Rap music and its violent progeny: America's culture of violence in context

Journal of Negro Education, The, Summer 2002 by Richardson, Jeanita W, Scott, Kim A

Violence in Music

Violence in music is not by any means limited to rap or gangsta rap. Folk and country music have contained references to murder, killing of police, and domestic violence for decades. Eric Clapton's popular song "I Shot The Sheriff" (1974) Woodie Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd" (1987) in which a police officer is killed; and, Johnny Cash's "Folson Prison Blues" (1968) that describes a murderer who kills someone just to see him die are a few examples of violent lyrical content. Yet despite the historical use of violent lyrics, country and folk artists are rarely blamed for escalating murder and domestic violence rates (Hershey-Webb, 1993).

White heavy metal musicians also have themes of violence in songs. For example, consider a stanza from Metallica's 1983 song entitled, "No Remorse":

Only the strong survive

No one to save the weaker race

We are ready to kill all comers

Like a loaded gun right at your face

Chorus:

War without end

No remorse, No repent

We don't care what it meant

Another day, Another death

Another sorrow, Another breath

No remorse, No repent

Heavy metal lyrics to "kill all comers" devoid of remorse are evaluated in different contexts than gangsta rap's "Cop Killer" lyrics by Ice T in the early 1990s. The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Communications suggested that the relationship between violent activity and heavy metal needed further study (Rose, 1991). Conversely, rap music is subject to a markedly different analytical approach. With as little researchbased data substantiating the relationship between listening and action as heavy metal there are calls for censorship of rap music-unlike any action taken against folk, country, heavy metal, or any other genre (Rose, 1991). One need only examine the transcripts of Congressional hearings to find evidence of the vilification of rap artists in isolation of other equally violent music forms (Hall, 1998; Mosley-Braun, 1994; Ogbar, 1999). Whether in the context of sociological studies or Congressional hearings, calls for censorship appear rooted in the belief that rap music poses a threat to mainstream society and requires containment, while its White counterpart (heavy metal music) warrants mere watchfulness. Before such negative pronouncements are categorically applied it is worthwhile to consider not only the influence of America's culture of violence on the creation of rap, but also the conflict between the values rhetorically stated versus the practices rewarded with fame and money.

Rap Music: An Overview

Depending upon the source, the roots of rap music can be traced back to ancient African cultures. Evidence of the predecessors of contemporary rap can be found in the artistic expressions of Bessie Smith's lyrical speech to the beat of music and in the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron's recordings of the 1970s. The contemporary art form labeled rap music is urban in origin with New York City as its epicenter, and provided political commentary on drugs, police brutality, sex, and material deprivation (Dyson, 1994).