Tupac or Biggie

[BleedBurgundy]

Originally Posted by Angry

Write a poem about your struggles and see how many albums it sells. Your distatste should not be about rap it should be for the society and lifestyle that caused it. Nobody wants to be a thug and promote that lifestyle, but they can only speak of their own experiences. America gets off on tragedy because the majority of the populatation experiences and embraces it because it's all the know.

America embraces it because it's what's sold to them and we're largely a nation of sheep. Add that to the fact that there's not many better (harmless) ways for suburban white kids to piss off their parents, and it's a pretty good recipe to sell albums. Completely agree with your point about distaste for the society that produces the conditions these clowns are talking about, but let's not pretend this is high art. I don't think any form of media (music, games, etc) is going to get someone to pull a trigger they weren't already going to pull, my argument is that people glorify the music as if it has a heightened significance.

[KLHJ2]

Originally Posted by BleedBurgundy

America embraces it because it's what's sold to them and we're largely a nation of sheep. Add that to the fact that there's not many better (harmless) ways for suburban white kids to piss off their parents, and it's a pretty good recipe to sell albums. Completely agree with your point about distaste for the society that produces the conditions these clowns are talking about, but let's not pretend this is high art. I don't think any form of media (music, games, etc) is going to get someone to pull a trigger they weren't already going to pull, my argument is that people glorify the music as if it has a heightened significance.

I don't like comparing people to sheep but since you want to go that route yes, society treats the poverty stricken level of society like sheep.

Ask yourself why urban kids want to piss their parents off. Perhaps they were wronged in one way shape or form? IDK maybe a father left when they were a child or was too drunk to take interest in his chils life, or perhaps their mother was addicted to drugs and didn't provide the proper level of attention necessary to nourish a child.

Art is a depiction of life through the narrators eyes whether it be through a visual or audio description. Just because you do not think that it is high art doesn't mean that it isn't. Again we go back to opinion and what others can relate to and or crave.

You're right, someone who is going to act on a negative impulse is going to do so regardless of influence. That is why your argument that "such behavior is glorified with a heightened significance" holds no water.

Everyday people do things that they are not proud of and have the guts to tell the tale. Some people use those examples as motivation, as we agreed, and were going to act on their own impulses anyway and others are just intrigued and informed by it.