Is Hip Hop Responsible for the Wrongful Influences in Our Children?

There is indeed a concern within our communities regarding the influences of music from today's top artists around the globe. Hip Hop has a hold on it's followers that many consider too uplifting, too motivating and too realistic to shake. As a result, some parents are continuing to protest and ethically ban hip-hop as nothing more than "music with an attitude."

As Hip-hoppers continue to successfully rank among the charts, parents become more concerned about the grip that artists hold around their children's necks. If mere lyrics are able to hold such a capacity on influencing our children that is astonishing. But can we really blame rap artists for what they say and the fact that it's followed out by our children? All music contains its influencing elements, why is it that Hip hop is held accountable? Perhaps we should take sometime to fully examine the situation.

"I don't approve of my children listening to rap music," explained Louise, 48, from the Crisfield area of Maryland. "Rappers give a bad name to the coming up kids in this society. When I was young, we didn't listen to music like that. Look at these kids today! They don't have any respect for their elders. They walk around with their clothes hanging off of them. They don't respect their roots."

"Now they've got our kids wearing their pants sagging off their butts," complained George, 44, a resident in the District of Columbia. "I use to listen to a little rap music back in the day, but not that much today. It's just gotten out of hand. Back in the day rap music was more appreciated, I think. As a youth, I was able to find more positive influence in it than this nonsense today. Shake this, shake that, salt shaker this, back this up, man please!"

"Music is good these days, my favorite artists are Pastor Troy and Lil Wayne," Sara, 18, a student at George Mason University complimented. "Our parents dismiss rap music because they think we don't know how to act. But all of us are not like that. My little brother isn't even allowed to listen to rap music back at home. My parents say it's the devil and I can't even listen to it when I go back to visit."