By MONTU MILLER – Guest Writer
Contemporary rappers such as Tyga, Lil Durk and 2 Chainz are often blamed for “ruining” rap music when, in fact, their craft is simply a reflection of modern society.
“Lil Wayne is destroying rap.” “Nicki Minaj isn’t hip-hop.” “Hip-hop is dead. What happened to rap?”
This is what is said every day about contemporary rappers and hip-hop.
Many people believe that popular rappers like Future, Waka Flocka Flame and Tyga are destroying rap or they are somehow not hip-hop artists.
Rap is simply a reflection of society, like all art forms. It was not rap that went wrong, it was society that turned in the direction of immorality, selfishness and materialism.
People choose to blame rap for the attitude and actions of children today, while in fact it is the state of society that is to blame.
It was not rap that made the traditional family unit crumble and fall apart. The deterioration of the family was simply a step to where we are in society today.
Without solid families, the next domino to fall was the individual, which was followed by the fall of the community and then ultimately, the larger society fell to its knees.
There was a time in very recent history when family mattered and was actually used to become better human beings, better community members and better citizens.
This was a time when parents were the teachers and they taught their children life lessons they could use when they entered the world on their own, not teaching these lessons to their own children but to their relatives’ children and the children of the community.
Adults were once living examples for children to emulate, which gave them real goals and aspirations.
During the glory days of family, rap also enjoyed a golden era. Rap reflected the love the community received from solid family units.
It was far from perfect during these times, there were still drugs, pimping, gangs and a variety of problems that plagued the community, but it survived because of families, not in spite of them.
Back in those days even the so-called “gangster” rappers had a message, unlike the rappers of today.
There have always been rappers that perpetuate a hedonistic life of drugs, money, cars, expensive clothes and women as sexual objects, but there were always more positive figures than negative ones, such as Public Enemy, KRS1 and A Tribe Called Quest.
It was a reflection of the family and community. It was mostly positive, but the negative also could not be ignored. It was good versus evil, but back then good was winning.
The answer is simple when it comes to what happened to rap, society happened. Today, young rappers write about what they know and have seen. Many of these artists come from not only broken families but many do not even know what a family is.
All they know is the drugs that flooded the streets of their communities. The drugs are used as an escape to forget about their current state or they chase the money generated by selling drugs. In the eyes of these children, money buys materials, which seemingly makes them better people with a higher status.
No one ever taught them material objects do not really make them happy, it’s nothing more than materialism.
So when people ask what happened to rap, it is the same thing that happened to the family unit, the individual, the community and society. It went from a state of relative stability to a state of self destruction. Rap will only start to improve when our society recovers.
