso? did hip hop turn those genres into the audio smut that they have become as well? be honest with yourself rasta, you cannot shield your eyes, nor ears from the negativity of the world. As long as people can relate to action movies, pornography, thug life, drug culture, then their will be a demand for these songs.
The fact that people buy these products is more indicative of the human condition than the fact somebody produced the record.
You can’t make the world a better place by censoring expression, the only solution is to initiate the change in the mind of the consumer. That said, i refuse to live in some bubble and become out of touch with the world and whats going on in it.
Just because people don’t take your advice doesn’t mean you should ostracise them, if you genuinely care for humanity, why would you want to censor it. Wouldn’t you want to know more about your fellow man? How can you help what you aren’t aware of? How can you be aware of something if its constantly being silenced and censored?
I’m pretty sure if you censor a wound…..it will not heal.
I sensor no wound just see too many stupid people running around doing stupid things and they share mostly one thing in common. RAP
I really don’t care what you think to be perfectly honest.
Here’s your precious RAPPERS….Read up some and become enlightened instead of being a mindless drone…
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,80622,00.html
Ooh yeah and here’s more fun RAP news
http://www.rapnewsdirect.com/Topics/Crime/
Hope you enjoy those. Those are just noteables who hit the news. Let’s keep in mind there’s probably 50 for every 1 that gets reported because they are nobodies now.
Rap is expressive of the artist!!
There are plenty of other genres and artists that give a bad example to young people. I do not think that it makes sense to blame a genre (a thing created by man, and the artists included).
There are artists (although few) that do not curse in their raps, as well as deliver positive messages. We also have rap artists whose purpose is to preach Christ.
Like every other tool in life – it can be used for good or bad. Therefore it falls back on having more positive role models.
And to top it off, you need to put the blame on society itself because if they were not buying the records of artists who are bad role models, then they would not have a reason to rap about bad things. But as it stands – that is what is selling. Do not blame the music! blame society and people! Think about it.
The good rap is so limited it isn’t funny. For every 1 good rapper there’s 100 bad ones speaking of sex, drugs and crime.
I don’t say they are not there I just say there are far too much bad out there.
Reggae is same way. Things have gone down hill since Bob Marley. The amount of good I mean really good reaggae artist can be counted on one hand.
Honestly, I am still shocked to see that so many people missed the essential point of this article. What the author spoke volumes on…and which hasn’t really been raised in the comments is the impact of the broken family unit on crime.
First of all, I am a young professional. I absolutely love hip hop and rap and will always love it. Agreed, there is a lot of trash out there musically but not all of it is bad. Ask yourself this, where does the violent content in rap stem from and why is it there? Did the violent clashes in the civil rights movement and groups like the panthers not serve some purpose? I’m not saying that "Gangsta" rap is the same, but these artist comment on very real and very violent social issues affecting them and as black people in America get richer and richer, violent content in rap has also gotten less and less.
That said, growing up my parents weren’t to thrilled early with my fascination with hip hop, but they allowed me a fundamental level of self expression and individualism. Long and short they allowed me the freedom to listen and for what it’s worth to enjoy rap whilst still keeping me grounded enough to know that the violence spoken about was NOT MY REALITY. It’s so paradoxical to me that people make these arguments about rap and then turn around and watch the most violent films, or even something as "simple" as CSI, which probably does more to teach criminals to evade the law than rap ever could.
Mr. Christian. I understand where you are coming from with this article and totally agree with you. Even if rap is a contributing factor, address that is like treating a symptom and not the root cause. The break down of the family unit is the ultimate source for the majority of the crime both here and abroad.
Well said Karyll.
WOW My friend WOW
Again fundamentally I don’t hate Rap or Reggae.
I grew up listening to both but I have a strong mind. I don’t see someone wearing their pants down round their ankles and showing their underwear and say I gotta do that. How many idiots you see today doing that thinking it looks cool and how many idiot girls actually think it is cool.
What you are getting into is what came first the chicken or the egg.
Is Rap a product of society or society a product of Rap.
I say WHO the hell cares. Stop trying to pin the tail on the darn donkey. It’s about what is contributing to the problems today. An your answer is RAP!!
As long as you are out there telling young impressional men and women to hit that or kill that or whatever you are driving the next generation to be as bad or worse than the current.
Basically what we started with was slavery and all the issues that came with that and then came a more simple form in racial discremination and now we are to an even slighter version in non unilateral treatment on similar issues in that some white people seem to get off easier doing the same thing as a colored person would. Or maybe a white person may get a better salary than someone of color would. This exist, we all know it accept it or not.
But what RAP does is throw fuel on the fire. It stokes the fire of separation. It gives some a false sense of empowerment to either not perform on their job or in the family unit. It makes them feel they all will makes millions being a thug.
Again YES times were hard but there is no sense keeping it that way by making your brother believe success in life is being a thug or that all your need do is sell drugs or hit a store. Or to go around sexing every girl in sight not caring about the innocent life that might be brought forth.
Einstein said it’s a fool who thinks that doing thing over and over is going to present a different result. Therefore break the chain. You can not break a wall down by tears or crying over spilt milk. You break it down by becoming more than the wall can bear. You do this with education and the persuit of excellence in all that you do.
Please not I use the words CONTRIBUTE. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. But guns contribute being being able to enable someone to acheieve a task.
Dred,
I agree with you. I think you make VERY valid points but you said and I quote:
"Okay. While NOTHING makes someone commit crime Rap has contributed to more criminal activity that any single other thing except guns and knives."
All I was doing was expressing a difference of opinion on that point. I don’t agree with that. Stephen King (one of my favorite author’s) writes some incredibly violent and disturbing material at times, but he is not pointed as being a source for inspiring violence.
As DJToan Def said, the key is that MOST well adjusted people can extract the fantasy from reality. My argument is simply that it is the family unit which provided the background for people to be able to do this effectively.
Wait Wait Wait a second…..
The problem is the listeners not ONLY the rappers. Many of the peeople (NOT ALL) are for lack of better words mentally challenged. When you take HIGHLY impressionable minds and fill them with CRAP then you have a lethal cocktail.
You and I may be able to defrentiate between something we can listen to and enjoy and leave it at thatbut OTHERS sadly enough will start to adjust their lives to it by dressing the way their rappers dress, by treating their lady friends like crap, by "hitting" that @#@ without care.
Why do you suppose that we hear about VIOLENT MOVIES as being something of grave concern but strangely enough nothing about VIOLENT BOOKS? Because it takes effort to read a book and little to watch a movie. An impressionable mind is less likely to read a book and more likely to watch a movie simply because of the effort involved.
So when you make comparisons between two things such as that you must understand that people who read books actually have a far better chance of being highly educated. Why? vocabulary in a word. Reading seems to involve more brain power than watching. With reading we process words not imagies. When we remember we remember the motions from movies but words from books. So it’s like apples and oranges. It’s one thing also to read about someone being killed and something different to see someone killed. The impact is not even remotely the same to the human psychy.
Now on to MOST WELL ADJUSTED PEOPLE. Many of the people who listen to rap are not falling into your "Well adjusted People" bracket. I would dare say 60-75% of the people who listen to rap are impressionable and that’s the same as saying NOT WELL ADJUSTED. Now don’t get upset by thinking I’m saying you are or your friends because you well might be in that 25%-40% group but that gang that lives down the road with 15 to 30 guys are not.
I guess where we differ is the ratios. You seem to believe that most listeners of rap are well adjusted and I would dare say it’s completely the opposite. You take it on yourself to believe you are the norm when you are probably far and beyond the exception. Just look at the people on the road who are listening to RAP for a second and watch them. Watch how the wear their clothes and ask yourself where did they get that dress style from or where did the idea come from to put 50 speakers in the back of their cars or some other adjustment to the car come from? Now I can hear you say so what. Maybe they simply think they look good like that but I say how and when did this decision come about. Who told you or showed you it look good and where did they get this belief from. Same with cars. We watch a movie about cars and we do changes to our own to look the same or what we believe better.
Again I say this I am not antirap but I do not like what I am seeing on the back end of it. I know it is contributing to single parent homes, abuse in homes, drugs, diseases, legal disputes including murder, robbery. I know this because I see the affects.
Fair points, and like I said in my post above. I agree with you. Your perspective on the literature argument is very true and a take on it I never really assessed before.
I don’t disagree with your ratios either. You may be 100% correct on that. What I am trying to point out and what I think the article’s author are trying to show is what lead to the situation where music like this was created in the first place and so easily accepted in the second.
This is where I think you miss where I am focusing on. Regardless of the ratio of well adjusted people versus impressionable minds, the key is that the whole process has to begin at home. What creates a well adjusted mind is solid direction from birth. And that can only come from a stable home situation. An impressionable mind comes from not having proper mentorship, and the first people to mentor you in life are your parents. So if there is a failure to society, then we have to inspect the situation there first. That is all I am saying.
"You need a license to carry a gun, a license to drive, but any idiot can have a kid" – anonymous
I agree with you Karyll, although you overlooked one important point. Youths are very impressionable. Some more than others. And because of that they do try to emulate what they see and hear. "See" is very important there, because with the advent of MTV, the shift became not just the music but the visuals as well. Visuals became very important. Unfortunately more so than the content of the music. The visuals in rap videos display In a lot of cases an in your face arrogant attitude accompanied by lots of messages. Extravagant cars, bling, lewdness, jewelery, submissive girls, etc. A lifestyle of decadence. Most of us can extract the fantasy from reality without too much trouble but there are others, especially youth, who can not. The other important point is: what kind of world are they trying to create? Surely not one of compassion and understanding. Dig music is a very powerful medium and has been used since the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam war to express dissatisfaction with the status quo.Although Rap music talks about injustice, it doesn’t offer an alternative and the ones making it don’t empower the youth to change things. Instead, they flaunt their toys. I wouldn’t follow any of them after watching rap videos in most cases Rap stars appear to be nothing more than self-indulgent misogynists or rebels without a clue and that isn’t a solution, it’s a money-making venture, and they make it obvious.
Music (like all art) speaks to people who relate closest to it.
The fact that our young people relate to rap says more about what they are going through, rather than what they are influenced to do.
Son, rap in itself may not cause the commission of a crime; however, it certainly does provide AID to the commission of a crime. Somethings in life you just have to avoid "whatever" strengthens the tendency to do the wrong things. Human nature is weak and is easily identified with the things of life more than the spiritual things of God.
It provides AID to the commission of a crime? WHAT!? Please elaborate.
Contributes to the state of mind.
Richard,
I don’t well about the cause of crime, because crime is defined by society and the law. For instance speeding a certain miliage, along some wide and spacious roads is considered a crime.
However, I do know what "sin" or "ignorance" is, and I know that the cause of ignorance is "attachment" to our feelings, thoughts, objects, desires, and idea of self, all of which are in impermanent in themselves. We all like the rest of nature will one day die, so why become attached to the temporary things of life?
Although rap music (in itself) does not cause a person to become ignorant and commit an immoral crime against someone or some animal, I will have you know that much of the words or lyrics found in much of rap and hip-hop music, does portray an attachment or clinging to some thing or some one. And that is not good! For such music, especially, the music videos, in a way, glorify many times – materialism, violence, breaking the law, acquiring wealth just for selfish purposes, racism (such as blacks verses white cops), drugs, involvement in gang activites, lust, and/or self-centeredness.
Of course, in themselves one can reason and say that these things are no harm to anyone, but when I listen to the music or watch a video, it suggests to me that such things the bomb! That without such things or personal experiences or sexual experience, one can never be totally satisfied, fulfilled, or made happy in life. And of course, the rappers got style, glow, and the young people like what they see, because they can relate with them. They represent freedom and heaven on earth.
I recommend that if a person or youngster wants to live a true, happy, content, and peaceful life, they should "eat and drink" from that fountain that never dries up, and listen to such music that is edifying and speaks about virtues, such as love, grace, patience, goodwill, and fairness.
Youngsters that want to walk the spiritual path have to put God first in their lives, and be a light to the world in guarding well the avenues of their soul.
Sorry to say, but what you find in alot of rap music is another "god," a magician, which makes the "best" of the world, appears to be heaven on earth and eternal. It constantly whispers in the ears of youngsters "ye shall be like gods," and when you look at them and see how they act, the youngsters do tend to forget that they are not living forever and they become reckless with their lives and consideration for other people.
You may call me religious, but the message behind rap music, reminds me of the story of Jesus when he was in the wilderness for 40 days, and tempted by the Devil. Note: The Devil, according to the Jews, was Heaven’s Masterful Musician. There was no other musician, full of wisdom like Satan who could sing alto, bass, and saprono at the same time. The Gsopel says that Jesus was tempted by him and taken up into a high mountain where he was showed all the wealth and glory that the Devil claimed belong to him. Satan said to the effect, "bow down and worship me, and I will give you all the desires of your heart," but Jesus replied to the effect, "Not so… you shall worship God and Him only shall you serve."
Question: Could not rap music be an avenue, used to mislead and misguide the young? It is a biblical question, but is food for thought. All music comes from God, but if you believe in GOOD, then you must believe that there is a BAD too! Makes sense?
Peace 🙂
Wow… a vp that has contributed absolutely no original thought to atired and unoriginal escape-goat of an argument. This horse has been dead for so long it has decayed.
"neighborhoods with a high degree of religious practice are not high crime neighborhoods"… this coming from the Heritage Foundation, a right wing think tank whose stated mission is to "to formulate and promote conservative public policies".
The same way which music can’t make people "bad" or make them "criminals", religion does not have the monopoly over "proper" or "good" values and morals, so isn’t it time this island get with the program and start the dialogue from a more advanced point?
I really still enjoy that ol’ good Black Sabbath and didn’t kill myself!
how many good bright kids have photos on facebook throwing up gang signs? it doesn’t mean that they are bad apples, but merely reflects how pervasive the sub-culture really is. what this does is then neuters a society to violent acts in manner that allows them to remain relatively inactive and sometimes even supportive of thugsters!!
secondly rap is dead! save NAS….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUKTl2s5oDY&feature=feedlik
This is too precious to leave alone….truly it is.!!!!
Okay. While NOTHING makes someone commit crime Rap has contributed to more criminal activity that any single other thing except guns and knives.
What Rappers do is to create a perceived lifestyle that you people today aspire to. They make it seem easy and often purport the need to be thuggish and do stupid things like:
1) Wear your pants 4-10 inches south of where it suppose to be. This is "wink" exactly what a potential employer wants to see. Fact is your are ONLY potential but nothing kinetic.
2) It tells you wemon are "hoes" and easy to come by and that they need do what you want them to do. This sure lends itself to family values which has shown itself in those wondeful statistic you speak of divorce wise.
3) It tells people drinking and partying is so cool. This has often lead to people loosing jobs which has lead to a few divorces and even some battery cases.
Should I continue? OOh hold on. The few that have succeeded have done so by pimping out talent. Let’s keep in mind that even drug dealers can become successful. Even serial killers get special names. But that doesn’t make them role models.
So before you try to go paint these wanna be thugs and thug makers as angels lets keep in mind that these people create far more problems than they eliminate.
I will finish with this. Ask yourself this simple question and see if you can be 100% honest with your answer. Of all the young thugs on Cayman which type of music do you think they listen to most:
1) Country
2) Pop
3) Rock
4) Metal
5) Rap
I am willing to bet my horse and carriage that the numbers sway extremely far towards #5. I would then ask you what does that tell you?
lol so wait let me get this straight, your first bullet point is about where the waist of somebodies pants is and it’s affect on potential employment? How many people do you think are running around unemployed because their potential employer did not appreciate their fashion sense? I don’t need rap music to tell me that a woman or in your case ‘wemon’ can be unsavory or that yes indeed some women and men are indeed loose. wait now you’re going to tell me that rap music invented loose men and women.
and 3rd… wow you’re going to tell me that aaaaall these bars popped up in cayman to fill the demand stimulated by that dirty old rap music?
I sincerely hope you are not employed by the department of education, if i had to chose whether my son had a conversation with you or ‘Jayzee’ i’m sorry but your opinion wouldn’t stand a chance. not because i like rap music or music in general but because your arguments against rap lack validity and speaks of a extremely limited perspective of the world.
good luck with your endeavors.
The world would be a better place without the egocentric, misogynistic and materialistic influence on rap and its so called "culture".
are you saying that the world would be better without rap, or that the world would be better without all the negativity in rap because it’s two very distinct philosophies.
Personally i feel it is highly ignorant to claim that a large and diverse genre of music is entirely responsible for creating or precipitating violence. There are so many logical reasons against this mentallity i find it hard to understand how people can still point this finger at ‘hip hop’ or ‘rap’ music.
Aim your attacks at the negative characteristics of PEOPLE, whether it be a rocker or a rapper or a politician, ALL of these people are flawed and if your child looks up to somebody you despise more than they look up to you then maybe you should spend more time learning who your child really is and educating them on what drives people to call a woman a ho, or to cuss police or sell drugs. Under the right guidance and context any and everything can provide you as a RESPONSIBLE parent with the tools to educate your child on the realities of the world.
The fact of the matter is music gives you insight into the minds of people you may never meet from places you may never visit. And i believe that is good. Is it a good thing that so many people conduct themselves in ways that hurt other people… NO.
I have a child and i’m more concerned with him growing up to be a naive caymanian that will blame everything but himself; with a limited world view and compassion for people that have it worse than him.
Another thing….stop acting as if caymanian children are pretending to live some foreign culture. One, cayman is 400 years old at the most, everything that we call OUR culture was imported. If i’m wrong please educate me. That said, hip hop music is universal and it resonates with people of all colours and socio economic groups, not just project born african americans.
I wouldn’t say I wish for the style to be gone just that the message would vary more and be delivered in a less abrasive manner.
This problem is as much the rapper as it is the listeners fault. The listeners BUY HEAVILY the nasty rappers albums leading trends towards this style. If demand fell then rappers would adjust accordingly but it has not so rappers go where the listeners are.
The problem in all of this is because the listeners are not exactly the most advanced human beings on teh planet we could be expecting far too much from them. So we are left in a conundrum.
I think that by now people know that rap music isn’t the cause of violence.
you cannot get away from the fact that the gansta/rap culture is admired/followed by alot of the youngsters…. and it is not a good culture to follow….
Far fewer people have died at the hands of gangster rappers than rich, white, Yale educated politicians.
There is far more fraud on Wall St than at Def Jam Records.
There is more reports of sexual abuse in the church than at rap concerts.
And rap music can’t be blamed for energy wars, religious wars, and the countless people who die from malnutrition every year at the hands of greedy corporations who rather not feed them for fear of ruining the balance sheet.
Remind me again why we’re singling out rap culture as the one that is not good to follow?
I rather my child grow up like Dr. Dre than G.W. Bush, the entire Enron board, Bernie Maddock, just about every member of the Catholic church, and all the Wall St fat cats who think that they need a second Bentley more than half the world needs food and drinkable water.
you are lost beyond words….. your comparisons are both ridiculous and hilarious….
I am lost beyond words???
If a child grows up listening to rap music…
-along with watching the US drop thousands of bombs on the most populated civilian city in Iraq killing tens of thousands innocent people
-along with watching the white Enron board get away with fraud
-along with watching an ex-cocaine user and ‘C’ student who’s daddy bought his way through Yale who failed at every enterprise he ever managed go on to become president
-along with learning about Vietnam, Iran-Contra, Darfur, etc…
-along with watching his parents poison innocent animals just for walking on their property (referring to the 4 dogs poisoned on North Side and the countless others that go unreported)
…and that child grows up to become a criminal, you think it is because of the lyrics he heard growing up, and not because of the countless examples of injustice he has seen his entire life?
My comparisons were intended to add some humor to the post, but are by no means ridiculous. To argue that rap music’s influence could lead to crime would require examination of all the other negative influences one is subject to during development to adulthood. Ridiculous is actually suggesting that only one influence (rap music) could have a negative impact and every other example of REAL (not lyrical) crime or violence wouldn’t.
Actually, your post IS kind of ridiculous. The guys who are committing crimes and being just thug stereotypes don’t give a damn about anything political or in the world news. Try speaking to them about their interests. You’ll find invariably: writing rap lyrics/making rap songs about how baller they are (regardless of them being rather lame in truth with nothing going for themselves), basketball, Madden, and maybe slinging drugs in addition to their job…if they have one.
How about I rather my child grow up like NONE OF THEM!