Is Hip Hop Responsible For Destroying the Black Community?

Sandra Rose June 25, 2009

You already know what I think.

flyqtnva

YES YES & YES, it has breeded a generation of wanna be ballers, thugs, drug kingpins & pimps…I remember when hip hop was political..i dont know what it is today…just talk to anyone 25 and below….i hate to say it but they ignorant..to the world…PRIME EXAMPLE TINY..BEYONCE…TOYA>>who care about education when you got a rapper taking care of you….then go on TV promote yourself and you cant speak..millions of young girls looking @ u thinking its cute…if BEYONCE SOUND IGNORANT….I CAN SOUND IGNORANT TO…lets all be ignorant together..DAMN DAMN DAMN…i wanna slap them all
KaraZ

Let me see… if you’re not part of the solution then you’re a problem. Hip Hop alone is not responsible for the degeneration of the black family and community, however it seems that 99% of all hip hop is put out to eat away at the fabric and heart of black families and communities, filling our ears with poisonous messages of mutual disrespect, irresponsibility and … wtf am I writing an epistle for?
aqtpie

I guess it also depends on the type of role models that are in kids lives.
flyqtnva

well said karaz….its hard to avoid it…its in commercials, NBA playoffs they playing hip-hop..go in MCDONALDS u see BEYONCE On TV legs WIDE open…its everywhere…KAyNE WEST AMAZING…what is he saying IM A MONSTER..IM A KILLER…and kids are repeating it over and over…it may not be ALL responsible but the stuff is def SICK
melinla

I think that the lack of parenting is the downfall of the black community (and other races too) It is HARD to be a parent! It would be so much easier if I could be my child’s friend, but being her friend doesn’t prepare her for life. So at 14 she is not on facebook or twitter. She talks to boys, but only on the home phone. She doesn’t watch videos. And I see what she is wearing when she leaves the house and when she comes home. It’s a lot of work, but I got my reward when she was valedictorian of her class. If you don’t want to be a parent, don’t have kids!
Charles

No poor parenting and guideing is

Black women and men stop deflecting blame this is ur fault!
flyqtnva

DUDE from Dead PREZ DONT PLAY..thats y they wont play his stuff on the radio now…ITS TO REAL
flyqtnva

I guess Charles either A doesnt have kids or B he is with them 24/7 365…as i said b4 you can go in the mall, mcdonalds, out to eat…its all around you stop frontin…yo
coaretained

I’m with charles on this one..if you don’t like the images and actions of hip hop, keep your kids away from it. can’t leave it up to Jay Z and TIP to raise my sons.. no sir. And I won’t let anyof the female artists be a role model for my daughter.
http://myspace.com/thegameoncw Bird

I’m not sure on this one. The hood has always been chock full of crime. Hip Hop might be spreading it though. Now lil white kids aspire to be gangsta. I know brainy black kids who went to college and felt like they had to be gangsta because that is what their white classmates expected. I have a buddy that did over a decade in prison for becoming a drug dealer at his ivory league college when he had never done that before. He said it felt great to be looked at as the man because he was basically viewed as Steve Urkle in the hood he grew up in. I just don’t know. I do think that much of hip hop is horrible though.
melinla

i agree flyqtnva – it is all around you. And the kids take it in, but as a parent you have to be there to talk with the kids and let them know that everything they see is not ok. Teach them morals and values and that there are more ways to making money than shakin yo azz, rappin’, and playing sports, or selling drugs. And those other professions are respectable and attainable.
PAHairston

Hello All. From this older woman who was raised on REAL music, such as the Temptations, Delfonics, Earth, Wind & Fire, Prince, Diana Ross, Harold Melvin, and the list goes on and on, YES, hip/hop/rap has been detrimental to our families and our race. But music didn’t do it alone. It’s the choices that we make in life. Black Americans seem to head every negative list ever compiled: new HIV/AIDS cases, unemployment, high school dropout rate, babies having babies, obesity, diabetes, certain cancers, high blood pressure. (Most on this list CAN be controlled, it’s the choices we make.) I’m sure I left out a few maladies. But there is still hope that this list, this compilation can be turned around. We gotta stop saying such things as: You know how ni@@ers are, they tear up er thang! It will take allllllllll of us to say: No, not while I’m on duty, not under my watch. My son just delivered an undergraduate speech to a Stanford U crowd at his 2009 graduation there. He said that one can not be successful unless one helps someone else to succeed. He’s just saying…..Peace.
coaretained

@#8

If you feel that there is no escaping it ( maybe I haven’t sat down in McDs in a while but I never hear music) then TALK to your kids.. drown out that “white noise” and teach them something positive. If you see a billboard with ( insert name here) with her legs all gapped open, explain what’s going on and why that is unacceptable to you. Parents these days ( and even those from my mothers era) leave too many things for the kids to figure out themselves. Thats when the media steps in and becomes our childrens teachers.
http://myspace.com/rayne215 spongebobfan

i agree its the PARENTNG!!! IG’NANT, yes IG’NANT young bama a** parents that want to make their kids vid hoes and ballers you see these kids on the street and why are they on the street to begin with? if i wsnt home by sundown it was a wrap for me… Nama brand?? when i got a job my mom who was a single mom did not play and i was not running the streets like a wildwoman… i appreaite (sp) that i had good grounded parenting not the mess i see today…..RIP MOM:(
coaretained

# 12 gets a standing O.

I know this one will work..lol
http://myspace.com/thegameoncw Bird

I meant Ivy League
wiggy2272003

clapping and standing up for you Melinla. You are absolutely right. Looking the other way, doing anything immoral or not to get ahead, have become the norm today and we are devolving as people.
http://myspace.com/rayne215 spongebobfan

and NO parents arent around all the time and yes kids will be kids.. but it was a level of respect that I had. thats missing in kids today RESPECT! im a 28 glory days in the 90’s good hiphop i loved it, but it didnt want to make me gang bang kill police or do whatever he was saying in DOO DOO BROWN…. it was good music(some of it) entertainment, like Scarface, like goodfellas like any other violent movie for ex
IT’s ONLY ENTERTAINMENT
melinla

Thx wiggy
Lala11_7

I think popular music is a reflection of the state of the culture currently…

And Hip/Hop reflects what’s going down in FAR too many of our own households and communities…

I’m sorry…just this morning while getting ready for work…I get to hear of not 1, not 2, not 3…not 4…but FIVE SHOOTINGS IN MY OLD NEIGHBOORHOOD WHERE MY MAMA AND TEENAGE NEPHEW CURRENTLY RESIDES?!?!

Hate the playas…AND HATE THE GAME AND CHANGE IT!!!

SIGH!!!
http://myspace.com/necee518 yvonne79

Perhaps that’s the problem. Weak minded indiviuals cannot seperate entertainment from reality
http://myspace.com/thegameoncw Bird

PAHairston

Preach sista preach! Future hubby and I go at it over this all the time. He always says things like, “it’s none of your business” or “what are they doing for you?” I tell him that my community and the future of humans overall is my business and he will NEVER win me over to his side. Community service and paying it forward is the only way I know of to have a part in combatting this downward spiral that we are on. So yes I will continue to lovingly correct the tweens and teenagers that act a fool in my neighborhood and I will continue to give my time to good causes. In the end I’ll have his butt out there doing it too. It’s not just on the parents. We all have to get involved.
Daisy

I say there is a difference between rap n hip hop.

I will also say if you don’t or aren’t working to help uplift the next generation then you can’t really complain. I have no kids but I vol. and work with youth ages 13-18 so I am trying to do my part. Yes they love rap and hip hop but that is not all they love either. Most of my teens realize its for ET purposes only. I am trying to take them to see Tavis Smiley’s America I am exibit!

There is enough blame to go around can we get some solutions as well…

Carry on
flyqtnva

I have a 5 year old and a 1 year old…my 5 year old goes to A CHRISTIAN PRIVATE SCHOOL…WHAT IN THE WORLD would MAKE U THINK I LET MY kids listen to RAP/HIPHOP..my kids dont even WEAR URBAN HIP HOP CLOTHES & NEITHER DO I…how many of you people can SAY THAT…walking around looking like a THUG or a HOOCHIE with CHEAP LOOKING LOGOS ALL OVER IT…PLEASE…what I’m saying is its everywhere point blank…u cant hide kids from it..those of you saying its the parent…LOTS OF KILLERS HAD GOOD PARENTS…LOTS OF INSPIRATIONAL PEOPLE HAD BAD PARENTS…
flyqtnva

@PAHairston
I agree w/you…your son obviously has a good head on his shoulders….EACH ONE TEACH ONE…used to be a theme in hiphop when I was growing up now its ALL ABOUT…what I got & what you anit got.WHY DROP OUT RATES HIGH??? SOME KIDS WONT GO TO school if they cant rock THAT NEW NEW sh@t..
daninicole

I kind of skimmed through the comments and I saw a few that I agreed with. I don’t think that we can blame it all on hip hop. For one thing, children only have as much access to this music as the parents allow. Monitor tv, radio, and computer. I am a teacher and I see these kindergardners and other young children with gold chains and Louis scarves. Yea the rapper on the radio might have made that child want that mess but they don’t work nowhere. Mama and daddy bought that mess. I see kids with mohawks and words cut into their heads. Yea their favorite rapper may have their hair like that, but mama and daddy took them to the barbershop and paid for that haircut. Little girls with red waterfalls (a grown, country hairstyle), yeah you may have seen your favorite singer with that on but mama and daddy bought the red weave and let that child get it weaved into her hair. But ya’ll get the point. So it the blame needs to be dished out equally among all guilty parties!
coaretained

Do we blame hip hop for those killers with good parents? And how does how you dress have anything to do with how you act?? I need a definition of dressing like a thug…I think I get the jist of dressing like a hoochie but.. hey.. thug is open for interpretation. Braids on a man? A shirt that may be a size or two too big? Besides the stereotypical “pants hanging around the crack of his azz… what is dressing like a thug??

Inquiring minds want to know…
iscream

Haven’t read any of the comments so this may have been said already…

No.

The lack of opportunities is destroying the black community. The lack of money being pushed into poor neighborhoods, the pushing of drugs by the higer ups to make a profit is destroying the black community.

Hip Hop is actually a way for people who couldn’t have otherwise had an opportunity to have one. It has removed drug dealers from corners to mansions. Hip hop only got big in the 80’s and huge in the 90’s. The black community has been fvcked since we got of the ships. So how is it all of a sudden hip hops fault? I blame welfare before I blame hip hop.

Hip Hop actually gives back to the community.

Oh and if you are trying to blame the content of the music on kids running amock. Yt kids also listen to hip hop why isn’t there community all fvcked up? Because they got the money that’s why.
coaretained

cosign with daninicole…
flyqtnva

@yvonne79
your right about the weak minded…maybe thats what it is…their weak to begin with
flyqtnva

EDUCATION
african_dude

the black community is destroyed due to bad parenting, it has nothing to do with hip hop, i mean really? so lyrics destroy a community now? why hasnt rock `n` roll destroyed the white folks, punk music,gothic,heavy metal and so on and so forth lmao
hmm hip hop is responsible for drive-by shootings? teenage pregnancies? drug use? high school drop out rates? give me a fuck!ng break!
black folks are always making excuses for their shortcoming, its always someone else`s fault but never you right?
coaretained

I blame welfare before I blame hip hop.

COSIGN!!!

And further more I don’t think it’s HIP HOP per se.. maybe GANGSTA rap.. can we agree on that?? IMO those are two different genres of music that mainstream wants to put under one umbrella.
african_dude

hey sandra whats up with that gravatar? that aint me..how do u change stuff like that..lol
flyqtnva

@iscream
THEY GOT THE $$ & EDUCATION…it’s not cool to be smart in hip hop….yo…so all the kids wanna be dumb cuz they fav rapper is DUMB…
african_dude

@melinla

god bless your soul, you`ve said exactly what some of us are singing everyday in this community, i believe parenthood is not everybody..trust me your daughter will grow up to be a productive sista and she in turn will transmit the values to her future kids(if and when she has them), parenthood is everything
flyqtnva

little girls with red waterfalls…WTF…lol
flyqtnva

I got a friend she has a great job..makes way more dough than I do…OUr kids are the same age…last week she came over & said : Your baby writing in cursive this damn good? I was like thats only half not only can she do cursive better than some adults I know she can read, add, tell time & count money….she was pissed…& said I dont know y my baby so behind.they anit teach him none of that in HEADSTART…and I said thats the problem…You get what you pay for..she make enough to send her baby to private school..but she go the GOVT route…SHOP IN BEBE SO MUCH she VIP now…SON dont wear nothing but ROCAWEAR…but mad cause HEADSTART anit teach him nothing….BUT HE KNOW EVERY RAP SONG ON THE RADIO
http://myspace.com/necee518 yvonne79

There are SEVERAL factors contrinbuting to the downfall of the Black community. The number ONE factor I think is the lack of parenting and adult supervision in their lives. Kinda creates a domino effect.

Fathers aren’t playing an active role in their children’s lives; failing to provide financially for them and physically not being there to interact with them.

Because Daddy wasn’t there, Mommy had to pick up two and/or three jobs to make ends meet. Daddy didn’t want to build a relationship with Shaquan because he can’t stand her mother. And Mommy doesn’t have time for Shaquan because she has to work. Someone has to pay the bills around this mofo. That sorry Daddy of yours don’t send a check around this piece so she’s straight grinding and hustling to make ends meet. No one has time for Shaquan therefore she feels inadequate as a person.

There isn’t money for afterschool care so she’s left at home in front of the TV watching video after video on BET, VH1 and MTV. There isn’t anyone there to make sure she is working on her homework. She’s memorizing Biggie and Trina lyrics vs learning how to spell. When she’s tired of watching TV, Shaquan is in these streets looking for love. Mommy didn’t teach her how to be a lady so she is walking around dressing like Lil Kim, talking to people like she’s Trina and yelling at folks like she’s Remy Ma! Daddy didn’t show her any love so the first dude (drug dealer, pimp, etc)that tells her she is beautiful or pretty or show her the slightest bit of attention- she’s in love.

Because she’s in love, she gives up the goods thinking giving up the trim will get this dude to marry her. Next thing she knows she is sixteen and pregnant. Kicked out the house because momma don’t wanna be bothered.Can’t get a job because she has no one to watch the baby and no one for sitter. What happens next? You guessed it, welfare.

And this is the NEVER ending freaking cycle in the hood. It’s sad but it’s soooooo true. With my children, nieces, nephews, and the children in my neighborhood I am really trying to break that cycle. Be that light, Be that light…
http://myspace.com/necee518 yvonne79

flyqtnva Says:

I got a friend she has a great job..makes way more dough than I do…OUr kids are the same age…last week she came over & said : Your baby writing in cursive this damn good? I was like thats only half not only can she do cursive better than some adults I know she can read, add, tell time & count money….she was pissed…& said I dont know y my baby so behind.they anit teach him none of that in HEADSTART
————
Not trying to be funny but-Why is she waiting for HEADSTART to teach her kids? SHE needs to sit her ass down and teach her kids on her own.
iscream

Okay, read comments & agree parents are more to blame than music.

But.

If parents aren’t given the opportunity to better themselves then how can they better their kids. Budget cuts take away afterschool programs which leaves these kids in the streets with nowhere to go. Then they join gangs and go down the wrong path.

Lack of opportunities. & again welfare keeps the community from doing more with their life. The government will help a person not working before they help a working parent.
http://myspace.com/necee518 yvonne79

iscream Says:

If parents aren’t given the opportunity to better themselves then how can they better their kids.
_______________
I think you have to CREATE your own opprotunities. A way out of the hood can be found in any book. The problem is you have to have the MOTIVATION, PASSION and DRIVE to get out. You gotta want more for yourself. You gotta want more for your children. But I do agree with your other points…
daninicole

@fly
Yes gurl! She was in first grade last year and I heard the teachers talking about her. I finally saw her and I was appalled! She has weave down her back, she wears makeup, tall boots and short skirts, scarves around her neck, I mean it is really unbelieveable!! I teach second grade and I started praying last year that I don’t have her in my class. I don’t think I can deal with her or her mama cause if she allows that child to dress like that then I can only imagine what other mess I would have to deal with. There is so much going on with the youth today, I really don’t know what to say and the sad thing is, it is starting earlier and earlier!
Daisy

@Fly she must have lied about her income to headstart. My mama worked for Headstart for YEARS and I use to help her when I was in high school the kids at her center and they learned alot more than abc’s and 123…lol
http://myspace.com/necee518 yvonne79

@daninicole:

Are you freaking serious!!!Weave? Makeup? Tall boots?
melinla

Soooo agreeing with #39.

@ #41 – that is were it takes a village comes into play. I had a rotation of folks watching my child…aunties, uncles, grandmother, great grandmother, cousins…nobody gets tired or feels used. I felt comfortable because she was with family and I could go to work and school and take care of her. I had to cut out the clubs and parties cause of all them people…no of them would watch her at night unless I was working =)
flyqtnva

yvonne79
Thats what I said….BEBE more important than her son education…and to daisy…they all lie about they income…my whole thing is WE STRUGGLE TO KEEP MY GIRL IN THAT SCHOOL & I MEAN STRUGGLE..BUT IT ANIT NOTHING LIKE SEEING MY BABY EXCEL
flyqtnva

& yvonne79 you pretty muched summed it all up…thanks
flyqtnva

I said that to say there are millions of chicks just like my friend…all the $$ she spend on clothes and shoes…she could & still can put her baby in a better learning enviorment…but hey he got on ROCAWEAr & TIMS..thats all that matters
melinla

@ fly and if the people who could afford to send their kids to a private “headstart” program would do so, the people who NEED to use the government headstart might get better use from it…15 in a class instead of 30…
flyqtnva

@daninicole
Girl NO…sounds like a DEREON AD…lets all pray for the mom to get some sense
http://myspace.com/rayne215 spongebobfan

whoa… at the same time it Good headstart programs, im getting childcare subsidy for my 5yo girl and shes in a great school, read write count draw the whole nine…i pay 45 a week co pay and the state pays the rest
http://myspace.com/necee518 yvonne79

flyqtnva Says:

I said that to say there are millions of chicks just like my friend…all the $$ she spend on clothes and shoes…she could & still can put her baby in a better learning enviorment…but hey he got on ROCAWEAr & TIMS..thats all that matters
———-
Believe it or not, I know a LOT of chicks like this. Parenting goes far beyond providing nice clothes for your children. Some parents just don’t comprehend that concept. All of this is heart breaking. It really is…..
wiggy2272003

great comments y’all fly your friend don’t have a right to be mad.Shes worried about the wrong dam thangs. That is a problem period. Everyone can find money for gear, hair, nails etc but investment financially or investing in educations is rarely heard of. I agree there is a lack of opportunity but its not impossible. Lots of people don’t WANT to leave the hood. They are content. I liked everything you said Yvonne.
Clapping for Fly and Daisy too!
http://myspace.com/thegameoncw Bird

This is a great conversation, but I can find a flaw with every comment that is made. The answer is not easy. Hip Hop is part of the problem, but it is not the only problem. The entertainment as a whole is the devil’s playground. Everyone in it is in it solely for the money. Not even the performers can say they are doing what the love because the label tells them what to say and how can the multitude of talentless, but pretty artists be loving it when singing is clearly not their gift of passion? But still it’s more than that. America is on the fast track to hell with the worship of material things. That certainly is not confined to the hood. Ghetto folks can’t even begin to fathom the endless bullsh*t rich people spend money on and middle class people run up their credit to get. Shoot the hood is just trying to keep up a little bit. It’s more than hip hop. While that particular genre wears their moral bankruptcy on their sleeves they are not alone.
wiggy2272003

they say you learn something new everyday. Today I learned there is a hairstyle called “Red Waterfalls”
flyqtnva

While that particular genre wears their moral bankruptcy on their sleeves they are not alone.

DAMN BIRD…..i liked that…you betta go..educated girl.
http://myspace.com/necee518 yvonne79

@Bird: I agree, the answer isn’t easy. And perhaps there isn’t one solution to the problem. If we focus on home first; invest more time, effort and energy into our children instead gaining material things and wealth; maybe things wouldn’t be AS bad as they are now. Just my two cents
wiggy2272003

fly you beat me to the punch I was about to type the same thing to Bird
so I’ll just say I’m signing that petition
Daisy

@Bird there was no flaw in my comment..lol My point was working on SOLUTIONS there is enough blame to go around.
http://myspace.com/katgirl33 katgirl33

Yep Auntie…you know why? b/c when it hit, you had weak minded teens taking the lyrics and applying it to their lives, and then started having babies and raising theit kids on it……

Isn’t that what we supposed to be doing with education? Taking it and applying it to our daily lives???

Boooooy, if all our people looked at school and learning like that, WE’D BE SOME BAD AZZ _______________! In a good way…LOL
http://myspace.com/katgirl33 katgirl33

Off subject…..Farrah Fawcett has passed away…..

Rest in Peace
coaretained

STFU!! NOT FARRAH!!
trina@atl

#39 summed it all up. Plus we need to stop saying that there are not opportunities out there, hell make your own. We are not living in the jim crow days where we are not allowed to do anything. If you want a better job stay in school and get a diploma not a GED b/c you wasted all of your time hanging out instead of going to school to get a free education. Stop putting tattoo’s all over your body that can not be covered up for when you go to a job interview. You are not a rapper or a professional athlete, they can get away with all of that mess all over there body.
wiggy2272003

One more thing about parenting, besides education teach your kids to be involved in community. Even if I have it I don’t buy my children what they want. I used to try to give them everything but I started to see them become unappreciative and acting entitled and I didn’t like that. So I fell back and they are better because of it. I also decided to have them help out less fortunate. We are by no means balling in fact one of the neighborhoods suggested by the youth director at church was ours lol but you can always help somebody. Seems like almost everyone on here has the right idea about it sad so many don’t
flyqtnva

@wiggy2272003
last post was great….i need to volunteer…i do DONATE alot and I let CHILDRENS HOSPiTAL take 16.00 out my account every month…its not alot but hey it adds up over the years…
wiggy2272003

Thanks fly, My son has a spot in his heart for special people He will fight in a heartbeask if someone is hurtful to them.. Thats who he chooses to help on our help out day. He also is always talking bout starting a foundation for special people when he gets rich My heart just swells when he does.
Daisy

@Wiggy that is why I VOL my time working with teens and went back to school to get my masters in public admin so I can continue to HELP SAVE the world..lol I have gone on missions trip to Mexico and Africa. I am always trying to give back!
wiggy2272003

Daisy you do a whole lot more than me sad to say. We just rake leaves, go to the store, pick up meds etc for people. I don’t have a lot of extra time or money but I think I am getting the point across to my kids.