She probably would sing about something else.

Hip Hop was created from the inner city as a reflection of their chaos. If there was no chaos, there would likely be no hip hop or it would sound completely different.

Did you read the article?

Well that's the thing, they don't know who they want help from.

"Cry for help" is more indicating that they are showing themselves as damaged people. I'm not advocating that someone needs to help them, on the contrary, I think that's the problem...there have been too many handouts rather than opportunities.

@BlackoutNJ ok

I am not one who ever subscribed to the idea that bad behavior is a cry for help. This idea is generally called upon when minor children - teenagers get out of line. Its a tacit "excuse" for bad conduct.
I think of the "hip-hop" culture shares a common dynamic with prostitution. It is grotesque behavior yet facilitated by everyone who buys the product. Age, Sex, Race notwithstanding. Drug trafficking the same way. Literally every person who keeps a little stash of weed around is guilty of facilitating an industry that literally leaves dead bodies strewn over the landscape.
Here's the thing - you have "Johns" willing to pay for sex - "recreational drug users" willing to pay for a legally prohibited "high" and a consuming public willing to pay to see and hear the most grotesque things as a form of entertainment.
Which came first - the chicken or the egg...if people stop buying the purveyors of those things would go away. Alas it will never happen human nature being prone to physical, intellectual, moral laziness - such as it is.
Going under the belief that bad conduct is a "cry for help" teaches a bad lesson - that lesson is that "my conduct is excusable - I can't be held responsible for it. So I'll keep on doing it until someone stops me".

@iThink things can change. Swing isn't mainstream but it was in the early 1900s. Same for jazz. Hip hop is relatively young and it could potentially take a backseat to a future trend or genre.

@BlackoutNJ

The main problem with hip-hop as I see it is NOT necessarily the music and lyrics themselves...well, some lyrics are reprehensible but...
No, the main problem is that it perpetuates the myth of Black Helplessness and Victimhood. If a person "loves" hip-hop then its a fair assumption that that person sees Blacks as helpless, hapless victims of the mythical "systemic racism".
One of the biggest if not THE biggest contributor to Blacks sense of mal-treatment is that Black American Culture so jealously embraces the whole narrative of victimization at the hands of "Whitey" "The Man" "The System" all of which was true a long long time ago.
The only thing to do now, if Blacks sincerely wish to find success is to participate fully as Americans first and foremost. Stop separating themselves from "non-Black" America. That is so old school and passe'.
Get serious about education and training. Get gainful employment. Get married BEFORE having babies. Move out of the 'hood - at least mentally do so. Read or watch videos of great men like Thomas Sowell, Dr Ben Carson, etc. Stop worshiping in the church of Black Liberation Theology. Take charge of your own lives and destiny. Shun the politicians who promise to take care of you. You can do that for yourself...
These are the keys to success - think how good it'll feel when you know that you got where you are by your own hard work. Invest yourself in yourself. It'll make a man out of ya.

@iThink I completely agree with you. The victim mindset and identifying as "African American" is a problem. I'm not African American, I'm American.

I've even heard successful black people talk about "The Man" and all this other nonsense like it matters. Who cares if someone doesn't like you? All that matters is if they are trying to impede you, which they are likely not. What is impeding us is bad mindset, bad liberal policies and a poisonous culture that thinks being a victim is being black. I absolutely hate it. If I had that mindset, I wouldn't be where I am today. I've been homeless multiple times, lived check to check and had a child out of wedlock yet I'm doing just fine. It wasn't white people holding me back, matter of fact, some of the people that helped me were white. There are good people in every race and racial identity FIRST is what is holding us back.

@Stinkybob I agree. I would like to live in a country that didn't put us in racial groups.

@Stinkybob The decrease belief in organized religion and the increased adaptation of ideology (Marxism, black Hebrew isrealites, hoteps). Also the growth of media and social media.

@BlackoutNJ
Humanism has replaced Spiritualism. Mankind no longer believes in anything greater than himself. Just as men are flawed and mortal so too are all of his institutions. Even it his greatest representations of esteem - politics, education, philosophical and religious inquiry, technology...mankind remains profoundly venial, vain, selfish.

Perfection, immortality can NOT be found in the material universe. We seek, we hope, we have faith that it exists supernaturally - in the ether - in God. This is called Faith.
"Faith is the belief in things unseen - the Hope for things to come"

Without belief (Faith) in a Higher order of Power, beyond our ability to comprehend, mankind is doomed and sooner than later will be reduced to mere dust blowing in the wind. For without a soul - without God we are in fact nothing more nor less than a temporal, spacial bunch of parts that have in the end no value.

@Stinkybob Social media is definitely an echo chamber and you're able to build whatever echo you want to listen to. The algorithm makes it possible for it to happen.

Social media is not a reflection of the greater society, most people are middle of the road. Less than 20% of the American public are on Twitter.

I believe in the statements of MLK, we judge each other by our character but if MLK was alive, they would say that he's a Republican Conservative and he's a coon.

@iThink I'm personally trying to rediscover my faith but I have fully accepted personal responsibility.

@Stinkybob If my memory suits me, even Malcolm X backed off his earlier statements when he was with the Nation of Islam.

MLK held the higher ground, he used boycotts and march's to prove a point. They took a beating to show the rest of America what was going on. Rioting causes the opposite effect. You need sympathy to garner change. BLM going out and shouting down people, accusing people and starting riots, the American public is starting to turn on this seemingly good movement. People are more aware of marxism today than years ago.

This is the new segregation movement. People forget, the old motto was "Separate but equal" and that's what they are asking for today. "Give people of color their own space"...that's segregation. That's not freedom.

@BlackoutNJ having faith does not necessarily mean that a person has to join a church IMHO. I profoundly believe in God - but I do not belong nor attend church services.

Just so you know, I'm the author of the article.

It's a tough question to answer. If people stopped listening to it, then there would be no demand for it, so record labels would stop supplying it. However, if economics and social relationships within families improved, this would reduce the supply.

I want to make clear, this is not me advocating for us to give handouts to the poor as this is part of the reason they are in the same situation. What I would advocate for is increasing opportunity within certain neighborhoods. Whether it's tax incentives for new businesses to start up in these areas or something else.

The riots going on is a net negative to this objective right now. Why invest in a community that could up and destroy it in a day if one incident happens? I don't blame people for leaving these communities that already had limited resources.

@BlackoutNJ "However, if economics and social relationships within families improved, this would reduce the supply."

I think that hits the nail on the head. Improving economic opportunity is necessary, but changing the cultural view of the family is critical.

Again, good article.

@coalburned Thank you