Hip-Hop: Friend or Foe?
Many believe, with it’s negative connotations and degrading of women, Hip-Hop is unlyrical and unsuitable for many of today’s youth. Ironically, a majority of the Hip-Hop fan base is still in school. As it highlights situations of poverty stricken communities or feelings of loneliness and depression, should children really be listening to this?
Yes. In case you haven’t hear of “Young Thug” Jeffrey Williams, he is known for his outlandish lyrics but catchy melodies. Society backlashes on his choice in clothing and incoherent ad libs. How could a guy like this be beneficial in the ears of children? It’s simple, don’t take every song he, or any other rapper for that matter, makes at face value. There is not always, but often a powerful story of conquering struggle as adolescents and the toll that has taken. Young Thug gave back to his home town by donating over 700 costumes and masks to children, so that they would get the opportunity to take part in Halloween. Jeffrey also paired up with a rap group named Migos to send money to Haiti after hurricane Matthew had struck in early October.
Perhaps you have heard of Eminem, mostly known for his vulgarity and violent story lines. If you are a fan though, you probably thought of his word play and ability to relate to every story that he tells. Eminem is from Detroit and like Young Thug, enjoys giving back to where he’s from. Nike had reached out to him on one of his organization websites – “When [Eminem] got the info on ninemillion.org, it made even more sense. Who wouldn’t want to design their own line of Nikes? And to do it for charity makes it that much better.” That’s not, among other things, he tries to help less fortunate kids during Christmas time. Now the Wolverine Human Services CEO can tell the world how much gratitude the organization has for Eminem and his effort to give more than 1,200 needy Michigan children a memorable holiday season. Slim Shady, along with his Marshall Mathers Foundation, spent at least $200,000 to purchase presents for the children in the two-year span.
Taking the rap culture by storm, Chance The Rapper. A christian rapper from Chicago, who has released only 3 mixtapes and had millions of downloads. Chance has given back to his communities in numerous ways. He had developed a coat with North Face and the Illinois government to give to the homeless people of Chicago. He raised over 600,000 dollars from the movement and the people that found it inspiring.
Overall, next time you hear a rap song and want to turn it off, pay closer attention to every word the artist is saying. There is always a side of someone that you are oblivious too. In the long run, give them a Chance.
Harrington Thompson • Mar 24, 2017 at 8:13 am
All though you brought up some very good points for the rappers that have donated to charities but that does not fully of exempt them for the lyrics that they use. I believe that you are right but viewing it from a different perspective .You could say OK well young thug is promoting drugs but just because he gives back to the community it is OK For him to say what ever he wants . You should express more reasons why he is a good person he just raps about his own life and the things he does, which is not just effecting him self but others because he inspires many people .You did a great job of highlighting there good side of donating and giving back to their community.
Evan Duzan • Mar 24, 2017 at 8:04 am
Overall, I enjoyed your article about the modern hip hop artist. One thing that you could have done better could be to reference sources to back your claim. You could do this by adding quotes from credible sources and putting down the citations for it. Three things I liked about the editorial was the tittle which catches the readers attention, the statistics you have on each rapper, and the picture which shows some powerful rappers.