Somehow in the last decade, rap has become a scapegoat for a lot of this nations problems, and instead of searching for the true culprit, lazy politicians and overprotective suburban moms have simply tossed the blame onto the shoulders of the first thing that they couldn’t understand or didn’t like.

Rap was an easy target for these people because it REFLECTS the problems with black America, it brings them to light. It publicizes in a strong, forceful manner, the poverty in a majority of black neighborhoods. But that’s just it, it reflects society, not encourages it. People aren’t the way they are because of rap; rap is the way it is because of people.

True some rappers never lived the lifestyle that they rap about, but I think it’s a safe assumption that most aren’t lying about the way they grew up and how they were forced to survive. And I think that they are obligated, once they find a proper medium, which they have in rap, to tell about the conditions of their homes.

Yeah, the rappers lifestyle is appealing to children, but it’s appealing to everyone. Who doesn’t want to have a mansion, millions of dollars, and be surrounded by beautiful women? I wouldn’t complain about that. But people who believe that rap makes their kids do drugs are idiots. Sure maybe some small children, who should be under a watchful from their parents and teachers, wants so much to be like Lil’ Wayne or 50 Cent that they try to emulate everything they say, but teenagers and adults are (should be) mature and strong minded enough not be influenced.

And as for the argument that rap degrades women, it’s garbage. Ok, so there are women in bikinis dancing in videos. Have you ever been to the beach? I guess the beach, which is considered a family place, degrades women as well. It’s ridiculous. And sure they say bitch and they say ho. But I have heard just as many women call themselves and other women these same things, and I’m pretty sure that they weren’t influenced by rap.

In conclusion, people need to stop trying to suppress and censor rap music and listen to it and address the problems it expresses.

I guess the nation was long overdue for another attack on hip-hop and rap. After the Don Imus fiasco, the public has begun to ask the question, “when did “ho” become ok,” and have looked to rappers as the main culprit behind Imus’s casual use of the word, and once again it’s time for the hip-hop industry to duck and cover as it comes under fire. All “new,” music or the music listened to by the younger generation seems to come under criticism until the older people who are pushing the criticism are too old to continue the fight or even care.

Rap is music. It is entertainment, and with most entertainment, taking it literally is a completely foolish act. I can accept and understand if you don’t like it or you don’t want your children listening to it. Both of those things you can control at least partially. But don’t try ban it or deny others the right to listen to it, or those who create it a way to support themselves. It’s not just 13 year olds that listen to rap; 18 year olds do too, so do 25 and 30 year old adults. You can’t deny people the right to listen to what they want, and since when have bans ever been effective in the United States (alcohol, drugs, illegal immigration)?

Maybe hip-hop shouldn’t be listened to be 11 and 12 year olds, maybe they are too immature, but that responsibility rests with their parents not the government or the rappers. Parents should stand up and make a better effort to do their jobs instead of blaming everyone else and trying to destroy a huge industry because they are too lazy to be good parents and have seemingly found a perfect scapegoat for their bad parenting.

But if the media and the public so strongly desire to push that same tired argument that rap music corrupts the country’s youth and makes them do drugs and kill and steal, we all need to consider the fact that music, television, movies, they all reflecy society, not influence it. They are simply shining a floodlight on what was already there, hidden in the shadows, ignored, too taboo to be acknowledged by the public. But recent events have should have given us something new to think about, and a new point to make for “pro-rap” people like me.

The worst mass shootings in our nation, whether it is Virginia Tech, Columbine, or the Texas, were not influenced by rap music. Hip-hop has made people Jump, Get Jiggy With It, and Lean With It, Rock With It, but it has never made anyone load a gun and go shoot someone. That honor was saved for the President, but that’s another story.

Rap and hip-hop may not exactly be harmless, but the music is not a “make a delinquent drug.” There are much bigger issues to focus on because the hip-hop industry is a giant and it will not lose this fight to a group of suburban moms and overzealous journalists.