OPINION: Leaders listen up! Gangsta rap made me do it
Community Contributor | 2-16-2010 | Comments |
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By mdEUCE from Hub City Livin'As I sit here listening to the play list, which highlights rap music that I like, I can't help but wonder why the older generation denounces the art form and the youth who listen to it. Generational discrimination, if you will, is a poison amongst my people and it is quite sickening; I cannot count how many times I have heard an elder speak negatively of the youth and their affinity for rap music. Why is this? Is it the vulgarity? The obscenities? Why has this discrimination gone unchecked?
Rap music has been THE voice of my generation when there wasn't one. Who is willing to "air our dirty laundry" to millions and millions of fans around the entire globe? Rap artists, that's who. And why do they do it? Trust me, it isn't because they don't care.
It's because black leadership has screwed over the "have-nots" -- that's why. When the drugs and guns were being shipped into our communities, who was at the helm of leadership? Hundreds of millions of dollars have been sent into our communities from the federal government over the years and look what black leadership has done with it: The schools suck. Jobs are scarce at best. Blacks have been running Compton for about 40 years now and the quality of life is as poor as it's ever been. And some wonder why the youngsters gravitate towards a thug mentality.
Here is why: THE CONDITIONS IN THEIR COMMUNITY ARE POOR.
They see very little hope in the future and have very little, if any, confidence in the leaders. I hear the the Mayor of Compton talking about bringing back the Compton Police Department. He says the community needs law enforcement that comes from the community. I say, where was the Compton Police Department when the drugs and guns were air-shipped into Compton? Were they standing guard to make sure the shipments made it? Because it is quite obvious to me that they didn't do a damn thing to stop it.
My point is this: Black leadership should do themselves a favor and listen to some of the rap music that expresses the youth's frustration with the conditions of their communities. If they want to include the concerns of today's youth in their vision for the future, rap music is where they will find them spelled out.
The older generation have attempted to throw the babies out with the bath water; I always thought this was not to be done. They are scared of their own children and that is a shame.
We can argue to day's end over budgets, shady resolutions and contracts but we cant discuss voter apathy? We can't discuss the failing school systems? Our leaders are too scared of political backlash, I suppose, to speak out. When did it become preferable to put political ambitions ahead of speaking the truth? Maybe it's too hard to swallow that while many have sought political correctness, our community has deteriorated the way it has. I suppose it's easier to just blame the youth for the way they live and not really take ownership of failed leadership. In light of that... long live "gangsta rap" and the reality it expresses.
Tags: arts community compton mayor eric j. perrodin mdeuce music politics rap