In Colorado Springs, the police are blaming rising violence on Hip Hop Music and they want to do something about it. Are popular songs like "No Problem" by Lil Scrappy, inspiring violence? Lil Scrappy raps, "But you don’t want no problem, problem." Clubs formerly found in New York, Chicago, Memphis, Oakland, are now everywhere. But after a rise in shootings and murders, the police are blaming gangsta rap for violence and rising gang membership.Colorado Springs police publicly condemned the music in a news release after a killing in July. They have warned nightclub owners that their places might not be safe if they play gangsta rap. "We don’t want to broad-brush hip-hop music altogether... but we're looking at a sub component that typically glorifies, promotes criminal behavior and demeans women,” said Lt. Skip Arms. Club owners such as James Baldrick, who runs Dirty Limelight, apparently finds the city's conduct discriminatory as it is disproportionately affects Hispanics and African Americans. There have been 19 homicides in Colorado Springs in 2007 compared with 15 in 2006. On April 17, a stray bullet killed a man during a fight between two groups who had left Eden Nite Club. After a fight at a local concert on Memorial Day, a man was killed in a nearby liquor store parking lot. On July 9, Diontea Jackson-Forrest, a football star, was shot and killed. The suspect was involved in an altercation at Eden before the shooting.
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20 comments:
Sure, why not blame it on the music. Ignorant!
It is people that commit crime not music.
Jill
The cops won't stop violence by forcing rap to go underground.
Ah…which comes 1st, the chicken or the egg?
Is some limited area of rap music a problem or is it a symptom of greater social ills?
I would agree that it is a problem that there is a market for anything that glorifies violence, intolerance, illegal actions, demeans woman, etc. But not so much that the “anything” exists…rather it is that the sick person who finds pleasure in such a contemptuous manner exists and provides a market for such drivel.
If you’re an adult….have at it. My position is more to do with children (young adults?).
I think that thee are certain segments of our society that seem to have little interest in how their children are raised and take little supervisory or corrective action as their children grow and then wonder why so many of them are social failures.
Gee, its racism! No its not… you just had 6 kids by 5 different “babies’ daddies”, all out of wedlock, did drugs instead of raised them, and let the piss-poor street of a pathetic neighborhood do what little rising they had. Its not racism, its bad parenting!
Interactive, caring, and participatory parents are a fundamental key to having a child grow into a civil adult.
Now that said…..
I, for one, will do all that I can to foster values in my child that discourage acceptance of such “rap”. Hopefully she will grow up, go to a nice school, meet a nice guy, and have a nice family in a nice neighborhood. And she’ll need those who have not risen above the lower strata of our society to provide the basic services so necessary to the rest of us who have (read-we need losers, they work for nothing!).
Go ahead, let your kid incorporate the values, language, attitudes, etc. in such “music”….less competition for my kid.
Or chose to condemn it and collectively remove it from the market.
Does it cause violence? I don’t think any one particular “anything” causes violence and this goes for rap as well.
Is there a very strong correlation between groups who gather to listen to such music and violence? Absolutely!
But it’s probably more of a convergence of many factors, the music being only one. It’s a tolerance for illegal drug abuse, heavy alcohol use, perhaps a preexisting acceptance for violence, a personality that views women as sex objects rather than people, etc.
Is it the music? No.
Is it the type of people and culture who think this shit is music? Yes.
Those people cause violence. Not the music.
L.S.
Great points, L.S.
"...And I tied to her chair
Delia's gone, one more round Delia's gone
She was low down and trifling
And she was cold and mean
Kind of evil make me want to Grab my sub machine
Delia's gone, one more round Delia's gone
First time I shot her I shot her in the side
Hard to watch her suffer
But with the second shot she died
Delia's gone, one more round Delia's gone..."
Courtesy of Johnny Cash, first sung in 1962, recorded in '94, based on a 'traditional' ballad (??!) -
Hateful, shocking, misogynistic? Yup.
Is today's problem the prevalance of negative lyrics / images? Was 'Father Knows Best' the powerful counter-balance back then?
LS preseneted brilliant points - if the music, and the streets are the main influences - then we've got a problem.
Sounds like Jill, Ms C and L.S. all make the point that people commit the bad acts not the music. L.S. makes additional valid points as we here at legal pub have come to expect.
But Colleency steals the show this time. Johnny Cash did write similar lyrics. "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die..." Perhaps the good influences counter balanced the bad influences "back in the day."
Additional thoughts?
I was unaware of that song and I condemn it also. I wonder why it had (apparently) less impact on the opposition than now. Perhaps it is because of two parent households, a more civil society overall….who knows?
Is it because of it was one song about a fictional person? Or because the singer, by his other words and actions, did not glamorize-condone-encourage such further acts? An interesting point to explore. I’m sure there are distinguishments to be made…as there are readily apparent differences between then and now.
I still hold the opinion that such “music” has no real benefit to our society…other than to show our children how there are truly sick people out there.
L.S.
Eden Nite Club is a very wild and possibly dangerous place, in my opinion...
L.S. it is our culture. Rap and hip hop is who we is today. Our crib is in the midst of violence. Our music reflects our lives.
Aint no one sayin violence is good. But chillins needs to know how it is. Our music is jus like our lives, bluntly obvious.
P.P.
Rite on P.P. The man is just trying to take away our culture. Aint nobody have a right to take away who we is.
Rommie
I am proud too but it isn't because of any music.
Perhaps the music is the product of a more violent culture, as opposed to creating it. But, assuming that is the case for purposes of discussion, why on God’s Green Earth would somebody want to keep such a culture?
“Take away our culture”? “Take away who we is”? Just what does that indicate? I’m the product of a deteriorated inner city and I do not wish to better myself or my children? I apologize, but I would like some more explanation on just what it is one wishes to not have taken away.
Is it the readily apparent inability to speak at a level above the 6th grade? Is it the desire to show that one has had limited life experiences? Has to fight each day to survive? Learned to knife fight at 6 on the kindergarten playground?
Yes, these bad things do happen….and in many ways such music does reflect that rough life.
But why one would wish to perpetuate such a life is beyond me. Isn’t life about bettering yourself, your world, and that of your kids….essentially working to make the world a better place?
It’s a hard world…I get that. Hell, I strap on a gun and armor each day to fight those who would try and destroy it. I watch people die…I kill them if I have to…and I’m not afraid to meet death on my feet. But I don’t want it to go one inch further than it has to, not one day longer than it has to…I want such bad things to stop…. not continue.
Defending such contemptuous attitudes and behavior patterns as “our culture” sounds like sickness to me.
I don’t get that.
L.S.
The violence and misogyny in rap lyrics may well refelct the violence in your cribs, and it may give the chillins an accurate heads-up of life in the streets. Maybe it is an accurate reflection of some of the culture.
But it's not a sustainable lifestyle.
What is the center mass of that culture? What holds it together? If it's violence and using (women and drugs), it's not enough to keep it going.
Where does it lead in a generation? Where do the kids, the chillins, learn about hope and dreams and the chance to do more?
If there is no place in the streets for hope, then the culture you fight for is doomed.
Waht it is Rommie. Waht it is.
Now L.S. you can't rap cauZ it is not your culture or heritage. Our roots go back to music. My reality is different from yours. You are da oppressing force. I am da oppressed. Banning my music jus perpetuates da oppression an keeps my people down.
Aint about nothin but who we is. Understand? Kevlar armour may shield the man from bullets but it don't mask da truth.
P.P.
It is oppressive to have the sanctity of the home protected against those who would burglarize it? It is oppressive to stop those who rape? Who murder? Who steal? It is oppressive to make sure our roads are safe? That when little kids bleed, somebody comes to help them? That there is order and civility in our country?
Look at Somalia, that’s how a country works when your position prevails.
Your actions and attitudes are a cancer in the body that gives you life.
You drive the same roads all others do and expect that the food truck gets to the store without being high-jacked or hit by red light runners; if it doesn’t you starve or crash. When your kids get sick, you expect that the drugs are still in the drug store and the doctor prescribing them is not murdered; without them, you and yours die.
I don’t know exactly who “you and your people” are, but you seem to be limited in understanding. As long as there are few of you, civil society can survive. But if too many of those who just don’t get it begin to prevail in their views, we all (including you) die.
No, I don’t oppress…I free. I free little girls to walk to school. I free all to use the roads without unnecessary risk. I allow food to be in our stores, music CDs to be in Wal-Mart, medicine to be in the drugstores, etc…
Nothing you have or are would exist if your views prevailed. You would kill not just all this great country is, but yourself in the process.
You would be without clothes, food, shelter…naked in the street with clubs, knives, and guns…Somalia.
Not a place I want to live…I’ll keep working to keep those wolves at bay.
Hope you figure it out before you die. If you’re smart, you will.
PS, there is no real reason to try and present yourself as 4th grade….you really don’t gain anything by it.
L.S.
While it is worth while to preserve culture, J.S. is right to the extent that a violent world is not a safe world. Without destroying culture, all races can unite and promote education. Education can lift all people of all backgrounds from opression and hatred.
Rev. J.J.
I hear ya J.J.
People like P.P. and me will never let our culture die.
Rommie
I’m with J.J. in that education is a fundamental key. As for preserving ones “culture” I support that as well….provided of course that the preserved part is worth preserving! Just because something may or may be part of a culture does not necessarily mean it is worth preserving.
I’m OK with good, well made beer…I’m not OK with putting Jews in ovens. I’m OK with BBQ and hunting…I’m not OK with discrimination based on skin color. Germany has much to offer the world….so does the South….but both cultures have aspects that are not worth preserving.
One can preserve ones culture, while growing and bettering it. Some parts stay….some parts go.
If the contention is “the violence and lawlessness is a good thing, it must stay, and be actively perpetuated in order for my culture to continue”, than God help you and yours.
If it’s not, condemn it and work for change.
L.S.
Once we get the tunes under control, the hair grooming under control, the discipline and education in the class room under control, then we will start to make some progress on cutting the crime rate.
Julian
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