http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd92_mz01CQ...ll%20o%27reilly this crap was hilarious.....O'Reilly knew what he was doin when he brought one of the most ignorant rappers (camron) on his program to talk about the hip hop culture.
The ORLY Factor.... what a joke. I'd dare him to bring on a socially conscious rapper to speak, but he'd probably end up cutting his mic. Intelligent discussion, my ass.
It was funny, but Cam'ron and Dame brought up some very good points in the discussion. Hip-hop does have there share of negative messages that influence kids, but at the same time, they also have positive ones that don't get publicized due to their lack of marketability. Like it or not, hip-hop is still a business and rappers need to do what they have to do to make money. Movies, books, and other forms of entertainment may include suggestive themes such as violence and sex because that is what sells. Still, that shouldn’t detract from the overall movie or book because of those themes. Cam’ron and Dash also encourage kids to stay in school, but that is often neglected and these rappers are often portrayed as detrimental. Also, many rappers are just a reflection of their environments and write songs based on their life stories. So, if I grew up a thug, I'm going to rap about being a thug etc. They also offered to talk to that teahcer's class, so I really don't see what the problem was.
^^^Man Cam and Dame brought NO good points to the table......they glamourize the drugs, sex, etc. in their videos.....you'll never see dipset come out with a single telling kids to "stay in school".....if they really wanted to reach out and help the kids in the poorer black communities they'd make music that's uplifting rather than degrading...and lol at the "this is my environment and this is all I know"....that excuse = LAME......Cam is not out there everyday "pushing weight" like he claims to be doing in every song.....Nas writes about the environment he was raised in, but he does it in a positive manner unlike Camron........there are other medias out there of influence (movies, t.v., etc.) but like the teacher said hip hop has a HUGE influence on young black kids.................I wrote a blog about this on myspace.....I'll post it up.
It was frustrating watching that segment, because I felt if Cam and Dame had half a mind, they'd have been able to easily shut down O'Reilly. Bill started off by asking them how they could defend influencing unsupervised children into believing their lies. There's the main problem right there, though. Why are these kids unsupervised? I find that people who complain about rap music's derogatory message to children are allowing their kids to look to rappers for role models and parenting. It's ridiculous to suggest that their lack of parenting and control can be pawned off on artists who are entitled to express themselves as they see fit. The whole Terminator point, etc. were brutal and weak arguments. They just allowed O'Reilly to go off on his patented rants.
this is stupid, the reason why hiphop is "negative" is because rebel type music SELLS to teenagers and always will sell. trying to get hardcore rappers to be more positive is dumb. you have to accept the fact that there will always be a market for rebel music and move on. the problem IS at the family level. if your family upbringing is set up correctly, listening to thug music all day long isn't going to make you into a thug. and the mainstream conservative media focuses way too much on hip-hop. what about movies like Saw and Hostel? are these good thing for young kids to be watching? for kids that are fatherless/unsupervised, they should have counselors to keep them in check or teachers with extended rights, like semi-guardians. take some of the space program money and put it into that, it will solve a lot of the problem.
Well in today's hectic society parents (especially single mothers) have a hard time watching everything their children.........I remember 2Pac saying in an interview that "Big Daddy Kane and LL Cool J" were like father figures to him, because he had no father....now I agree that fathers not being around is a problem within itself, but as a hip hop artist (a black one at that) you know that there are little kids out there who you heavily influence, so that should make you want to strive to put out some sort of a positive message in your music......it comes down to being a product of your environment, and hip hop is a big part of the inner city environment.
Well that's definitely true, but I don't think we can force hip hop to take up that role. That is what people like O'Reilly tend to call for, ignoring the fact that it has never happened with any other art form and the sheer improbability of it happening now. That social responsibility needs to be embraced by rappers, in general, for it to have any meaning. Rap's beginnings definitely entailed social movements/awareness, however the genre has evolved and grown into a business that is too money-oriented to be an effective role model. I think a more reasonable approach is to provide more publicity for hip hop artists who are socially conscious and send a positive message.
^^^^Yes that would be a start, but these lame A&R's always throw out the excuse of "socially conscious music won't sell", which is total BS. Here's the link to my blog http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...iendID=50510381
yeah i hate that socially conscious won't sell - it's b.s. the only thing that sells is GOOD MUSIC. look at Gnarls Barkley - the stuff is like wildfire cause it's real. Those same A&R guys would have been "you're not crunk enough" or something. meanwhile one song and they outsell half the crunk nation
