Fed up with Rap/Hip Hop and RnB/Urban music lyrics, videos and the whole image.?

Question

I'm no prude and I really love the music but I find it hard to watch MTV Base etc because all I see is black tyts and ***! It's getting so dispiriting! The lyrics are all full of: look at me, look at how much money I've got, I hate women, I want to shoot you, look at how many records I can sell.

It's getting so borrring!

Don't these artist have any scruples? They are portraying a totally false lifestyle to young people. They disrespect their mothers (who probably struggled to bring them up) sisters and partners.

Am I the only one who thinks like this?

I am not interested in hearing from haters - ie those who have a deep seated hatred of anything that has a shade of colour - would love to hear from fans of Urban music - especially white males as apparently you are the main consumers of this music!

Answer 1

Finally someone put it out there. You are not alone sista girl. Even though it sounds good and I still listen to it, I sometimes feel that these rap videos are an embarrassment to the back people. Because what about some of the white people out there who don't know much about black poeple, what channel do you think they turn to when they're curious about how black poeple are? BET right? Then we wonder why we get steryotyped as violent, agressive and ignorant. Another thing I can't stand is Ludacris's little fake *** Kisha Cole wannabe Shareefa talkin about "I need a Boss" "I need a thug" "I need a d-bay on the block" What Kinda message is she sending to our young sistas. Now that educated young brotha you used to keep in nose in the books now feels obligated to now act "hard" or like an ignorant "thug" because thats the only way he can get a date. They dont want a guys who have they're sh!t together and have a legit job, gimme the drug dealer who will most likely treat me like sh!t or beat my ***. Do there artist know what kind of psycological damage they're doing? And why is every movie the BET shows a prison movie? Every time its a prison movie? Male or Female prison movie. Wake up people!!
oh excuse me, got a little off track there, but i'm glad you brought up that subject because its not brought up as often as it should.

Answer 2

I know how you feel! Growing up, I listened to rap and slow R&B songs until I got about 18 years old. I got tired of hearing hip hop because all I seemed to hear were men degrading women terribly, and calling her "b*****". In the music videos, all I saw were almost nude women around some pimp with high ego and chains wrapped around his neck. I thought I was the only one who seem to notice all the degrading things they would say about us. Just because I'm a woman does not mean, all I do is shake my butt, wear sleezy clothes, and hang around a guy that feels like hes my pimp!! So, at 18, I got away from listening to all that crap, and I couldn't believe at how many woman were actually agreeing and singing along these crazy lyrics! Then, I gave my life to Jesus and became a Woman Of God! So, I don't HATE the people that sing and rap these songs, but I pray that they see woman more then just as tools or pleasure toys, if you know what I mean.

Answer 3

Girl I feel you, I am in agreeance with you. I feel that we as females should find the lyrics degrading. How are th lyrics going to call us "bobble heads" and "chicken heads" which are so disrespectful to us and you see females in the clubs dancing to this music, I don't understand. I don't want to hear rappers talking about how much paper they have, how many cars they have, how large of a house they have and I really don't want to hear them disrespecting females anymore. And I hate when they say n..gga this and n..gga that. Why can't they write lyrics with more meaning to it? Everything is so simple now "do your chain hang low" "walk it out" "lean with it rock it" and they all have the same tune. I am tired of simplicity, try being abstract.

Answer 4

I agree with your point about them rapping about how much they've got and how much someone hasn't got.
However, a lot of rappers are begining to 'evolve' and rap about other things than money and women, look at Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Jurassic 5 to name a few.

I disagree with the comment about their mothers, i think 90% of rappers now respect their mother above anything and do rap about the fact (Kanye West - Hey mama).

I love hiphip and r'n'b, but i do find that it gets repeatative, its the same old thing. The majority do actually have wifes/family but are in that particular genre of music purely because it sells and use the videos as a way to show 'look what i have/could have' but dont live like that behind closed doors!!!

The majority of female r'n'b is about love & loss and at the minute....dancing/clubbing/having a good time! Which i see nothing wrong with! (Ciara/Beyonce/Cassie)

Young people do look up to them, but to be perfectly honest the only teenages that believe their lifestyles can be like they see in videos and the only way to do that is through rap and violence are the ones with a lower intelligence, most kids aspire to be successful via other routes than hiphop as they have the intelligence to realise that realistically its not going to happen.

I do think that as a race black/african american/ etc are stereotyped because of hip hop, i was with a coloured friend only yesterday and he was called 'gangsta' by some white kids.......my friend is the most campest/drama queen you will ever meet!!
My aunty the other day wouldnt let my cousin go to his friends house (his friend being black) on the basis that they 'probably have guns' in the house?!! I asked her why she thought that 'oh you see it all the times on the TV dont you!'
Absolute madness!

And as for the women aspect....the women in the videos do it through choice in the hope of being famous/getting loads of money, how many of them do you see that actually make something of themselves?! very very little. These are the kinds of women they are rapping about., not us average 9-5 women.

I enjoy the music and tend not to take the lyrics in any deep meaning kind of way.
The same could be said about rock/metal.....singing about suicide/death/depression. Could you really imagine Dre singing about everyday things...no thats what makes hiphop what it is.

Answer 5

I agree - mainstream rap/hip hop is garbage right now. Personally, I love hip hop. It's those candy rappers and the cookie-cutter MC's along with the commercialized, bling-infested, money driven, half-naked video girl riddled BS impersonating hip hop that I can't stand. I definitely can't wait for that mess to die out. But as for real hip hop...

Interestingly enough, I find that most people who say they don't like rap/hip hop and/or complain about rap's many vices don't realize that they're only seeing one dimension of hip hop. Most of them base their opinions on the kind of rap that the mainstream media force feeds us day in and day out. I'm here to tell you that not all rap/hip hop emphasizes materialism, misogyny or is filled with profanity (i.e. - conscious rap, Christian rap, etc.). And contrary to popular belief, there are also many hip hop artists out there who have positive things to say, but unfortunately, you'll rarely (if ever) find any of them in the mainstream media. Greedy record companies and good ol' Corporate America saw that the more controversial aspects of the music (violence, misogyny, money, etc.) resulted in record sales, so they took it and ran with it, shoving it in our faces and filling our ears with it every chance they get. So what do they do next? They condition the masses and flood the market with whatever "trend du jour" makes them the most money as opposed to actual talent, variety and substance. So all in all, there's still some good, quality hip hop out there for those that bother to look for it, but you definitely won't find it in the mainstream.

Answer 6

I think songs like "candy shop" by 50 cent are really quite pointless (but I always end up singing along to them)

I think inspirational artists like tupac are amazing. I also really like The Game - Hate it or Love it was good.

Answer 7

Stop looking at it. No put a gun to your head and force you to watch those videos. All you have to do is just turn to television station and look at something else. I'm not hating i'm simple saying don't watch it point taken. There's nothing you can do or say to make it stop.

Answer 8

i feel the same way. i am sick of it, however, its what sells so rappers are gonna continue to make records that sell. its a male dominated industry so i can do nothing to change it. but i do choose NOT to watch BET anymore because of it. Its just gross.

Answer 9

i can listen to tupac but thats about all when it comes to rap etc.
he is at least talking about his life so what he says is true.

Answer 10

What'choo be talkin' 'bout, Willis???