Does the solution to urban youth crime lie in music?

Question

Publicized community protests and "Stop The Violence" campaigns such as those currently being organized in various cities in the U.S., have been going on for years with little effect. Urban youth criminals don't watch TV or listen to the news. But according to "Bonus Of Virtue" the forthcoming novel about paying for your sins in the afterlife by Aaron Westley Powell, one potential solution to urban crime is stopping it at its source--Rap and Hip Hop music. After all, music is supposed to soothe the soul, not advocate, profanity, murder, and violence. Isn’t that what we’re fighting against in Iraq.

So, why on Earth does society condone the profane and violent tough guy images of Rap and Hip Hop music? Strange that we don’t hear the Democrats or the mongers criticizing the music industry like they’re doing President Bush. Perhaps a drastic drop in sales of these forms of music might be the answer. A universal boycott of Rap and Hip Hop music, which is sure to hit the producers in the pockets, may have the most impact when it comes to combating urban youths crime.

Most people don't know thatm the whole of the African American community wantsnRap & Hip Hop music gone! But, sorry to say, the music is kept alive by the giant producers such as Sony, who mainly reap the profits from the musicians who demean and mdegrade their heritage. Until rudely defaced by pimps & drug dealers, the source of this music, particularly, gospel, was a subliminal means of communications within then African American community. The once subliminal messages of unity and harmony, are now replaced by messages of drive-by-shootings and murder of innocent children. There is no good in tough guy music. Tough guys need to volunteer for Iraq. How can America shutdown the poisons of Rap & Hip Hop--pimps & drug dealer music?

Answer 1

You know what DOES stop urban youth crime?

Prison.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Such music encourages people that are innately bad, but it does not make people innately bad in the first place. The problem is in the genes. The solution is killing the criminals and killing their offspring before they grow up to be criminals, except for any of said offspring that have demonstrated to have clearly not inhereted the criminal genes.

An additional problem results when malicious ideological fanatics use the problem of crime to hock their evil ideologies as the solution, when such ideologies not only do not solve the problem, but exacerbate it by distracting from the real solution. For example, there are the pacifists that falsely associate violent crime with violence in general, and say "stop the violence". There are also the religious fanatics that say that the criminals do act as they do because they have not accepted the fanatics' god. There are also the other fanatics that state that parents spending more time with their children is the solution, or that afterschool programs are the solution, or that homework is the solution. The irony of many of those fake solutions is that they in fact encourage violent crimes and gang crimes, because such crimes result from a mindset of dominance, which the pseudo-solutions teach people is acceptable.

As a result, the high-crime cities are a wallowing bag of filth- a mixture of crime, poverty, and drugs, and the fanatical dogmas that make the disgusting brew twice as bad, including pacifism, religion, afterschool programs, parental supervision, and homework.

Answer 4

Music will not solve youth crime. However, plenty of good rap music focuses on more than just glorifying the "gangsta life". The answer is not simple. Throughout the US we are seeing so many things that impact how our youth live. There are so many that it makes a clear answer incredibly difficult.

1. Lack of family. Many children are currently without a complete "family unit". With just about fifty percent of American marriages ending in divorce, of course, it would impact our children and their lives. Now, I'm not saying don't get a divorce, but think about your children. Make sure that if you're set to be a single mom, and have a son that you somehow provide him with a positive male role model, same goes if you have a daughter and vice versa!

2. No time with our children. Now, I'm talking QUALITY not quantity. We work so many hours! Do you know that the US has less vacation time than any other country? We work harder, this in turn gives us less time at home, our children are impacted by this because we have less time for them.

3. TV, Music, Movies, etc. The media desensitizes our children. I don't believe they're to blame...honestly, real blame lies within the parents and children themselves...but they have an impact.

4. Our own Government. Our Government sometimes sanctions the life of a "loser" or criminal. If someone doesn't work but has a grip of children, what does our Government do? Pay them. It then, becomes a career to have children. I don't mean let people starve to death, but put them on the path to education and careers instead of just throwing money at them like we do with all else that STILL doesn't work.

5. Education. Education liberates your mind and sets you free. If you encourage your children to become educated and study a career, work hard and honestly, they won't have need for a life of criminal activity.

There are many more reasons our youth turn to crime but the main reason, I believe our children are as bad as they are is because we are not placing enough emphasis on them, as a country. as teachers, as families or as parents.

Answer 5

No the solution is not in the music it's in the eviornment, it's in the schools, the teachers and the parenting. Music is just an easy cop out to take the blame off the people who influence youths the most (the adults in these children's lives).

We need to not blame it on hip hop, rap or any other music.
music portrays real life not the other way around. We have no one to blame but ourselves as a community and society.

Answer 6

Ok first there has to be a decentraization of people We know from decades of experiments on rats on prisoners, soldiers and volunteers that you can dictate part of human behaviour by population density changes The city offers a anonomity that allows crimes that could not occur in smaller places Second - what needs to be done - is to stop putting people in the warehouses of social houseing and shelters - where they have no real way to meet their needs and are seen and treated as social outcasts - Giving people jobs is a start but decent paying jobs that allow for some common decency in the standard of life and a way out of it to better oneself though work The next thing you have to do is take a close look at companies and other orginizations that are dependant on the povery industry Social workers and shelter owners and so on - They serve a valuable purpose but are they really trying all that hard to work themselves out of that job Or is at least some of it self perpetuating in nature - For instance the instant dependancy of the welfare reciepient to those social orginizations ? How many of the drugs given to the poor are paid for by the government -Shouldn't that be looked at on some levels as a conflict of interest ? Now that you have decentralized people so that everyone now has a name and a personality and you have gotten them a job that lets them buy food and pay rent etc Do you think they are more likely or less likely to join a gang rob a bank or shoot someone - Remember he is going to know who he is shooting and or robbing this time - Not a stranger someone with a name He could just smash the window and take it - Or he could wait until next Thursday when he gets paid becuase this is a 3 paycheck month ? He could sit at home and go crazy watching the walls and develop alll sort of mental illness symtopms associated with being marginialized in society and being deprived or social worth Or he could get a decent job whereby he can have a reasonable degree of hope ---------- You will always have the poor you will always have crime - murder rape robbery fraud etc etc But with this formula we could get to the point where school shootings by children are once again unheard of and shocking because right now it is starting to become semi normal and I don't like that at all

Answer 7

Yeah, but the youth aren't going to give up their music any more than I would've given up Elton John and Air Supply. We tend to listen to what we grew up on. The music is out there, and we're not going to stop it. We need to educate our youth about making good choices and being responsible.

I became a mentor for a 4 year old black girl in 1998. She turned 12 last month and woke up at my house the morning of her birthday. I also work with her 7 year old brother. My goal with those kids is to teach them that they need to act different ways in different situations. Because they're coming up in a single parent home and living on welfare, I want to show them what a healthy marriage looks like and what people who go out and earn their money live like. My husband and I also team-teach a Sunday School class.

We all need to get involved with kids if we expect them to be productive members of society when they grow up. I agree that some of the music today's kids listen to takes a negitive effect on them. TV is another factor. I hear things on the 6:00 news that they wouldn't dare play at 3 AM when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s!

I don't agree with Bush, I don't agree with Hip Hop, and I certainly don't agree with Rap. The above things are all things I can't do anything about, other than keep the kids I mentor from playing the two music genres on my car radio.

Answer 8

I wouldn't say that rap/hip hop is 100% responsible, but it plays a good percentage of it?
right now hip hop is the thing, and these youth glorify and idolize these artist, so they think it is cool to do what they see in these videos/movies. take 50 cent:he talks about drugs, sex, crime: but then goes to or contributes time and money to youth centers, and telling these children violence is not hte way to go. come on that is a hypocrit: you are confusing these children.
Also blame alot of these dead beat mother and fathers, who are not around, and leave another parent to work extra hard, sometimes 2-3 jobs, and are not home to spend time with there children, you just leve them home with cable, video games ,and the streets

Answer 9

There is no answer. the problem is you . I was born and raised in Detroit MI. never been robbed, shot, stabbed hell I've never even chipped a tooth. the worse thing that ever happened to me is I slipped on some ice in January because it gets cold here. If you look back in history, (hell you don't even have to look far) what music caused Al Capone, and Dutch Schultz to gun down innocent people down in the street? What about the wild west, Bonnie and Clyde? You white people invented violence and now you seem to have amnesia about the whole thing, that's why the towers are gone in New York because you whities been phucking with them people for to long and they got tired of your sh_t.

Answer 10

I think it lies in education and making poverty disappear. And music plays a great role in favour (and sometimes) against both goals.

And if Bush left the White House, and stopped setting such horribly violent example with his expeditions round the world to keep everybody's wealth, that would certainly help, too.