Rap And Rock And Roll

3 Pages 845 Words

What’s Wrong With Rock & Roll & Rap?



An idea believed by many people is that music has a significant effect on the way people think. Professional psychologists say that the lyrics used in music today has a brain-washing effect. This brain-washing effect is supposed to make the listener become so overwhelmed with the lyrics of the song that the person feels that it’s a must to act on what was heard. It doesn’t matter if what they do is accepted or not.
It is common to believe that the type of music that provides unacceptable content is rap (hip-hop) music, or rock-n-roll (head-banger) music. The reason people have this presumption about rap and rock-n-roll is because both genres reputations of having or using inappropriate lyrics. A lyric from the N.W.A album F**k The Police states “Mr. Officer, I want to see you layin‘ in a coffin, sir.” This statement, as well as music that refers to women as "bitches," "whores" and sex-dispensing "hoes"(Saunders B29)is considered to be "Gangsta rap". “Gangsta Rap” has been criticized and debated over for its graphic sexual content, violent imagery and misogyny. When rappers were asked why they refer to women as “bitches” and “hoes” their replies were similar. "Snoop" uttered that “it is just for the women who are like that and if you're a real women, you're classy and elegant. Those lyrics wouldn’t necessarily affect you. You’d just groove to the music".(Farley 78). Richard Shaw, A!
.K.A Bushwick Bill, stated, "I call women bitches and hoes because all the women I've met since I've been out here are bitches and hoes." When asked at the National Association of Black Journalists convention what he calls his mother Shaw exclaimed, "I call her a 'woman', but I'm not f***ing my mother. If I was f***ing you, you'd be a bitch." (Raspberry A21). He then apologized for what he said to the reporter.
Kevin Powell, a writer for Vibe magazine, believes that ra...