How Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back

City-Journal.org ^ | Summer, 2003 | John H. McWhorter

[Capt.YankeeMike]

ref: your post #2..theres 2 reasons for that;

1) exhorbitant ticket prices
2) white punks trying to act "ghetto"

[Between the Lines]

"It really isn't any worse than what I grew up with".... and I grew out of it.

The music you used in your example would incite someone who wished to emulate them, to take drugs, be moody, depressed and a party amimal. The lyrics HOTG used in his example would incite someone to be a criminal, a gunslinger and to hate. While someone might outgrow your example, kids arn't going to live long enough to outgrow being a hate filled criminal gunslinger.

[Between the Lines]

in ref to post #2:

While white kids love playing the part, black kids are trying to live the part. One is fun, the other is lethal.

[tru_degenerate]

Good point.

[HairOfTheDog]

Yeah - there is some truth in that..... But there was plenty of raging against the machine in my teen music too.

We sure didn't have the subwoofers they have now.

[tru_degenerate]

Rap didn't seem to be a problem until it made to the Suburbs(sp.ck).

[tru_degenerate]

Is that the guy that debated Damon Dash(ROC) on that HBO show? Can't remember the name of the show. He was on a one of the news shows a week later also.

[WVNan]

McWhorter is a serious scholar concerning the black culture. Anyone who has not read his "Losing the Race" should read it. He is on target and he is right.

[NYC Republican]

Good post... But, to be fair, it's not just rap, it's nearly all of today's music. I periodically check out the Billboard top albums and songs, and cringe.

Like you, I'm in my mid-thirties, and grew up listening to Boston, Stones, Mellencamp, Bad Company, Elton John, etc. Many of those songs had meaning, were well-written, and certainly not vicouos towards others, spewing hate... Is today's generation of children/teens just not into a well-written song? Are they always oblivious to the lyrics? Do they all have the attention span of a flea?

I'm sure I'm being a little harsh, but I'm trying to get a point across

By the way, some of the best music of today is still classic rock and Motown. LOVE motown...

If any of you want to do yourselves a favor with an awesome treat- rent, or better yet buy (you'll watch it over and over again) the movie "The Temptations". It's absolutely FANTASTIC!

[tru_degenerate]

Rap is not the only form of music blacks produce.

[humblegunner]

popular when I was a teen was "Black Sabbath" "Iron Maiden" "Judas Priest" "Ozzy Ozborne"

Don't forget "Nazareth"!!! ;-)

[wi jd]

If it hadn't been for the Four Tops, Temptations, James Brown, War, Jimmi Hendrix, Commodores,etc. The 60's and 70's would've been terrible decades for music.

Yeah, Zeppelin, the Stones, the Beatles, Cream, Pink Floyd. They really sucked. Good thing we had Motown.

[wbill]

I've attributed it to their entitlement culture which breeds self-centeredness

That, and I'd blame it on the plague of self-esteem. Hard to have high self-esteem, when you haven't achieved anything worth 'esteeming'.

M-I-L was a 7th grade teacher for almost 40 years. Her opinion is that this self-esteem BS is creating a generation of super-predators. Many kids (even girls, she said) are particularly violent and functionally illiterate, yet they feel just fine about it.

She also said that the biggest change is among the girls. Now, they have just as many discipline problems, and are just as violent as boys. Scary. The girls in my HS - not too many years ago - used to rein us in somewhat.

[SaveTheChief]

Go to any rap concert and the audience will be predominantly white.

No thanks. I agree with the author's conclusion, that rap music creates nothing.

[Tax-chick]

I was a big Kansas fan, too. Their stuff still turns up on the Christian pop station my son likes!

[dfwgator]

2) white punks trying to act "ghetto"

White punks on dope?

[F16Fighter]

"I am no longer a fan of teenage rebellion music..... but I dug it when I was in high school..... Our rebellion music was sung by grungy lookin' white guys with long hair.... My parents and the other old folks found that threatening too...."

I don't know what era of "rebellion" you're referring to, but I don't believe those "grungy lookin' white guys with long hair" evoked or advocated anything like killing, maiming, murdering, or raping "bitches" or "cops."

They were too stoned and mellow from weed and wine.

[SaveTheChief]

The biggest cause of decline in civility in America has been because the average man is now afraid to do his part to enforce "the code".

Are you kidding? You could get thrown in jail for a hate crime if you tried to do something like that! /sarcasm

[gdani]

Is there anything more boring than an old(er) fart trying to dissect why kids listen to certain music?

I wonder how this author feels about Johnny Cash who has sung songs about:

* Shooting a man "just to watch him die" (Folsom Prison Blues)
* Doing drugs & killing his wife/lover (Cocaine Blues)
* Killing his wife/lover (Delia's Gone)
* Trying to kill his father (A Boy Named Sue)
* Breaking the law & fleeing from the authorities (Wanted Man)
* Getting ready to inflict violence on his boss (Oney)
* Dissrespect for the law (Starkville County Jail & San Quentin)

And so on.........