Rap Music And Violence

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Why Rap Music Provokes Violence Arthur Baker once said, "I remember being told 'someone’s gonna make a fortune out of this rap thing' and thinking 'no way',". Arthur Baker was one of the first most widely-known hip-hop producers. Little did he know what negative effects rap music would have on today's youth. With violence and drug use rising, one must wonder, what could cause all of this. Though hip-hop is definitely not the only cause, it doesn't help (Monk). With some minor changes in artists' lyrics and music videos, today's youth wouldn't be subjected to negative views of society, but rather the positive side of life (Monk). Hip-hop has a negative effect on today's youth and something must be done about it. I believe rap music is the major cause in provoking violence among teenagers. Teenagers spend between four to five hours a day listening to music and watching music videos (Nasso). Most music that they listen to is rap music. No longer are rock stars the ones kids look up to but more of the hip hop stars now. The things that these hip hop stars do affect the things that teenagers do today (Nelson). The most powerful words to listen to are the ones in the lyrics music that kids listen to. Most rap songs deal with drugs, sex, gangs, and violence. As teenagers listen to this music they hear and learn new things that they didn’t know before (www. library.wcsu.edu). Rap music is probably those most influential thing that kids look up too in this day in age, therefore Rap music teaches teen’s harmful things due to the things said in the lyrics and has lead to many deaths by young juveniles (monk). Hip-hop originated in the early 1970s through a mixture of spoken word and jazz drumming and instrumentations (Nasso). In the mid 1970s, a man by the name of Clive Campell began to DJ his own parties, playing soul, old funk and R&B records on his turntables.
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