Hip hop has ruin the African American community
By Tron Griffin
I must admit that I am a huge fan of hip hop music. Growing up on the south side of Chicago in the 1980s and 1990s usually means you grew up loving 1990s r&b and hip hop music. For years, I have defended hip hop music as just music, but at some point I had to open my eyes, look at the violence surrounding and being promoted in hip hop, and admit the danger the music has caused the African American community.
The music is loved by millions for being raw and uncensored. Loved for speaking the truth about the harsh reality of growing up in high-crime low-income communities in America. Hip hop is also loved for raising awareness to police brutality and racism, but the music itself has also led to the murder of several African American rappers, but more importantly, has led to two generations of young African American men believing that violence and growing up in poverty is something to brag about like coming home from a war with a uniform full of medals.
Hip hop has probably contributed to more African American deaths than the Ku Klux Klan could dream of murdering. Young African American men are using hip hop lyrics to diss other African American men and rival gang members on social media. The so-called diss often leads to gun violence and homicides.
Defenders of hip hop often argue that violence exists in television and movies, but those are actors playing a character. They are not living that life or pretending to be living that life. Actors leave the danger on the set. Rappers on the other hand, often get caught illegally carrying guns like a business traveler carrying luggage.
The violence within the famous hip hop community is bad, but the worst part is the fact that so many young African American males not only embrace poverty, but have glorified it and the murders in their city as a badge of honor.
Now, I am not saying we should be ashamed of where we come from. What I am saying is that it is ignorant and immoral to brag about high murder rates, which is the case with many young African American males, especially on social media.
For some reason young African American males love to argue whose city is worse. Whose city looks the worst and is the most dangerous. Popular YouTube videos that showcase the worst neighborhoods in mostly African American communities are full of comments of people arguing whose city is the most dangerous.
For the commenters, living in a city with a high murder rate equals bragging rights. Those whose city is further down on the murder rate often argues that it can go down at anytime in the city and people are being murdered every day in their city like it is something to brag about.
There are even videos of African American males on YouTube bragging about the murders in their city. One African American male from Indianapolis even said, “We will get our murder rate up” like having a lower murder rate is a bad thing.
Even in my hometown of Chicago when a rare shooting happened in the ritzy Gold Coast community; there were many African American males on social media saying it could go down anywhere in the city. Other African American males were writing that it goes down every day in the Gold Coast, because to them having a ritzy area full of expensive stores, nice condos and penthouses are a huge embarrassment for the city’s street credibility and reputation. They are the Chicagoans that spend their day on social media painting the picture that Chicago is a city of slums and murders. The Gold Coast, Streeterville, River North, South Loop and Lake View areas of the city paint the wrong picture, which is part of the problem with the African American hip hop generation.
There is no denying that many African American fans of hip hop celebrate the wrong things. The things that most races are ashamed of have become what many African American male hip hop fans are the most proudest about their community.
We will not solve the problems in our communities until we address the celebration of poverty and murder. African American athletes like LeBron James, Colin Kaepernik and Steph Curry would have a stronger message if they would address the glorification of violence in hip hop.
Solving police brutality is honorable and the right thing to do, but we also must address the violence in hip hop and in our community. Black-on-black crime has surpassed a problem status to the point where we need to consider it an epidemic. Even during the worst pandemic in generations where whole cities have almost closed down; the violence in our community has reached record levels.
In Chicago, young African American males are doing drive-by shootings like the mailman who delivers mail. They are doing drive-by shootings daily and on a regular basis. The shootings have stretched in communities that I have never thought would be touched by such incidents. To be honest, too many African American males are out-of-control and far beyond help. We need our community leaders to push for tougher sentence guidelines, and take a harder stance on criminals who are causing the problems in our community. We need those community leaders to be honest with the role hip hop is playing in driving the violence.
The biggest problem is when we talk about hip hop there is always someone or a group of hip hop supporters stating how the music has made people like Jay-Z and Russell Simmons very successful or how so many artists used the music to get out of the hood, which is good for them and their family. I would point out that a few hundred success stories does not take away from the music being at the center of so many deaths, and inspiring millions of African Americans to value high crime rates and expensive clothes they cannot afford.
Hip hop has contributed to many African Americans believing their only way to make it outside of sports is through hip hop. It is that all or nothing approach that has ruined our community. The notion that I must make it big or I won’t make it at all is a huge problem in our community.
The lack of wanting and the willingness to work on attaining the in-between job or the regular 9 to 5 job is the biggest problem with many inner-city African American fans of hip hop.
For many African Americans, hip hop is their answer to being successful. Hip hop is their way of getting out of the hood. Hip hop is also their way of getting respect. So rather they make it or not, rappers use violence as their selling point. They do interviews and create social media videos talking about where they are from; the violence and the dangers of their neighborhood while at the same time calling other rappers weak, soft and the pword.
Rappers constantly talking about the violence in their neighborhood has led to many of the neighborhoods gaining somewhat of a following online. YouTube and other social media platforms are full of videos of fans driving to some of the roughest neighborhoods their favorite rappers have lived. The gangs in those areas post videos of the neighborhood while talking about the dangers of the area, which in some way says something about their toughness.
Don’t get me wrong, be proud of where you come from, but glorifying violence and bragging about poverty are two of the major issues that separate young African American males from other ethnicities in this country, which is a problem that we must address if we want better for the next generation.
