In the discussion this week, it was asked if we believed that violence in Hip Hop influences that same type of behavior in real life. In the discussion, I did state that I believe that while violent Hip Hop is not the main source it could be seen as motivation for a person to engage in violent behavior due to the fact that at times violence in the Hip Hop world can be glamorized in a way that makes it inviting. But I never really got into the details as far as why I felt that way so I have decided to discuss it in this essay. First, the reason I feel so strongly about the influence is because violence has had such a close interaction with Hip Hop over the years. You rarely if ever hear of someone from the Pop genre being shot in a drive by in a public location with no one wanting to come forward but there have been three unsolved murders of famous rappers that were all in public locations but for some strange reason there are no witnesses to report who may have been responsible that come to mind when I think of Hip Hop. Violence does tend to overshadow the true awesome nature of what Hip Hop is and the fact that Tupac, Notorious BIG, and Jam Master Jay are all dead is just proof of the effect that violent Hip Hop music can have at times. I do feel that everyone makes the choice to engage in violence or not. I’m sure the same way that most people pick out a shirt is probably how some people choose to take a life so I don’t completely blame rappers because of their violent lyrics. It is also the fault of those in authority that may also cause someone to be violent. A lack of supervision from family and authority figures and a significant lack of love and support can cause a person to lash out violently. This person possibly feels that without that love and support there is no other way for them to be other than violent in order to get the attention they never received when they were younger.
Violence in Hip Hop in some cases I can understand. For instance, if a rapper is telling a story in which violence may play a part in order to help the story progress such as in “Stan” by Eminem. This song uses its violent nature to tell a truly sad story not in a way to make others want to emulate but rather be cautious. The song is basically just talking about an overzealous fan who takes his love for Eminem too far. The song eventually ends in the fan killing his self, his girlfriend, and their unborn child and blaming Eminem because he never responded to any of his letters. Now the song does use violence but not in way to glorify but rather warn as I stated earlier because the song focuses on the themes of the fan being withdrawn from real life because he truly felt that he and Eminem were one and the same. So when the fan felt that Eminem was rejecting him that is when he acted out with violence in order to make sure that he got Eminem’s attention. This song basically follows what I mentioned in my previous paragraph about a person without that love and support lashing out violently for attention. This song in my opinion is one of the few songs that take a non-glorification when it relates to Hip Hop violence.
I also notice that most of the rappers that use violence in the music also have a deep love for the movie “Scarface”. Now this movie is filled with violence almost from start to finish which may be the reason as to why most rappers to write those certain violent lyrics. The lyrics are probably emulating what took place in this movie and relating it to their own life. If you’ve never seen the movie, it is about man who become this huge drug lord and is eventually killed so many rapper may be able to relate to the drug dealing, killing to survive lifestyle that is shown in “Scarface” but does that mean that it has to be so frequent in their music.
Earlier I mentioned the death of Tupac, Biggie, and Jam Master Jay to signify how closely bonded violence tends to be with Hip Hop but I also wanted to bring up the significance of the death of Biggie and Tupac because these both seem to be direct link to the influence of violence in Hip Hop. Jam Master Jay is disregarded due to the fact that Run DMC for who he was the DJ for always seemed to avoid getting involved in the music about violence. Now you have Tupac and Biggie, who at first were good friends in the Hip Hop world but once Tupac believed that Biggie set him up and caused him to get shot he was never able to let their grudge go. Tupac began to disrespect Biggie even going so far as to say that he had been with Biggie’s wife at the time, Faith Evans which began to cause Biggie to become upset and also left to a divide between coasts. You had those on the West Coast side who were Tupac all day and hated Biggie with a passion then you have the East Coast which had all the love for Biggie and just thought Tupac was a hater. This divide began to cause issue as award events and even made its way onto magazine covers and it was all this publicity about the divide which caused it to reach a fever pitch. Both Tupac and Biggie were gunned down on separate nights in different cities on public streets. No one still knows why for sure this happened because no one has still come forward to confess or even tell if they saw anything but I believe it had to do with the East Coast/West Coast feud. There was so much hatred in this feud that it lead to someone or somebodies taking action into their own hands to end it and try to either leave their rapper as the number one rapper or either get revenge for their fallen idol but in the end we all lost. Tupac and Biggie were probably two of the best rappers to ever pick up the microphone, but we will never have the chance of seeing them perform live or listening to see where their music could have went. The reason being I believe because somebodies out there decided to use the violence that was perpetuated in Hip Hop music and what they were reading in magazines about East Coast/West Coast and did what they felt they had to do.
It is sad to think of causalities that have occurred relating to violent Hip Hop but it does not have to be violent. Why does Hip Hop have to talk about the negative in order to generate positive feedback from consumers? Why can’t every rapper be like Common and create raps that can be view as different and unique? Why do songs that don’t mention violence, sex, and drugs have to be considered different and unique? I guess we really won’t know the answer to these questions until we lose some more talented rappers who could have eventually helped to change the Hip Hop game. Maybe then the big wigs will realize that while violent Hip Hop does not force the person to be violent, it doesn’t prevent violent behavior either.-by Kimbriuna Dye
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