The Truth about Rap Music - Essay Example

The Truth about Rap Music Rap music is generally perceived as a controversial art form, yet it continues to capture the interest and attention of youth in the US and around the world (See Nugent 2006, p. 60). Negative perceptions of rap music however, are based on a narrow view of the lyrics and tend to emanate from the edgier rap lyrics. Little attention is paid to the messages inherent in rap music and its value to the audience rap music is intended to reach (see Brown and Bartee 2007, p. 318).

The reality is, rap music can be inspirational for a number of reasons, but primarily because it draws attention to social issues and can inspire change or heighten public awareness of social issues. The Home Affairs Committee of Great Britain’s Parliament debated whether or not rap music had a positive influence on Britain’s youth. Ultimately, the Home Affairs Committee agreed that rap music like any other type of music could incite criminal behavior. However, the Committee acknowledged that given rap music’s appeal to the youth, has been used productively.

For instance pastors have been using some of the more exciting genre of rap to inspire Britain’s youth and to influence positive behavior. Great Britain’s Youth Offending Teams are also using rap music that could have a positive and encouraging impact on troubled youth (Great Britain Parliament 2007, p. 127). Positive rap does not draw the kind of media attention that gangsta or materialistic rap draws and this accounts for general perceptions that rap music is corrosive and inciting.

Rap artists such as De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Common, Wyclef and Talib Kweli use rap lyrics that promote education, responsibility and pride in ethnicity. In this regard, positive rap contributes to the individual listener’s own personal value and to the good of that listener’s own humanity (Elligan 2004, p. 43). The fact is, positive rap has a tendency to target specific values. For example, Dead Prez’s Message to Eat Healthy promotes healthy eating, happiness and family values.

This might explain why parents do not have a difficulty with their children listening to what has been characterized as positive rap. A more recent positive rap group Black Eyed Peas have produced rap songs about a variety of inspiring topics. In their rap song Where is the Love, Black Eyed Peas ask “what ever happened to the values of humanity?” Nas speaks directly to the young in his rap song I Can and instructs “if the truth is told the youth can grow”. The fairest way to judge rap is to listen to it and try to understand what is being communicated.

By doing so, you might find that rap music is for the most part as positive and as negative as any other art genre. Even some of the edgier rap music can be inspirational. Amidst expletives and coarse expressions, quite often an inspirational story about overcoming obstacles to success unfolds. Surely, the listener may be able to identify with obstacles and at the same time conclude that if the rap artist was able to successfully succeed despite obstacles, surely the listener can too. What concerns anti-rap movements is the fact that the rhythm and rhyme of rap music increases its appeal giving the rap artist the power to be heard and enjoyed.

However, this can be a positive thing when the rap song carries with it the kind of positive messages typically associated with the more successful and popular rap artists such as Black Eyed Peas. References Brown, M. and Bartee, R. (2007) Still Not Equal: Expanding Educational Opportunity In Society. Peter Lang. Elligan, D. (2004) Rap Therapy: A Practical Guide for Communicating with Youth and Young Adults. Kensington Books. Great Britain Parliament: The Home Affairs Committee. (Mar. 2007) Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System.

The stationery Office. Nugent, W. (2006) Approaches to Measuring Human Behavior in the Social Environment. Psychology Press.