[Destructor]

They said some of the same things about Rock 'N Roll, Punk, New Wave, and Heavy Metal. It all boils down to the parents. Children will eventually return to the values that they were raised on. Sure they will rebel for a while, but it all boils down to what the parent teach, or fail to teach their children.

[tcostell]

I agree. Correlation is not causality. Both these things are a product of the same breakdown of the family. For some time in many black households, the government has moved in to replace men in the role of husband and father. The government can't teach kids to read and write so how are they going to teach them any kind of morality or even how or why to avoid a short sighted view of the world?

There is nothing in particular wrong with rap only the direction it's taking. If it promoted a message that was helpful to the listener, Rap would be fine, but instead, much of it glorifies criminal behavior. But even that is just a symptom of a far greater disease in the community at large.

[PJ-Comix]

Children will eventually return to the values that they were raised on. Sure they will rebel for a while, but it all boils down to what the parent teach, or fail to teach their children.

True. Hip Hop is just part of a crazy phase that most youths go thru. I sure almost hope everything that I wrote down when I was a teenager has been destroyed. I was thinking today about some of the nutty thoughts YOURS TRULY had when a teenager.

[biblewonk]

Heavy Metal is infinitely better than rap. I got my 15 year old Metalica's black album for Christmas. I wouldn't allow rap in the house.

[SoulStorms]

Children will eventually return to the values that they were raised on.

Rock, Punk, and the other styles of music that have been proclaimed "subversionist", as far as I know, never told kids that mindless killing is a virtue, and there is no shame in doing time.

Where I live, many of the eleven and twelve year olds are living this paradigm that has been marketed to them. Sure, if your kid smokes a joint or gets a tattoo or drives too fast because he thinks he's James Dean or Ozzy, he probably will come around to his senses in time.

On the other hand, if he's running around with a jailhouse mindset, and he caps someone on the street to prove that he's "down", he's not coming back, Destructor. He's in the System. He has become that which he has learned to admire.

I think the difference in what kids are being taught to admire today as opposed to the "rebel" image of the past needs to be recognized.