After reading a very interesting article entitled, "Glamorization of Drugs in Rap Music: Linked to Greater Risk of Alcohol and Drug Use Among Adolescents," I find it very intriguing that while years ago, drugs might have depicted the dangers and negative consequences regarding drug use, now it isn't rare that you find many of today's popular rap songs celebrating drug use and actually having such songs referring or referencing drugs going platinum on the charts. Drug references in early rap songs such "White Lines" by Grandmaster Flash exposed the destructiveness of cocaine, but nowadays there is this link of drug use and the growing of the commercial success it has within the music industry. Particularly what I found the most concerning within the article is the idea that the image rap artists today are portraying of drug use in the Black community and towards adolescents of color distorts their reality. Young black people actually have lower rates of drug and alcohol abuse compared to their white peers, however, one wouldn't think that by the ways in which drug use is based within the lyrics of rap music.
"...The trajectory in rap music raises a number of red flags. Rap music is especially appealing to young people, many of whom look up to rappers as role models. As a public health researcher, and as a parent of a 7-year-old, I'm concerned about the impact that long-term exposure to this music has on its listeners." According to Denise Herd, the associate professor in the division of Community Health and Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health, drug illegal drug use has and is becoming increasingly linked to wealth, glamour, social standing, etc. A study shows that this might have very well started nearly two decades ago, since about 1979, when Sugar Hill Gang's "Rappers Delight" hit charts and introduced to a mainstream inner-city youth. Ra artists have become trendsetters and key role models especially for youth of color, and their music serves as a huge outlet for the nations youth. However, one must ponder as to whether or not the messages within rap music deliver positive messages, because in today's society the negative influences young people are exposed to through the media in regards to films, video games, music, television shows etc. only further depict drug and alcohol use in a positive light.
Glamorization Of Drugs In Rap Music Linked To Greater Risk Of Alcohol And Drug Use Among Adolescents
I personally think the glamorization of drugs in rap music has a lot to do with the owners of the music industry. They are white rich men, concerned with keeping their power and wealth. They feed into projecting black stereotypes and narrow images, influencing the mindset of those Americans watching rap. Last semester in my Women and Popular Culture class, I watched a documentary called “Beyond Beats and Rhymes “. I recommend it because it is fantastic, but there is one quote that really stuck with me because of it’s provocatively and controversy in such a short statement. A anti-gender violence activist, Jackson Katz said “If the KKK was smart enough, they would have created gangster rap.” That was a crazy, harsh and intellectual statement. But I think it is important to consider who is in charge and who is profiting of off the images being projected. I think it is important for those in power to continue to link black men in the rap industry to drugs because it discredits them considering our cultural and social drug values. Drugs are condemned and so are the people who use them.
ReplyDeleteprovocatively >** Provocative nature
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