Money Crimes - aka dealing, scamming, stealing - keep up with the Jamal's and attract the females - same as it ever was
On the buy side - They want high end designer stuff. Like a Hermes Belt is like 5 bills. Not jeans, not a jacket, just the belt.
On the earn side - You got grown folks working at McDonald's.
The ones that steal won't work straight jobs. They want big money, fast and easy.
Violence Crimes - Boys been shooting each other since there were guns. Before guns it was knives. They shanking each other in London. That's testosterone, music, lack of a Good father, no economic opportunity. But that ain't really a Black issue, that's popping everywhere and in every culture. Societies have always had a problem with "young men".
The uptick? Stat wise, I don't know if it's an actual uptick compared to the 70s/80's/90s, or we hear about it more via social media. It might just be perception, as the world always been an evil place. I think it's much worse, but I watch a lot more news these days. And the news gets to me as well.
But in terms of motivation - online makes things a lot worse.
- Beefs develop online, that would not have developed in real life.
- Real Life beefs get amplifed online.
- There's a whole culture of "chiraq" and "ny state of mind" along with the music.
I could not imagine this type of thing coming up
www.reddit.com
https://www.reddit.com/r/NYStateOfMind/
www.reddit.com
Vice brought Chiraq to the general public in 2014. Not that Chicago ever been soft, but all the street stuff used to stay on the street.
Street rappers used to say stuff to other street rappers, and folks in the life, that if you was square, you wouldn't know about. There was always a hidden gossip level in hip hop and the street life, and those two didn't always cross paths.
Now we got Trap Geek and all these YT, Tiktok, and Chicago/NYC influencers that make the stuff, and if you listen to rap, the algorithm is gonna suggest all of this side drama and documentaries. The culture underneath Hip Hop is another thing to be dissected, analyzed, and monetized.
Places that are not the biggest of cities, are also getting on the map as well.
It probably is worse these days, and it's being made worse by the macro-factors of economics and racism, and the micro factors of poor parenting and cultural amplifiers.
there's no places where people particularly kids to congregate. After-school programs defunded, music defunded, malls shutting down.
