DMC On Violence In Hip-Hop: 'Something Has To Give'

[ash trey]

I mean I'll be hypocite to say that gangsta rap is wack because i love Dre,Snoop,pac,Ice Cube etc.And somehow I wouldn't think of or envision myself carrying guns, degrading women or doing drugs. So to me it's entertainment but I also see the other side to it where little kids are influenced by negative music.so I don't know the best solution to the violence problem. Better censorship perhaps?

Its kinda funny cos Im listening to Dr.Dres "A n***a wit a gun" right now lol.

Edited April 15, 2006 by ash trey

[bigted]

Yeah I agree with that, that's what it comes down to who I like, if an artist is a great songwriter and could flow real well I'll listen to them, that's why I like Ice Cube more than 50 Cent, Ice Cube's much more talented but they both have violent elements in their music, I like some gangsta rap but I like listening to conscious rap artists more...

Edited April 15, 2006 by bigted

[Turntable]

@ Ash Trey: The kids that get influenced by that sort of stuff have some issues anway, they need help anway. It aint normal, and its about the parents to see that. Thats not caus of the music, those kids have problems anway..

[mfuqua23]

Ice Cube was an educated gangsta tho, cuz I have his 'Amerikkka's Most Wanted' and the lyrics were hard edge, but very well put together.

And how many people's opinions would change knowing Will Smith said on "And You Don't Stop"(30 years of Hip Hop), "That's how everybody felt. You couldn't drive two blocks in a nice car without being stopped." [he was referring to NWA's records] I remember one guy said that NWA was closer to the attitude of the Black Panthers than Public Enemy. There's nothing wrong with not liking NWA, or Ice T, or Ice Cube, or whoever. But each of them have some type of milestone big and/or small that did something for Hip Hop. It just may be that now, people take some of those milestones too far.

[bigted]

Well 50 Cent has some intelligent songs too, don't be fooled by what you hear on the radio(even though a lot of those songs ain't really violent either if you think about it, they're just dance songs), he's not as dumb as people make him out to be, remember Will said when he won the AMA award he considers him his friend and that he's not referring him on "Lost and Found", he's referring to those who imitate what people like him do instead of being themselves, that's who he considers "Lost", in other words a rich kid in the suburbs who tries acting like a studio gangsta is what Big Will is referring to, Mary J. Blidge also said in a recent interview that she considers 50 intelligent and askshim for advice, I liked some of his songs on his "Get Rich Or Die Tryin" album like "Many Men"and "I Gotta Make It To Heaven", these are the type of songs that describe the struggles of the streetlife not quite as well as Ice Cube does but at least he tried there, lol, if he made more songs like that and spent less times criticising half the rap industry maybe I'd like him more, I understand though it's an image to sell his albums, now of course he ain't on the same level as Ice Cube but like Ice Cube he don't rap about violence on all of his songs, in fact what rapper makes all songs about violence? I can't really think of one, that'd be a really shallow artist that nobody'd listen to, probably some of those kids that post their songs on myspace, lol, fans look for versatility in their music and don't want to hear an album with everything sounding the same, if you don't like 50 Cent so much just don't buy any of his music and support who do like and don't spend so much time dissin' him, let him live damn it, I don't like him much either but you don't see me making a million posts dissin' him, I rather talk about LL Cool J and KRS-ONE instead....

Edited April 15, 2006 by bigted

[ash trey]

Yeah Turntable i see what your saying! Musics influence on a kid depends on how the kids are raised, their situation with bullies, mental illnesses etc.

[Turntable]

@ Ted: Thats why I feel Ja Rule.. Next to his ruff style he hase some very deep stuff, and he can realy show his emotions in his voice..

You dont allways have to put your thoughts in it, just make it sound ok with the rhymes and the flow. Caus thats waht music is about to me, to entertain, and to be deep sometimes.. But it doesnt allways have to be..

@ Ash Trey: Exactly.

Edited April 15, 2006 by Turntable

[Trey]

I thought what DMC said was pretty true.

I mean, if violence wasn't in music, none of this killing artists and stuff would happen. Of course, there's always the video games and the movies that premote violence. So you don't know if Proof or Jam Master Jay would have died if violence wasn't it music and all that. I just hope that people like LL, Ice Cube, Will, and all the other 'worthy' artists won't be next in these events of death. Tupac was gunned down, the dude who shot him went to jail or prison, I'm not sure which. If 50 Cent got shot in the head, I bet you there'd me more hype then if LL Cool J got shot. Violence is taking over the industry, and more famous folks are dying!

Why they gone just blame the music, movies, and video games. I'm not saying I don't like violent movies, but I don't like slasher flicks, they just very bloody. I like violent video games, because for one, they the only games out there. :lolsign:

Edited April 15, 2006 by Trey

[WesSyde]

i find it funny how Ted always conforms his opinion to what others think.

[bigted]

You mean to tell me that rappers are the only celebrities that get shot, murdered? Violence happens anyway no matter what the state of rap is, I could walk down the street and get shot... Anyway, it's a supply and demand thing with the rap industry, if people want to hear more violent songs they're gonna get them but if they want a change then a change'll happen, obviously there's not enough who want to see a change, if you want to see a change just choose carefully what you buy is basically what I'm saying, I respect all types of hip-hop/rap myself if the artists are being creative with it, there's just not enough creativity period in my view, Nick Cannon is not as funny as Fresh Prince and 50 Cent is not as street smart as Ice Cube quite frankly so it's like I'm not like I'm gonna run out of my way to buy their albums, the rap game as a whole is getting tired out to me, btw I found a part of an interview where KRS talks about how all types of emotions are needed in hip-hop, it's up to the radio to play all of them but if fans are really tired of the way radio format is they should turn off the radio and play their CDs they like and if enough people do that radio stations'll change their format if they want higher ratings, supply and demand, remember that:

"On Creative Writing

AllHip-Hop.com: Would you say that all lyrics, I don’t care if its 50 Cent, Nas, Mobb Deep; if their lyrics set up a story it should be considered a form of creative writing?

KRS ONE: Yes.

AllHip-Hop.com: Regardless… if it’s derogatory?

KRS ONE: Yes. KRS ONE: Yes, yes, yes, yes. All writing is good writing, all of it. We need balance.The issue is the program director who gets, or music director, or editor of a publication, or video programmer who gets a barrage of Hip-Hop material, or should I say they get a barrage of rap music. Some is conscious, some gangster, some comedy, some sex, some this that…they get all of it. They pick out of a large variety of music to play, they pick the most thugged out thing they can find and that’s what we hear all day on the radio. So the issue is not really with Hip-Hop and its writers. We should write about everything. But our children don’t need to hear certain thoughts at 9am in the morning while they are trying to get ready to go to school, or at 9 at night when you’re trying to wash them up to go bed. Hip-Hop should be more family-orientated being that most Hip-Hoppas are family people. The nonsense you see on television is a joke of course. The majority of people who say “yo! I grew up in Hip-Hop, that’s my culture, that’s what I grew up in.” We have children now, we’re married now, we have mortgages, car payments, cell bills. We got things to do. We’re not standing on the corner like the video depicts. So I say more of us have to speak up.

Post Your Feedback.

[WesSyde]

You mean to tell me that rappers are the only celebrities that get shot, murdered?

no, i don't think i implied that at all

i agree with all of what KRS said except that all writing is good writing. i think some of it is crap and some of the crap they play on BET harldy takes any brain cells to write

my comment in my post was because you used to hate 50 cent and now you say 50 has intelligent songs and that his songs aren't really that violent. i've seen you change your opinion on other topics too.

[Trey]

You mean to tell me that rappers are the only celebrities that get shot, murdered?

Nah, man. I was just making a point.

I never really liked 50 Cent, he just ain't my style and his songs ain't that good either. G-Unit will die down someday, and when it does, we'll be here to see it.

But I'm afraid there will always be violence in music and we can't really do anything about it.

What KRS said was pretty much all true. The only show I watch on BET, is '106 & Park' and even then I don't watch that very much.

Edited April 16, 2006 by Trey

[mfuqua23]

No violence in music, I'm surprise bigted, that you haven't brought to point about that KRS One "Criminal Minded" cover. The Teacha, Mr. Intelligent on all that is Hip Hop, is holding some type of sub-machine gun, is he not?

[bigted]

Well actually 50 Cent brought that point up when critics were protesting him holding a gun on the "Get Rich Or Die Tryin" posters for his movie he said that KRS' "Criminal Minded" also had a gun on the cover

"And the billboards?

50: And as far as the billboard is concerned, I feel like their standard is based on music as an art form and not based on any other form of entertainment. And I mean, there hasn't been an album released with a gun or any other weapon on the cover of it since 1987, KRS-One, "Criminal Minded," and for having a piece of glass that was broken and a holster on their minds, they said I was supporting gun culture in "Get Rich or Die Tryin,'" because the different media outlets promoted the fact that I've actually experienced being shot nine times. I create my own name. The reason why they consider me more aggressive than the people they’ve seen in the past… there are people with similar experiences brought up in similar environments. They just try to fit in so much that once they start trying to fit in with that crowd, they start making a politically correct answer as opposed to what they actually think. With the billboard, there are standards placed on music as an art form that aren’t placed on any other forms of entertainment. What I mean by that is that you haven’t seen a gun or weapon on any cover of a CD since probably 1997 by any CD distributed by a major company. But if we walk into our local blockbuster, you’d find guns, knives, anything else you could find as a marketing tool. They’re advertising the film with these images and it’s exciting because death is a large form of entertainment, probably the largest. Everyone at this table figures they’re going to die. It’s our fate. So watching death in different ways is entertaining for us, whether it’s a high speed chase and a guy grabs a helicopter and flies away. We know the reality of it is that he wouldn’t be physically able to hold onto that helicopter and fall to his death. But it’s entertaining to watch. 2Pac and Biggie, I make references to them because they wrote so much about that in their music. Biggie’s themes in his albums are about readying to die, life after death, born again. 2Pac wrote about life threatening situations after being shot so often, it made it seem like he was obsessed with it. He even wrote music and material that he left behind after he died that made reference to him dying already. I think the significance in that ties back to us knowing that that’s our fate. For me, I wrote so much aggressive music ahead of releasing “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” that I was trying to have a good time, so I went an opposite direction. When I did “Go Shorty it’s your birthday,” everyday it’s someone’s birthday, everyday someone’s born. It’s a celebration of life so that’s why that record has been the biggest record released to date."

Hell even "Mr. Clean Of The Rap Game" Will Smith was flashing heat on the "Bad Boys II" poster with Martin Lawrence, lol, 50's not the only one in hip-hop to have a gun on the cover so if they bring him down for it they'll have to bring down everybody else including KRS and Ice Cube, people can't judge a book by it's cover is what needs to be learned here, not everything these artists express is violence, if critics watch the movies and listen to the albums they'd see that, if violence is taken out of all entertainment there'll still be violence anyway, btw I wasn't referring to you Wes in that earlier post with that question, that was directed from what Trey was saying, and I don't like 50 Cent's music anymore than I did in my earlier posts but now I'm just saying that he's not as bad as people make him out to be, he could have some positive messages in some of his songs but he just can't do it as well as DMX, Ice Cube, or even Ja Rule for that matter so that's why I don't like him that much, instead of being critical of him so much I try to focus on what I do like....

Edited April 16, 2006 by bigted

[WesSyde]

btw I wasn't referring to you Wes in that earlier post with that question, that was directed from what Trey was saying, and I don't like 50 Cent's music anymore than I did in my earlier posts but now I'm just saying that he's not as bad as people make him out to be, he could have some positive messages in some of his songs but he just can't do it as well as DMX, Ice Cube, or even Ja Rule for that matter so that's why I don't like him that much, instead of being critical of him so much I try to focus on what I do like....

ok, my bad. if you want to say that the violence, drugs, and sex in 50's music isn't more than NWA or Ice-T i still have to disagree. NWA's music was revolutionary. there was a message, a point to be learned from it and it was directed towards someone! 50's music is marketed towards 12 year olds, in addition to that i don't think he has the skills that those old school rappers had, nor do i think he's doing his music for a purpose. i think he's doing it all for the fortune and fame!