The Negative Culture of Contemporary Music

In today’s modern Hip-Hop, it has become commodified and evolved into an inappropriate type of culture. Hip hop has more of a focus on negative messages rather than positive influence. Teenagers are receiving severe consequences for the negative actions they want to pursue since they hear it in their favorite artists’ songs. The lyrics can have severe impacts on today’s youth by emphasizing drug/alcohol abuse, degrading women with vulgar lyrics. The millennial generation and younger have become desensitized to the dangers involved with the vulgarity of today’s music. Hip-Hop artist have talked about doing lean, and Xanax and their impressional audience have become addicted to the same thing. Hip-Hop is the most prominent amongst other music types out there. Rappers know the amount of influence their music can have and use that power in a cynical way instead of using it to the youth.

Hip-Hop music in this era, portrays alcohol/drug abuse in almost every song which can affect the youth negatively. In the golden era of Hip Hop, artists such as Tupac would sing poetic styled songs about his mom and rap about standing strong in adverse circumstances. Today however, Hip Hop artist talk consistently about Xanax (Anti-Anxiety Supplement), and “lean” (A liquified drug with characteristics of heroine) and how cool it as well as other type of drugs. Since the majority of artist have younger and impressionable audiences, the youth are more likely to do the same things that their idols do. Lil Pump is a new artist who embellishes the ideals of phrases like, “Im off a Molly, Im off a bean” and I at some point I chanted the same thing. The aura that an artist can deliver is hypnotic and hard to escape the temptation of raunchy behavior.

Hip-hop is not only pressuring its listeners to do drugs but also it is not as intelligent and lyrical as it use to be in the nineties . Artist of that era had more expression and uniqueness that attracted attention from leading figures. Old school Hip-Hop puts more prominence on lyricism. NWA, a rap group which did have a fair share of absurd lyrics could make music impactful when they needed to. Hip-Hop is supposed to be a way to express oneself like poetry not express negative messages to the youth.