I got some ammo for @Matt504: Yung Berg saying Hip Hop influenced him to want to sell Crack

[High Art]

Maybe you're misreading what I wrote here, I'm not suggesting that I listened to Young Thug's music and said to myself, "this is who I want to be like"

I think many people have a really shallow understanding of how influence works in practice, even after witnessing Trump become the leader of this nation. Even after all the threads here on the coli of people believing that once winter came, vaccinated people would start to die off in large numbers. These weren't theories being advanced by 10 year olds, it was adults.

Many people literally walked into unnecessary graves because despite having comorbidities, they were influenced to believe that the mrna vaccines would surely kill them. It's easy to call those people dumb or stupid but that misses the entire point.

Part of the reason why many of those issues arise and continue to do so is because we avoid dealing with those people that are being "influenced: and put the onus on the things that is "causing" people to act like that. Blaming music is more of the same: merely passing the buck when in fact, the person themselves who was "influenced" has no one but to blame but themselves. Taking a step back, in many ways, it is just really a way of escaping accountability. Why blame oneself when they can blame something else?

"The ramblings of a failed businessman turned TV reality star is the reason why I rioted at the capitol and became racist, not because I'm an insufferable and irredeemable idiot". I mean really. It really is the avoidance of accountability on a grander scale.

 

[Matt504]

Part of the reason why many of those issues arise and continue to do so is because we avoid dealing with those people that are being "influenced: and put the onus on the things that is "causing" people to act like that. Blaming music is more of the same: merely passing the buck when in fact, the person themselves who was "influenced" has no one but to blame but themselves. Taking a step back, in many ways, it is just really a way of escaping accountability. Why blame oneself when they can blame something else?

"The ramblings of a failed businessman turned TV reality star is the reason why I rioted at the capitol and became racist, not because I'm an insufferable and irredeemable idiot". I mean really. It really is the avoidance of accountability on a grander scale.

it almost seems like you don't but the idea that people can be influenced at all, that's it's just a way people dodge accountability. Maybe you're onto something here.

 

[High Art]

it almost seems like you don't but the idea that people can be influenced at all, that's it's just a way people dodge accountability. Maybe you're onto something here.

As one would say there are levels to this. At a certain point, especially when those that are influenced are in the minority, or even more so, when it is a minority within a minority, it becomes an excuse rather than an actual explanation of something, even more so, when trying to apply such as a means of causation to a correlation. Even more so when speaking of full grown folk.

My original point stands. We spend too much time looking at the thing "causing" the influence than the people "influenced", which is a problem.

 

[Positive Poster]

I grew up in and used to breathe hip hop, y’all don’t understand

Slowly started limiting it and for the last two years I haven’t voluntarily played a single song

It’s poison and I’m glad more people are waking up to the fact and listening to other genres

The murder culture itself will surely also reduce when the lifestyle is looked down upon instead of glorified. I know it’s more complex than this but every step helps

Most of the kingpins we glorify were just being used to poison our people by other cultures who wanted to make money off of work but not sell to their own kind

Forget all that, the music and messaging itself is just trash all round

 

[ShaneTheRogue]

I was a Young Thug fan and I was influenced, in thought and speech more than action but influenced no less and I was a grown ass man at the time. During this same period, a dear family member who was completely infatuated with the scene and culture coming out of Chicago decided he should join a gang and started daily carrying a 40 (with no damn magazine in it). This was a kid who was an absolute beast on the football field, had a full-ride scholarship to college out of state but couldn't handle being independent in a place where he had no family, got put on academic probation and eventually dropped out.

He was at an apartment complex of some kid he went to high school with here in Houston when someone ran in, shot him, the friend and the friend's girlfriend. Triple homicide and some of the last memories I have with him is us walking around an apartment complex singing the lyrics to Chief Keef's "Colors". A song that speaks to shooting unsuspecting Black people in their vehicle while stopped at a red light.



I was rarely sober doing those times. We smoked weed literally every day, a drug that alters perception of reality and I was out of touch with reality to some degree, I think everyone in that community was because we were all doing the same things. As intoxicating as the drugs were, the music was as well. While I wasn't in the streets to the degree some of my peers were, I had no real fear of consequence of being in environments and situations where we would all go to jail if police ran down on us. I'm not that person, I wasn't raised to be that way, I always had a very healthy fear of consequences growing up but sinking into an environment where nothing seems to matter, things eventually begin to matter less and less.

I'm not suggesting that listening to some songs changed the trajectory of his life, but the music makes a very shytty lifestyle seem very alluring. It serves as a template for taking dirt and shaping it into pottery that you can then sell for money. It cheapens the value of Black life specifically because the songs literally celebrate the death of Black people. There's no way to consume music over and over about killing nikkas and not subconsciously accept that, that is an acceptable fate for Black people. We don't consume movies in the same way or frequency as we do with music. We're not passively watching movies the way with passively listen to music, allowing the production value to be a vehicle for obscene lyrics to enter our subconscious minds.

I'm not here to defend my position about this music or this culture and the more I think about it, it's laughable that anyone would have to given the state of the culture and our communities. We can't continue to intentionally normalize Black death and also want it to stop, at least there's no room in my mind to hold both of those ideas. There's no room in my mind to know that the leading cause of death for Black males between the ages of 1-44 is homicide and be fine with "enjoying" music that celebrates and promotes Black death.

I'm sorry to hear about your family member. May they rest in peace. I guest this goes to show how our experiences shape our opinions.

My brother spent his most of his adult life in prison, and currently is serving time now. We have different moms and he grew up in the city. He told me how his uncle's and cousins on his mom side taught him about gang culture at a young age. It was family that led him to the path he walked.

I honestly think, if all else was equal that if he grew up in the small town I was raised in his life would be a 180. Considering he's more naturally gifted than me.

I can see why you feel the way you do however. I don't deny some some people are directly influenced by the content directly. But ultimately, It's the toxic aspects of the culture that creates that content to begin with.

And although it may not always be the intention, I feel like when Black people are murdered by gun violence and people cite the music as the primary reason I feel like it trivializes the situation. My brother was influenced by people directly more so than the music.

If gangbangers, jackboys, and similar criminals were looked at like weirdos, crazies, or lames they could still make the same music but have less influence. I believe it's more nessacary to uplift and reward people that contribute positity to the culture. It's a losing battle to try to fight against crime music but not crime culture.

 

[UpAndComing]

Ja Morant is the next victim

 

[Double Burger With Cheese]

I was a Young Thug fan and I was influenced, in thought and speech more than action but influenced no less and I was a grown ass man at the time. During this same period, a dear family member who was completely infatuated with the scene and culture coming out of Chicago decided he should join a gang and started daily carrying a 40 (with no damn magazine in it). This was a kid who was an absolute beast on the football field, had a full-ride scholarship to college out of state but couldn't handle being independent in a place where he had no family, got put on academic probation and eventually dropped out.

He was at an apartment complex of some kid he went to high school with here in Houston when someone ran in, shot him, the friend and the friend's girlfriend. Triple homicide and some of the last memories I have with him is us walking around an apartment complex singing the lyrics to Chief Keef's "Colors". A song that speaks to shooting unsuspecting Black people in their vehicle while stopped at a red light.



I was rarely sober doing those times. We smoked weed literally every day, a drug that alters perception of reality and I was out of touch with reality to some degree, I think everyone in that community was because we were all doing the same things. As intoxicating as the drugs were, the music was as well. While I wasn't in the streets to the degree some of my peers were, I had no real fear of consequence of being in environments and situations where we would all go to jail if police ran down on us. I'm not that person, I wasn't raised to be that way, I always had a very healthy fear of consequences growing up but sinking into an environment where nothing seems to matter, things eventually begin to matter less and less.

I'm not suggesting that listening to some songs changed the trajectory of his life, but the music makes a very shytty lifestyle seem very alluring. It serves as a template for taking dirt and shaping it into pottery that you can then sell for money. It cheapens the value of Black life specifically because the songs literally celebrate the death of Black people. There's no way to consume music over and over about killing nikkas and not subconsciously accept that, that is an acceptable fate for Black people. We don't consume movies in the same way or frequency as we do with music. We're not passively watching movies the way with passively listen to music, allowing the production value to be a vehicle for obscene lyrics to enter our subconscious minds.

I'm not here to defend my position about this music or this culture and the more I think about it, it's laughable that anyone would have to given the state of the culture and our communities. We can't continue to intentionally normalize Black death and also want it to stop, at least there's no room in my mind to hold both of those ideas. There's no room in my mind to know that the leading cause of death for Black males between the ages of 1-44 is homicide and be fine with "enjoying" music that celebrates and promotes Black death.

Good God you sound like such a scary straight edge lame ass nikka