Harm of Rap Music Rap

Harm of Rap Music

Rap music is harmful due to the violent lyrics encouraging disrespect toward women and lack of respect for moral ethics or authority. There are both laws and Biblical principles that stand against this type of violence and graphic sexuality that is thrust in the face of the children of today's world.

Music is what they call it however, gansta rap is a type of cultural language within music that is infiltrating the minds of today's children and filling them with thoughts of death, drugs, and prostitution. Worst of all the message of rap is that it is very cool to have illicit sex while using illegal drugs and carrying guns with the intention to kill.

The Bible states in Matthew 12:34:

Oh generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

It almost seems as though the writer of the verse was speaking specifically to rappers.

Objectively speaking, there is some music in the rap world that has redeeming elements but in truth that is not the norm for that sector of the music industry.

What Others Have to Say: Literature Review

An article entitled "Genre of Music and Lyrical Content: Expectation Effects" published in the Journal of Genetic Psychology, and written by Doris G. Bazzini states that the article was written in exploration of the genetic relation to the effects of rap music. Bazzini states that:

The antisocial themes common in popular music have compelled some adults to turn against it, especially heavy metal and rap....There are correlational relationships between music preference and antisocial behavior." (Wass et al. 1991), including suicide (Stack & Gundlach, 1992). Research however, does not substantiate a causal link between music lyrics and antisocial behavior (Arnett, 1991, 1996). "

Bazzini performed a study with participants of 160 individuals. 94 females and 65 males were studied as well as 1 unidentified as to genre individual. The procedure that was used involved audiotaped instructions being played to the participants. The participants were not familiar with the purpose of the study and were instructed to answer questions concerning the lyrics.

Antisocial behavior attributes that are accredited to the lyrics of rap music are sexual promiscuity, drug and alcohol use, violence, Satanism, suicide ideation/attempts, rebelliousness toward authority, as well as a breakdown in moral and ethics. The following chart shows that on the female sector in the study.

The study gave the following finding for the male group in the study:

Simple Effects Test Means for Prosocial Behavior

Behavior/genre Male

Social Responsibility

Country 3.95 (*)

Pop 2.40

Heavy Metal 2.25

Rap 2.30

Critical Thinking

Country 4.95 (*)

Pop 3.75

Heavy Metal 2.85

Rap 3.20

Honesty and Integrity

Country 3.70

Pop 2.50

Heavy Metal 2.05

Rap 1.85

Coping

Country 4.35 (*)

Pop 3.20 (*)

Heavy Metal 2.80

Rap 2.10

(less than).05

The findings in the study were that:

Both lyrical message and purported genre of music affect expectations of the impact of lyrics on behavior. In particular antisocial vs. prosocial messages are perceived to affect antisocial and prosocial behavior (despite lack of scientific evidence that this is so). In addition purported genre of music affected perceptions of an impact that a song would have on the occurrence of prosocial behavior.

Writer for Ebony, James P. Comer ask, "What makes the new generation tick?" citing the fact that a psychiatrist states history, automatic and integration in a special issue entitled "The New Generation of the 90s" the writer stated that:

If Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Whitney Young, Mary McLeon Bethune, Sojourner Truth, and the other 'many thousands gone' had had my day, they would have shed a tear. They would have asked, 'Is this what we struggled, sacrificed and gave our lives for? Is this the freedom and opportunity we sought for our people? What happened to the mind and the promise of our young people?"

Comer relates in the article that many "well-functioning parents" never take time to discuss the black history or experience with their offspring. Also noting that since the young people of today didn't live through the Civil Rights Movement that they have no idea of the courage of the people who fought so hard, some even giving their lives for the basic rights that are taken for granted today. Comer tells that although the growing black individual may develop very well overall that they really don't have a black identity that steers them toward a better life for themselves. Comer states that:

They prefer being individuals without a greater purpose than mindless consumerism and self-gratification, as American pop culture encourages

Mediocre academic performance, irresponsible sexual, family and citizenship behavior flow from these conditions."

Krotoszynski in his writing "Recalibrating the cost of harm advocacy: getting beyond Brandenberg" published in the William and Mary Law Review, 2000 states that "the First Amendment is the First Refuge of Scoundrels." Krotoszynski relates that "Freedom of Speech is not absolute." In this work he presents the question of whether or not the government may assign the special costs of speech activities against speakers such as someone shouting fire in a theatre and then someone being trampled to death in the rush. The actuality of it is that, yes a person can be held responsible for "irresponsible statements in public that causes harm to another person. Give for another instance is a hypothetical rapper that in a song advocates the murder of someone, then the person is murdered in actuality and the writer ask the question: "Can the rapper be held liable?"

Exploring the "possibility of the shifting costs of antisocial acts to artists, writers and music when individuals decide to act on a creative artists suggestion, or in some cases detailed directions." this article opens an entire new avenue for the individual in viewing the possibilities of limits that should be imposed on lyrics in rap songs.

In an article entitled "In Search of Solutions from Rap Music to Relationships" written by Michelle Mizal-Archer and published in the Virginian Pilot tells of school shootings that occurred in South Hampton Roads, Virginia. The high school in that town had just finished a clinic called "Music Connection" where teenagers discussed Rap music. The clinic was given in an attempt to encourage students to discuss their fears with the teachers and with parents.

In an article titled "Rap does more harm than Good" published in the Michigan Chronicle, 2000 and written by Lauren Freeman, it states that:

Rap music has been way out of the ghetto for many African-Americans as well as Caucasians two of the world's best known rappers, 2 Pac and Notorious Big, were shot and killed because of the "East Coast/West Coast" rivalry."

That's pretty serious business for adults playing neighborhood rivalry games. The article relates that:

There was a time when rap music was both culturally and politically correct. The lyrics told the lives of the many African-Americans and the pain of growing up and struggling to rise and survive in this diverse country, How when one turns on the radio a feeling of awe comes due to the lyrics of artists such as L'il Wayne and Juvenile who refer to women as b's and h's, and the type of woman no man's mother would want him to bring home. Today's rap artists have turned the industry of trendsetters, such as Run DMC, a group who came out when rap music was pure and good, into garbage."

Stating that all rap music is not bad, mentioning the names of Common, the Roots, Goodies Mob, Mos Def and Outkast, the articles says that only a few of today's rappers, in relation to life, speak the truth.

The writer states that:

Rap music is another reasons blacks are still said to be ignorant. It condones the ebonic speaking language. Parents who raise their on this kind of music are not allowing them to speak correct English....these so-called rappers enhance the ebonic speaking vocabulary by taking the English language into their own hands and making up such phrases as "bling, bling," "ha" and "iced out."

The writer gives a very honest and candid view of today's rappers and ends the article by stating that:

Having the talent to be able rap is a gift, but people have turned that God-given talent into degrading, ego-deflating music."

In an article entitled, "Discouraging 'objectionable' music content: litigations, legislation, economic pressure, and more speech.' Published in Communications and the Law, 2003 and written by Juliet Dee tells of a high school in Wales, Wisconsin that requires students to show identification to read the Rolling Stone magazine in the high school library, of a student arrested for wearing a Korn t-shirt, of compact discs that were confiscated at the skating rink and states that:

Whether it is the United States or further afield, during the last two decades there has been a growing concern about the effects of rock or rap lyrics upon young people."

Miller v. California sets the guidelines for what is considered to be obscene by that which would offend or shock the normal person and whether the work "depicts or describes in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law and whether the work lacks a serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value

There exist two tests used by the court in reference to guidelines of speech. The first is a test that is spelled out in Electric v. Public Service Commission which states that 'commercial speech obtains a lesser degree of protection from the First Amendment than that of "pure' or 'core' speech. The second of the tests was established in the 1969 Brandenberg v Ohio case involving a Ku Klux Klan leader who was found guilty of advocation of violence and a crime syndicate and on appeal to the Supreme Court the conviction was overruled when the court stated that:

It was held that the constitutional guaranties of free speech and free press did not permit a state to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation, except where such advocacy is (a) directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action, and (b) was likely to incite or produce such action."

Another case cited in this article is McCollom Records, Inc. In which the court stated:

Merely because art may evoke a mood of depression as it figuratively depicts the darker side of human nature does not mean that it constitutes a direct "incitement to imminent violence." The lyrics sung by Ozzie Osbourne may well express a philosophical view that suicide is an acceptable alternative to a life that has become unendurable -- an idea which, however unorthodox, has a long intellectual tradition.

The article last cites he following court ruling in Davidson:

t]he constitutional protection accorded to the freedom of speech and of the press is not based on the naive belief that speech can do no harm, but on the confidence that the benefits society reaps from the free flow and exchange of ideas outweigh the costs society endures by receiving reprehensible or dangerous ideas"

The courts have restricted access to explicit content by minors through the Recording Industry Association of America's rating system under the Parents' Music Resources Center act. However, lacking any specifics the label does not tell exactly what explicit content the music contains. Citizens and activists are pushing for a rating system in coordination with the Federal Trade Commission that would spell out the degrees of severity as to the content of violence or sex within the lyrics for labeling purposes.

Critic Achin Rogers states the following about rap music:

Gangsta-rap, more than a pressure release, is a reflection of the horrendous suffering, pain and frustration of ghetto life in the hood.... Instead of censuring the messenger for creating an art form out of "urgent alarm," we need to be up-in-arms in opposition to the conditions this art form is reflecting.... [if Americans were] sincerely concerned, they would work towards changing the conditions which have birthed these lyrics instead of seeking the typical American cosmetic fix of cover-up and silencing the voices which tell of [those who are] disadvantaged, discriminated against, ignorant and violent."

In an article titled, "Hip Hop Summit on Social Responsibility" written by Yvonne Bynoe, stated is that the Reverend Al Sharpton, President of the National Action Network organized this summit to address the people concerning 'social responsibility' in Hip Hop. The writer states that as usual, nothing came of the meeting and states the following as well: