Negative Effects Of Rap Music On Youth

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Register to read the introduction… By the 1990's rap artists like, DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, Curtis Blow and Biz Markie were no longer accepted in the rap music" (Toms, 2006, p1). Those rap artists were considered as roll models, because those rap artists relayed positive messages to their listeners (Toms, 2006, p1). "The majority of today's rap culture involves a lot of explicit material and negativities" (McGarrell). According to McGarrell, This new form of rap music glorifies big money, degrading of women, drugs, alcohol, and guns. Many rap artist lyrics are explicit and degrading to women, while rap artist might be expressing what they have seen or the everyday struggles in life. In regard, rap artists are sending out a negative message to youth.
Among the many youth and negative lyrics in rap music, rap artists remain an influence on youth education. Many youth are starting to come up without a decent education, because youth are dropping out of school to pursue a rap careers (Toms, 2006, p2). Youth want to become rap artist, so they can live a thug lifestyle, in order to have the lavish women, expensive cars, and money. Communities, generation and legacies are suffering because of the negative visualizations that producers and record companies are promoting to rap artist, along with BET and MTV broadcasting their videos (Toms, 2006,
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If more rap artists would stress the importance of a good education, fewer children would drop out of school, leaving them with the pressures of society. According to Toms, "the record company executives aren't interested in educating children. They are interested in sales and profit," (2006). Most importantly rap music, should be serve as an educational tool for youth in America. Kirchheimer stated that, "this is not the first time that rebellious music has been blamed for society's ills. From Elvis to Columbine, the songs of music obsessed youth have often been clamed for anti-social behavior," (2003). With the negativity of music, music have played a roll in two separate incidents that have involved youth acting out, because of the explicit lyrics they are hearing. "The first incident was a 16 year old junior high school student in Moses Lake, who shot his algebra teacher, after watching a video of a rock band. The second incident involved two teenage Columbine students, that went on a shooting spree after listening to Marylin Mason's music, that left twelve teachers and students dead and twenty one others injured in the attack"

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