One of my classmates pointed out the negative impact of such rappers as Tupac and Biggie due to their lyrics. I will not deny that some rap lyrics are explicitly violent, offensive, and may have a negative impact on some of its listeners. However, it is misguided to put all rap music in the same negative category. Like most things in life, some rap music is layered and multidimensional.
After reading “Who’s Afraid of Rap: Differential Reactions to Music Lyrics’” by Carrie Fried, I realized that other genres of music have lyrics that contain violence, yet rap is more scrutinized and a regular part of discourse of negative music impact.
Now to my classmates point, yes it is true that some of Tupac’s lyrics are violent, yet we must look at the context. His lyrics are harsh and violent because it mirrors the reality of his world “being born black in this white man’s world”-- lyric from, “White Man’z World”. However, just because the lyrics may be violent does not mean the message is violent. For instance let’s take his rap, “Violent” form his first album “2Pacalyspe”.
This is the tale of a young black male that refuses to be silent and will stand up against his oppressors even if it is the death of him. I have extracted various lyrics from Violent:
My words are weapons, and I'm steppin to the silent
Wakin up the masses, but you, claim that I'm violent
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They tried to say I had some dope in the back seat
But I'm a rap fiend, not a crack fiend
My homie panicked ("I'm out") he tried to run
(Freeze nigga!) I heard a bullet fire from the cop's gun
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Before I knew it, I was beatin the cop senseless
The other cop dropped his gun, he was defenseless
Full lyrics can be found here:
Tupac’s lyrics above speaks of how there are some police officers that abuse their power, brutalize, and falsely arrest people especially a black male. Tupac was defending himself and his friend. Consequently, the situation became chaotic. As our professor mentioned in class most things in life should be looked upon in layers, even rap music.
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