Today in America numerous teenagers are listening to rap music.
They are influenced by this music while hearing it in their cars, at work,
while driving, or by turning on the TV. Many teens turn to MTV and BET everyday
to watch their favorite rap artist in their latest videos. They idol their
favorite rap stars and want to be just like them. These rap stars live glamorous
party lives and the teens see this and want to live the same way, or at least
try to. The "Hot Boys", is a well-known rap group that likes to
show off their expensive fancy cars in their videos. Consequently because
of these videos, teens these days are decking out there cars by tinting the
windows and putting chrome rims on them. Another big thing to do is put a
huge sound system in the trunk so everyone can here your cars bass coming
down the street. With rap music also comes urban clothing. Some rap stars
even have there own clothing companies such as, Rocawear, Sean John, No Limit
Wear, and many others. The rap stars convince their fans to show off their
clothing.
When teens listen to the rap music they hear the lyrics of gang violence, sex, drugs, and parties. Gangsta rap is being related to youthful crime (Rodman, 2001). With artists like Eminem singing lyrics like "But I'm not like you. I didn't slit her throat, I just tied her up and put her in the trunk, cause if she suffocates she'll suffer more and she'll die too" (Allman, 2001). This is the kind of lyrics teens these days are listening to. In most rap music, artists refer to their partners as "bitches" and "whores" and they appear to take pride in describing their abuse of power in sexual situations (1995). Teens hear these kinds of lyrics on a regular basis and tend to use the same languages. Much of rap music is censored so it can be played on the radio. Also rap music that is too vulgar for teens has a parental advisory warning on it. The warning label helps so that teens have to buy a censored version of the album if their parents will not let them have the normal version.
-Stacy Hines