Image via NY Daily News
Violence is a major feature in Hip Hop lyrics and culture. Rapper Ice-T is known for popularizing “gangsta rap,” an often violent subgenre of rap (“Ice-T”). N.W.A. emerged just after Ice-T, and their hit “Fuck the Police” gained widespread notoriety. The lyrics encouraged violence against police officers, implying all police officers are racist and violent. These two artists set a precedent for lyrics we still see today (Dogg et al.). The cathartic act of expressing violence through art is not inherently bad, but young minds are impressionable. This is one of the main issues of violent lyrics and the encouragement of violence in Hip Hop culture.
Inner city youth often follow a “street code”; a lifestyle often backed by gangsta rap lyrics. Disadvantaged youth in urban communities often establish a social order backed up by powerful social norms. One way to gain respect and raise your class in the urban pecking order is through violence. Violence can be important to survive in hard areas of the city; an individual using heavy violence on another may deter future assaults on themselves. This code is similar to that of convicts in prisons and has become the norm in many disadvantaged, urban centers. Rap lyrics often provide a way for an individual to interpret street violence and can even instruct an individual on how to deal with people who participate or avoid street violence (Kubrin 363). DMX’s (Earl Simmons) 1998 hit “Ruff Ryders Anthem” is a shining example of this. The lyrics bluntly state “I resort to violence” and ask “what the fuck you gonna do when we run up on you?” This is a common theme on DMX’s album It’s Dark and Hell is Hot; violence begets violence, and those who do not participate are too weak and will fall to those who do (Simmons). In the context of inner city Hip Hop culture these lyrics become a codex to understand violence perpetrated in the street, but how specifically does this cause a problem?
It is widely established that high intakes of aggressive media can cause aggression in the individual (Richmond and Wilson 4). Rap lyrics often dehumanize the enemy, whether it is a violent rival or an individual lower on the food chain weak enough to steal from, and dehumanization is very important to look at when dealing with violent media. According to Hamilton and Kelman, there were three main contributors to the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War: authorization, routinization, and dehumanization (44). Constant bombardment by violent lyrics can also authorize killing if an individual sees the Hip Hop artist as an authority, and the widespread use of violent lyrics can cause violence to feel routine. These factors reinforce street code and violent life, but what can be done?
One step taken to proliferate a more positive influence into Hip Hop culture is the advent of “conscious” or “backpacker” rap; the latter title refers to an article commonly worn by the street conscious (XxRaVeNXx). This trend started on the east coast and was mainly popularized by New York rappers; such as De La Soul. While late 1980s artists started the movement, P.O.S. (Pissed Off Stef/Stefan Alexander) is one of the best examples of why this new subculture emerged. Alexander’s musical beginnings involved punk and hardcore such as Minor Threat, but his interests eventually turned to the pursuit of a Hip Hop career. Unhappy with the system in place, Alexander used his lyrical skills to rib Hip Hop and pop culture (“P.O.S.”). Many other artists begin to rise in the early 2000s with P.O.S. such as Aesop Rock, a man gifted with the award of largest vocabulary in Hip Hop (Daniels). The new alternative Hip Hop scene saw a lyrical shift; some songs involve straight edge themes (anti-drug, healthy lifestyle) while others used large vocabularies to discuss global happenings or even near Dadaist themes. Parents play an important role in what their children are exposed to, and if their child begins showing an interest in Hip Hop it may be worth the parent’s time to investigate conscious Hip Hop and introduce appropriate artists to their children. With that we begin to see a very important part in reforming street lifestyle: parents. Violence in Hip Hop is a large part of the destructive nature of Hip Hop, but it also ties in to other parts of the larger problem.
