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by Dr. Boyce Watkins
I spoke to a professor the other day who explained the powerful impact of music and how it affects the way we think. The scholar was convinced that, through exhaustive research, he could show that the subconscious messages of music impact us in numerous ways that we don’t even notice. He said that if you listen to sad music, you become sadder. When you listen to romantic music, you become aroused. When you listen to violent music, you become more aggressive.
This led me to wonder: So, what happens when a 12-year old boy is listening to a song with a chorus that repeatedly glorifies murdering other black men, sleeping with every woman that he can get his hands on, and smoking weed every day? I think you know the answer to this one, and so does every good psychologist in America.
We must get past this idea that a child can hear a violent or counter productive message every single day of his life and then walk away unaffected. Hip hop music on the radio has become a highly-financed version of weaponized psychological poison that forces black boys to try to succeed in a world where they are surrounded by other men who’ve been hypnotized by messages that make them exhibit A in the skyrocketing occupancy of prisons, morgues and hospital beds across America. Even when a brother wants to build a better life for himself, he must fight through the zombies around him who believe that their job in life is to ruin the future of anyone trying to do something positive.
Some try to shield artists and their plantation owners from accountability by referencing this abstract concept called “creative freedom.” The problem is that hip hop artists owned by major corporations that have the single-minded motive of making a profit don’t have creative freedom. They are not allowed to engage in a broad range artistic outputs that define the breadth of the human experience. They are told from day one that in order to keep your record deal, you have to dress like a rapper, act like a rapper, throw money at “hoes” in the club, talk about slinging dope, disrespect women at every turn, and openly brag about murdering other black men. There is no creative freedom in a minstrel show.
Some of the responses from the readers on our Facebook fan page are below. You are welcome to join the dialogue.
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radiah
October 16, 2012 at 7:36 am
DUH! I’ve been saying this for years! As soon as NWA gangsta rap and IGNANT Southern rap started the genre changed! It was once fun, empowering, political, educational and again fun! We should have had this discussion YEARS ago!
David W. Johnson Jr
October 11, 2012 at 2:21 pm
There Should Be A Law Passed To Stop That Mess From Being Recorded And Played. It’s Just Plan Ignorant To Let That Mess Be Played In Homes, On Streets And In Vehicles. Because It’s Destroying More African American Young People Than Any Other Races, Is Why It’s Being Allowed To Be Played. These “n*****s” Need To Stop This Mess. Real African Americans Don’t Like It.
MrUniteUs
October 8, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Once upon a time we made music like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8yGGtVKrD8
WIL-LIE
October 8, 2012 at 3:31 pm
blacks do not create job for their people…..and mainly they do not have land to create jobs because land create jobs.
AMAZINGGRACE
October 8, 2012 at 3:11 pm
Yes, it affects our children and young adults. You listen to anything over and over again, and you become that thing, or person repeated to your sub-conscious. Its a mental process. What we need is another Berry Gordy, to help re-create another>>MOTOWN<< A record producer of Love and Positive Change. Another man or woman the likes of, Berry Gordy would knock all this white music executives off the map! Anyone up for the Position?? We Need You Now.
AMAZINGGRACE
October 8, 2012 at 3:11 pm
Yes, it affects our children and young adults. You listen to anything over and over again, and you become that thing, or person repeated to your sub-conscious. Its a mental process. What we need is another Berry Gordy, to help re-create another>>MOTOWN<< A record producer of Love and Positive Change. Another man or woman the likes of, Berry Gordy would knock all this white music executives off the map! Anyone up for the Position?? We Need You Now.
cookiebaby
October 8, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Music is association. If you as a parent are careful about your child’s associates and friends why would you not be as equally concerned with their choice of music? Would you allow a person in your home to befriend your child and family who is a rapist, child molester, murdered, thief, a bully and any other vile action you can think of? If you wanted that influence around then yes, you’d allow it. However if your answer is NO then why would you allow violent music in your home? It doesn’t make sense. Not to mention the foul language many of these so called recording artist use is enough to make the paint peel off the walls, it’s vulgar and your kids will pick it up. The same actions, thoughts, ideas, swagger, will start to consume their minds and they will become like what they listen to. That is a gradual process in many cases. Birds of a feather flock together, you are known by the company you keep and one bad apple spoils a bunch.
PB Short
October 8, 2012 at 3:05 pm
You are correct, and unfortunately, this is the type of company and associations that our people are keeping; as mentioned, not just the music, but the other influences also…
PB Short
October 8, 2012 at 12:23 pm
@ Derrick; I enjoy reading & comprehending your posts brother…someday, I hope we (our race) are able to provide a solution…hopefully an under-ground solution to keep the perverted catholic in the dark…
Everything you do will be used against you…this is how the perverted white male catholic operates…
They took what NWA, PE, Grand-Master Flash, and others were saying and used it against us by turning it around and glorifying it…they even took James Brown “Say it loud, I’m Black & I’m Proud) and used it against us…
The sad part is that these crackers, congress, passed laws to allow radio stations and other media outlets to play this c**p endlessly…
We all know that music effects the way we think…from the love songs of the 60′s, 70′s, and 80′s, all the way to this c**p today…
If you take the time to talk and listen to young people (girls/boys), you will see that they do not think there is anything wrong with today’s entertainment and their own actions…
I recently had to convince a group of young men and women who were nineteen (19) and twenty (20) years of age that they had no business going to a high-school football game…I ask them if they had any children who played in the band, who were on the football or cheer-leader team…
I told the young women that they were going to start trouble with teenage girls who has every right to be at the game…I told the young men that 1) they were going to get charged with RAPE, 2) and the chances of getting into a fight with teenage boys were good…
All of this behavior is due to today’s entertainment (radio, television, internet) as these people do not see anything wrong with their actions, because the message they are receiving is promoting this c**p in all aspects of life…
I even ask the same people about their thoughts concerning Nikki Minaj & Mariah, and they all agreed with Nikki actions…I informed them that their actions were staged…
You know this is a very sad country when gay rights became a civil rights issue in this country, and the majority of our young people do not know anything about civil rights…
Everything we have done in this country has been used against us…and the entertainment field is the best way to do it…
Audrey
October 8, 2012 at 9:26 am
Thank you!!!@ Derrick & Imhotep! You both said it beautifully! Now, not only that but…look at how 3 white guys have taken this scene to a whole new *Million Dollar* level by getting PAID to decipher to the (white man) what those gangsta raps mean! Isn’t this a sad, vicious cycle with no good or happy ending!
Audrey
October 8, 2012 at 9:25 am
Thank you!!!@ Derrick & Imhotep! You both said it beautifully! Now, not only that but…look at how 3 white guys have taken this scene to a whole new *Million Dollar* level by getting PAID to decipher to the (white man) what those gangsta raps mean! Isn’t this a sad, vicious cycle with no good or happy ending!
paula~
October 8, 2012 at 7:57 am
Sweetheart, anything violent will affect any human being..man,woman,or child.Do that make any sense to you?
Imhotep
October 8, 2012 at 7:32 am
@ Derrick….Teach On!! I went to see the Sugar Hill Gang, Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and Whodini when they became a household name and except for Flash( He did talk about societal issues), the rest of them talked about partying and dancing. Roxanne Shante and others created the “battle” where your lyrics were put to the test in a “freestyle” manner. If you hear LL and Kool Moe D go at it, you could easily deduce that it was a lyrical battle, not a physical one. Kid and Play and many others pushed having a good time and partying and some like Poor righteous teachers, Arrested development and PE push a “conscious Rap.” Those styles are gone now because after execs saw the success of NWA, they stopped investing in the PE’s of the world and went straight to “gangsta rap” (which has morphed into many forms-Southern Slang, The Dirty South and others). These kids really think that Rick Ross sold a bunch of Cocaine( ex-prison guard, and the sad thing about it is that a lot of their examples in their communities have performed these despicable acts. Does life imitate art or does art imitate life? We had this question in one of my art classes years ago. What do you think? The O’Jays once said ” there is a message in the music,” what messages are in our music today? That’s why I haven’t bought an American R&B( cause its garbage also) or hip-hop album in over 12 years. I buy Reggae and Jazz or NU-Soul. Hotep
Derrick
October 8, 2012 at 9:34 am
@Imhotep:
You got to be old skool, my brother! That was real rap back in the day. I also, love some jazz, raggae and old skool R&B.
That was music with a message and you could RAP to your lady with that music in the background. This bullshit they’re making today is only noise and sc(rap), that’s why I call these youngsters…sc(rappers) because that shyt needs to be SCRAPPED!
KEEP POSTING THAT TRUTH, I’M READING IT, IF NOBODY ELSE IS!
CHECK!
Derrick
October 8, 2012 at 5:24 am
Does Violent Music Affect Our Children or is it Just Harmless Noise?
——————————————–
This is a no brainer! A child begins to observe and pick-up on things at the age of one! Therefore, what they see and observe they IMITATE!
When they see this violence, and hear it, they begin to imitate it until they become of age to carry it out! Therefore, in their minds, they are not doing anything wrong because this is what they see on an everyday basis. Before they reach school age, a child (girls and boys), they see a combined total of 40,000 violent movies on tv, violent deaths in their neighborhoods, and violence in their homes, so this THEIR life, and all they know.
These cracker record executive know what they’re doing when they MAKE these sc(rappers) look the way they look, perform the way they perform, and say the things they say, in their messed up music!
THIS IS A PLAN TO KEEP OUR CHILDREN DUMB DOWN AND IGNORANT, SO THEY CAN CONTINUE TO KILL EACH OTHER WHEN THEY BECOME ADULTS!!!
REMEMBER, THERE IS A KILLER MESSAGE IN THIS SC(RAP) THEY PRODUCE!
Victor
October 7, 2012 at 8:52 pm
Of course it does just look around. Some it is called gangsta rap and its purpose to promote a gangsta lifestyle which ends in death or a prison sentence. This is like asking does bootie music promote the degrading of women.