Hip Hop Rant

I hate Hip Hop.

No, I loathe it and the whole Hip Hop sub culture. Now when I say sub, I mean it in its traditional defintion as in under, below or beneath what is considered culture.

I despise the same back beat to most songs of the genre. True, there can be some creativity in mixing and sampling, but overall, it all sounds like the same or similar arrangement.

I cannot stand the mutilation of the english language that has been spawned due to the rise of Hip Hop. I'm tired of the made up words.

The fact that some words have had their historical meanings molested makes me burn. Words like ghetto are now referenced in ways that would make any Holocaust survivor cringe. Pimp no longer means a man who sexually exploits a woman for profit and abuses her, but rather a guy who is good with women. Puke.

I am disgusted with the desensitizing of youth toward sex that has been accelerated with the increased popularity of Hip Hop, fueled by the lyrical content and pornographic music videos. Nearly every song I hear is about sex, group sex, booty, coochie, getting your drink on, flashing that bling or taking your homie's girl home with you. In addition, the sexual imagery that is projected only feeds into young girls physical insecurities encouraging them to dress more and more provacative, act more physically assertive, cast off previous notions about chastity and lower their standards in the dating arena.

It saddens me to see young men, encouraged by the culture to increasingly view young women as objects to be used for physical gratification. If the hoochies in the video give it up, I bet that girl in Algebra class will too.

I am sickened by the glorification of the thug.

I am annoyed by some in the African American intelligentsia that try to tell me that Hip Hop is some great, over arching urban narrative and therefore a positive cultural expression that I have no right as a white oppressor to criticize. Bull!

I'm tired of hearing that I'm white and I just don't get it. True, I'm not black. Most of the neighborhoods I grew up in were predominantly black and Mexican. I understand what it is to be poor. I understand the feeling of thinking there is no way out. The black thing, you've got me on. But this line of thinking promotes the fallacy that the only way black people can communicate musically is through foul language, child abandonment, the relentless pursuit of materialism and objectifying women. I don't buy that. What about John Lee Hooker, Nat King Cole, B.B. King or Ray Charles just to name a few?

It disturbs me that the vast majority of pop culture is being determined by 13% of the population.

I am tired of white, Asian and Latino kids talking like they're black. I know black people who are tired of it too.

Now some who have the courage to keep reading might think that every generation of older people(I'm only 35) has said things of this nature about the young people and their music. True, and it is not that other genres of music are without flaw. It just seems that with this current pop culture it seems worse. I even spoke to several more level headed people who are older than me and have weathered storms of this nature before. They tend to agree that elements of Hip Hop sub-culture appear to feed some of the more base instincts of our nature.

What are we to do?

My kids are going to eventually grow up and may like music that I find objectionable. What'll I do then? Should parents of teenagers now prohibit Hip-Hop in their house if they find the message contradicting the values they are trying to instill in children?

There, I think I'm done.

Peace to all.