Poll: Is rap/hip-hop really bad for kids?

[moviedork]

The question more should be: who monitors the child, the media or the parents? Lyrics from all types of music, as well as scenes from movies and video games can be considered more "mature," but it all depends on how the child consumes it. There are some moments where the child grows up with objectionable material but still mature into normal, functioning adults. Other times, the opposite happens. As long as you monitor the material being consumed, and how the child acts after consuming the material, it should be fine as long as you talk to the child about what's being said in the songs. If you let the media babysit your child, and the child grows up to being a murderous psychopathic lunatic, often times the blame will go to that particular media outlet. That's not where the problem lies. Ultimately, we should stop blaming the material and examine the real problem: bad parenting.

 

[Retronana]

I consider hip hop/rap some of the most personal and artistic music styles and it certainly has broken the mold and will continue to do so.

We all know that most songs these days are about love/sex/partying and they were 20 to 30 years ago, my outlook on what music mean as a form of self expression changed after listening to Tupac and particularly his more sombre sympathetic tracks like Dear Mama, Keep ya head up and Changes which caused me as a result to become a lot more educated and understanding of life in an american ghetto and why there are guns and drugs simply because poverty fuels crime and this is something that cannot be blamed entirely on a black community (which admittedly was my previous point of view). His music also showed me more than anything his mixed personality, how he feels on certain subjects e.g. the treatment of women and children and how the irony of america as a great country where not a mouth goes unfed creates these situations.

That's only what I've learned from Tupac, add in the fact his raps are awesome both musically and lyrically. My other favourite rapper is Guru who also talks about the important things in life and his experiences. Even when Tupac does cover the fact sex is an escape from his troubled life in "How do you want it?" it's very much done with respect towards women as a whole.

Much more fulfilling than hearing kesha sing about drinks and sex or bieber spout generic pop music (not hating I just don't respect that kind of music), when broken down to it's rap is poetry and a lot of the time damn good poetry at that. Any cynics should listen to Gang starr-"moment of truth" and see what real rap is and what it means.

And unfortunately rap about money and bitches seems to be the most popular which is presumably what gives it a bad name.


Rap is definitely not suited for children/young teens who would take a lot of the offensive stuff literally and not see the point but once you reach a certain level of intelligence rap has something to teach all of us, no matter who you are.

 

[AgentNein]

YES. Look at every kid in the world who listens to rap. They're all douche retards who wear shirts that are too big and pants that are too low and chains and have tattoos of crosses but aren't religious.

It sure is fun to completely generalize fans of one of the most popular forms of music out there today. At least they're not metal fans, none of whom wash their long ungroomed hair and practice animal sacrifice to their god Satan.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Nope. Everyone knows the difference between right and wrong if you do something wrong that is your fault and no one elses.

Funnily enough, I don't think everyone does.

In psychology I've learned that the way people become and act are a result of their environment and their genes. Not everyone turns out okay.

It's probably bad for kids the way drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and swearing are, or at least some rap, I don't listen to nearly enough to judge rap as a whole. I don't like most rap of today but I do occasionally listen to Outkast and Run DMC.

i think that might be oversimplifying. as a society to a certain degree we HAVE to operate under the assumption people know what's "right" and "wrong". things/actions that only serve to perpetuate social ills rather than do anything to solve them or analyze them are typically shunned if not outright banned. i don't really get how swearing fits into the same categories as alcohol/tobacco considering the latter two aren't defined by one's language/culture as much as things that are fundamentally addictive and/or chemically-altering. it's like lumping in thinking about women's boobies into a category with violent crime.

It may be oversimplifying somewhat, but what I meant was that there are in fact people who don't know; though most people do.

I think the general view of people who regularly use drugs are also viewed as being the kind of people who regularly swear. I didn't really mean vice versa, like saying people who swear will definitely do drugs.