So we all know the rap music industry is big business. How big? Assuredly in the billions of dollars. But is this rap music--and more specifically the genre referred to as gangsta rap--good for our children's ears and moreover society? Common sense would dictate that the last question is quite a rhetorical one.
Now in defense of rap artists, I understand that this genre of music presents a vehicle of expression for some who might have had no other avenue for venting about the horrors of their lives. For many ghetto kids, rap music has provided a vehicle to escape abject poverty and horrendous living conditions. No one can fault a kid--deprived of the basic needs to get on in life--for using rap music as a way to leave an undesirable world behind. But at what expense to others is this exodus from the ghetto accomplished?
Indeed America thrives on and relishes violence in movies, video games, and television. As a nation, we have developed an insatiable appetite for all kinds of negative media blasts, and horrific news makes headlines much faster and in greater numbers than positive news. But why? It seems that humans thrive on bad news--even when we hear bad things about friends and relatives. The Duke de Rochefoucauld, famous for his witty maxims and epigrammatic writings, said that in the adversity of our best friends, we find something that does not necessarily displease us. From an empirical perspective, I think the duke might have something.
Thus given our appetite for destruction, it would seem natural that the genre of heavy rap music, with its attendant profanity and hardcore lyrics, would be a welcome addition to America's repertoire of negative conditioning. Moreover, since such negativity drives big business, it would seem foolhardy to pass on such a profitable genre. Yet still the question becomes: Is this spate of nihilism, which currently drowns the media, working for us or against us?
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