Gangsta...takes the....Rap

[kj]

once again, gangsta rap is being blamed, this time in Britian for the rise in gun culture. David Blunket make the comment. Do you believe this to be true? i'd say it was the weak jail terms and crazy kids. Whatever happened to crazy. What, you cant be crazy no more?

But seriously, Gangsta Rap faded away about 5-6 years ago, its a lame excuse. imo

[Lil JoNnY]

Haha love the Chris Rock quote <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> I wouldn't say gangsta rap is responsible for any form of violence, like any other kind of band the artists involved are simply promoting a brand image to a market that will lap it up and buy the music because they like the way everything is portrayed in it. Personally I'm a huge fan of gangster rap, but I'm into literally everything, and find that gangster rap doesn't evoke any emotions in me, its just something to listen to for a laugh and to try and figure out what all the words mean. 99% of the songs have no meaning other than "My crew hates this other crew so we're shooting them" or "We love drugs, pass the dope" its nothing to be taken seriously unless you're actually from Compton... in which case unlucky!

However when you say gangster rap's been gone for 5-6 years I'd have to disagree. Its just changed and evolved a bit... Ice Cube and Dr Dre are still around, and the likes of Ja Rule and Jay-Z, whilst commercial, are still rappers I would consider as gangsta rappers. You may disagree with this, but if you listen to songs such as "Holla Holla" and "Its Murda" (especially Ja Rule's verse) both by Ja Rule you'll hear the same kinda of aggression that you did with likes of NWA. Even Eminem is gangsta rap, songs like "Soldier" certainly talk a lot of sh*t but they're well structured and what he's saying is actually quite intriguing to think about.

Anyway I'm ranting now, so I'll leave it at that, I've probably contradicted myself and not made a point! Lol.

[kj]

Well, perhaps i over exaggerated on the 5-6 year thing, but yeah, you are right, it has evolved and is still fairly strong... but in saying that, i dont think the music is as gang affiliated as it was before. I mean, back in the day the gang thing was what was pushing the music, it still is in certain ways, but its not murder music like it was then. Nowadays the music has evolved because rap has entered markets that it would never have thought, i.e.. white people are buying and asians are buying too.
The music still has its aggressive nature, and its got its new fun nature too, look at the likes of Nelly for example, he is all about fun. The gang stories are still there because that is what rap was all about. You cant forget your history, just like rap wont forget its history. But to blame violence on the influence of rap music is just absurd. What about weak gun laws? is that rap music's fault too?
What about police shooting unarmed people because they accidentaly mistook an object for a gun, is that rap music's fault?
Its just an easy way out, blame the minority. No one listens to rap, lets blame it because its all about violence. What the heck does a sheltered politician know about urban music and the culture behind it.
Its just like they blamed metal music on the school shootings in the states. Its a shame that people try and tarnish musics image because it makes sense to them to blame someone. I guess they'll be banning Arnie films in the future because there is too much violence.

[good ol' Eck]

i think its funny. I was watching this morning and Phil Schoffeild was talking to some rapper dude and said some thing alog the lines of "...with lyrics glamourising mysogony, violance, paedophilia and drugs..." paedophilia?? i wanna know what he's been listening too.

I dont think the people blaming the music know anything about it other than the singles which are purposly controversial to sell to fucks like me who love it. I also love the whole generlisation thing of a black on black shooting-oh it must have been cos they listen to gansta rap- bull shit thats sterotypical right there, for you know that murdering fuck could be into oasis and coldplay.

cock suckers.

[kj]

As for Philip Schofield, forget him. who the hell is he? wasnt he the wierd looking dude that used to site in a cupboard and watch kids TV all day long? didnt he used to recieve letters from little children? Its got as much relevance to that as it does to rap. Since when was rap music associated with under age sex. And if he is referring to that dick R Kelly, he isnt even rap, he's a past-it r'n'b /soul fake.
As for mr Schoffield, who can possibly take him seriously. If he backed it up with evidence then fair enough, but as far as i can see, there is none.

[Lil JoNnY]

Well.... dunno if you guys have heard "Short was da bomb" by DMX but it sounds like he's talking about screwing a girl who's in high school.... if that counts ??

Referring to the point earlier about murder music no longer existing, I agree its all toned down, but again if ya listen to earlier Ja Rule stuff (and thats only a couple of years old) there's still lots of violent anecdotes in it... plus his production crew (or label or something?) is called Murda Inc. and they most definitely mention those words in every song, so I think its hard to forget what all the music's about. What kinda rap is everyone into by the way? I'd say my favourite rap album at the moment is Nellyville, commercial yes but lots of well produced beats in it, and very fun to listen to.

[colshank redemption]

i dont know shit about rap, but it sounds like the same old scenario with aggressive music. the state choose to use metal as a scapegoat, the UK have chosen to use rap as its scapegoat. the governments of both countrys are in such a mess that they have to use music of all things to blame, as a pose to standing up & taking the responsiblty for there actions or lack of actions.

metal lyrics is mainly about death, violence serial killers etc. every time theres a shooting or massacre by a young white kid in the states, metal gets blamed for it....bollocks!! the fact that the states allows nearly anyone access to guns is the problem, not the music.

i hate the way music gets blamed for anything that goes wrong!! what about movies or video games?

[Lil JoNnY]

I couldn't agree more, they should get some serious gun control. Although as Chris Rock said, maybe what they need is BULLET control, because if a bullet cost $5000 there would be no more innocent bystanders!

I think video games are often blamed as equally as music, I remember one case where a fourteen or fifteen year old guy in america shot a bunch of his classmates, and they blamed it on the video games he was playing.... ironic as one of his favourite games was Final Fantasy 7 which is more problem solving than fighting....

I think the point about movies not being blamed is very valid too, I think this may be because the actors are seen as respectable professionals who generally are playing roles in the movies for the money and not for the love of playing the specific role, whereas in music generally bands are playing for the love of playing their music above playing for money. The actors are more detached from their material and therefore don't directly promote any of the issues conveyed through their acting.

[colshank redemption]

yeah totally!! at the end of the day in the films, its more writers of the movies who ppl should look at, the actors as u said are in it for the money theres no doubt about that!! arnie stands to make £21 million from the next termanotor film.
however films are given age ratings, but when a film is on tv, theres no stopping a 15 year old from watching 18 movie. its up to the childs parents to take care of that.
music is given a parentel advisory sticker & thats it. when i was 16 i was in a shop getting a cd with my mum, it had a parental advisory sticker on it, so i asked for her advise, she said dont buy it. i said well im gonna get it anyway.
at least some console games (not many)have age ratings, & u have to be 16 or over to get into a lot of arcades.
but in the case of the gun law, well i dunno how to control that.

[kj]

I'll tell you a story, when i worked for Woolworths, i used to refuse CD's to anyone under 16 that had a Parental Advisory sticker on. But i was told by management that i had to sell the cd even if they were over age because there is nothing i can do to stop them buying it. Its up to their parents. A few times i asked the kids parents if they were sure they wanted to buy it, in one case a 7 year old buying an eminem CD album, to which the woman looked at me as if i was stupid and said 'yes, of course'. Some people are just thick. I mean, some kids are obviously sensitive to what they watch and listen because those are the years that they learn the most.
If her kid turns bad, she'll blame the government.
Parents are responsible for what their kids do. Including the ones that let their younger kids wander winter nights on the streets causing trouble. What the hell are their parents doing? When i have kids and i found at that was what they were up to, i'll smack their ass and make sure they dont do it again. Stop em, simple as.
More responsibilty on the parents.

[Lil JoNnY]

A 7 year old buying an Eminem CD ?! That's crazy man. I think that they should just lay down rules, any CD which has to have a Parental Guidance sticker, should have clean and unedited copies pressed, if you're under 16 then you get the clean version, if you're not you can get the unedited version. It takes away from the music if words are bleeped out, but the point is if you're a good lyricist, you can come up with raps which don't use any "buzz" words, but still get the same message across. Then again, if the music's going to be very commercial it should have more commercial messages... its worrying that rappers like Eminem are so corporately appealing to young kids when his target audience SHOULD be mature audiences.

[kj]

I think Eminem is more underground than commercial, i dont he diliberately makes music to appeal to young kids, its the press that are to blame for that. Fucking Smash Hits and TOTP magazines have him on their covers, now the average age of those magazines must be like 12 or something.
Most commercial rap is turning into the fun type of rap, like Nelly and some of Ludacris' stuff too.
Kids wanna hear stuff with swearing in it because its something that they wont have heard before and acts as a kind of novelty, which is wrong, so the music needs to be kept out of their hands.

[Lil JoNnY]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Most commercial rap is turning into the fun type of rap, like Nelly and some of Ludacris' stuff too </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is true, but soon underage drinking and weed smoking will be blamed on Nelly for talking about getting drunk/stoned in order to have a good time. He glamourises HIS lifestyle, being as he can afford to go to a club and buy several bottles of Cristal for $200+ (each) to have a good time and get a chick, but that doesn't mean that anyone else should try it. The whole thing will move from blaming gangsta rap for murders to blaming it for drink and drugs <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" />

[cunny]

The most aggressive people i know are neds, and their songs dont even have any lyrics!!!! WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT TELL YOU?

[colshank redemption]

good point cunny, can u imagine walking through dundee high street on ur own on a saturday night wearing a metal t-shirt?? or walk by the mardi? ull get started on within moments by some little prick who has about 5 of his mates for backup! neds also seem to kick the shit out of each other for no reason!
u dont see m