Intro
When
I was an adolescent and teenager, I was not allowed to listen to ANY rap and
hip-hip albums in my house. If something
came on the radio, it was permitted as long as my father did not think that the
content of the song was inappropriate for me and my younger sister’s ears and
minds. It was the music of our time and
the majority of the other kids were listening to it. So, like most kids of an era, I wanted to
participate in teen-culture of my era.
It just happened to be that the majority of young people’s music of my
generation was the tactless, disrespectful, and violent gangster rap music. At 12 or 13 years of age (and before that), I
knew that the music my friends I were listening to was not appropriate for us
to be filling our minds with and they most likely knew it too. However, the awareness of the inappropriateness
was not enough to cause us to stop doing it, and I doubt that we were
interested in deep reflection regarding the detrimental effects this music
could have on us now and/or in the future.
My father would get extremely angry if he heard me listening to one of
my rap albums in my room. *My bedroom
door suddenly opens aggressively* (It’s
my father). “TURN THAT SH*T OFF!!,”
he’d yell. “You better not play that
music ever again in this house!” I
wasn’t going to argue with him like I would periodically argue with my
mother. He was a very daunting man and
the size of a bear. Still, I felt like
he was restricting me from being a kid.
I would ask myself, Why can’t I listen to this music like my friends
do? Why is he treating me like a baby
and humiliating me? I felt like he
was trying to create me into a Steve Urkel – the quintessential symbol of weirdness. I can remember experiencing premature
embarrassment and anxiety about the idea of my peers finding out that I was not
permitted to be listening to rap in my house.
I felt like my father only wanted me to listen to Marvin Gaye, Prince,
Earth Wind and Fire and people of his younger days. I did like that music because I was a very
talented musician as a kid and had an eclectic taste of music. I really didn’t mind not listening to rap
music but as a child I was not as powerful in my leadership qualities as the adult
Shawn; and to sit at the school lunch table in the 90’s-00’s with my friends
without being in-the-know about the rap-scene was ridiculous to me at the
time. When my male peers where asking,
“Yo, Shawn, you hear that new verse from Jadakiss?”, I didn’t want to be the
person to respond, “Uh…naw…but did you hear that new Luther Vandross and Diana
Ross?” (I love Luther’s and Diana’s
music by the way.) The idea of listening
to toxic rap music as a need became senseless to me at age 23 but at age
13 I thought I was supposed to identify with [gangster] rap music – even if
it was toxic, unhealthy, made no good sense, and had no congruency with my
family values – which it didn’t. It was not until approximately 44 street
fights later, being apprehended by the law, multiple school suspensions,
receiving and sending death threats, two surgeries from injuring myself due to
striking people and things, over 30 stitches from two separate incidents of
striking other things, poor decision making in multiple life domains, irreversible
bodily damage due to my anger and rage, that I realized I had to detach myself
from these belief systems I took from ‘the dominant [music] culture’. “The dominant culture can dismantle so many
people,” (Bilyeu, 2020) .
I kid you not, it was at age 23 that I finally understood my father’s
relentlessness and sometimes hostile demands for me to not play gangster rap
music in the house as a kid. I am
only speaking on my own experience as a kid and younger adult man, but had I
listened to my fathers demands to not listen to this music and my mother’s
encouragement for me to listen to my father, had I not been so addicted to peer approval – to avoid being
isolated and ostracized, I may have not created or attracted the unfavorable
experiences that I did as a younger person.
Theoretically, parents are heavily influential and impressionable in
their kids lives up UNTIL their teenage years.
When the teenage years arrive, the child becomes more influenced by
their peers. And yes, I am telling you
that though I naturally have an assertive personality and some anger issues
that predate my engagement of gangster rap music, gangster rap presented me
with a set of unhealthy belief systems and ideologies that helped aid in disturbing
parts of my life, exacerbating old problems, and birthing new problems. Rapper
Crooked-I is alleged to have said that he believes certain types of music
turned him into a “monster” when he was a child. It had an all-around negative impact in my
life. Many staunch rap and hip-hop fans argue
the idea that rap and hip-hop
does some good for the community as well. However:
“…when people
argue that hip-hop as a whole is ‘good’ – by cherry picking the rare
instances in which it does elevate the consciousness of our young people to
a higher level of consciousness [and] to a higher level of social
responsibility, I think that is the height of a disingenuous argument. It is akin to saying that crack cocaine is
good for you because it gives you energy.
Yes, it does give you energy but when you do a holistic analysis of the
impact of crack cocaine, the costs of smoking crack cocaine significantly
outweigh any marginal benefit from increased energy. [With much of rap music], You see the
promotion of misogyny, you see the promotion of violence, you see the promotion
of…aggression,” (Byrd, 2015) .
I
take accountability for choosing to accept the devilish gifts that gangster rap
offered, and I take accountability for, while a teenage and younger adult, not
adhering to the family values, principles, and morale of the familial home I
grew up in. Still, no child anywhere in
the world should be exposed [or habitually listening] to ANY form of gangster
rap and/or any form of toxic music that has messages such as “Kill each
other. Smoke weed. Go to jail.
Sex the women up,” (Umar Johnson, Ph. D.,
2020). “And this is what ‘we’ let
our children listen to,” (Umar Johnson, Ph. D., 2020). Toxic music, in some ways, is an integral
factor regarding how many people become “…infected with the historic disease
of cultural negligence,” (Ali, 1989) . Children should not be listening to inappropriate
music. PERIOD. ESPECIALLY if there is no quality adult of
genuine character around to process with them what they are hearing and listening
to. This is a setup for global disaster
– and we’ve seen it decade after decade since the late 1980’s.
Reflection & “#FACTS”
“Hip-hop is often described as a culture that started about 30 years ago; born of the need for urban young people to share their experiences and how they felt about them[selves],”
We
currently live in a time where multitudes of people either erroneously,
frivolously, or disingenuously trendily scream the word FACTS when they want to ascribe something as truth (even though
facts and truth are two different things).
Many of them have no idea what the facts actually are – or are not – because
the word itself has become a fashion statement.
But let me provide you with some facts that should cause you some serious reflection in regards to how you
supervise your child(ren’s) listening of music:
·
“…music does have the ability to aid
and disrupt in the stabilization of the human psyche,”
|
To me, this scientific finding is something my father and many others divinely knew. I have been to countless barbershops that have predominantly employed millennials and late generation x babies; and the music they allowed to be played around babies, is unedited gangster rap music. One particular occasion, I just got sick of it and said something to one of the barbers (in his late 40’s). When I informed him of the negative effects that this music can have on children, he did not seem interested in ‘facts’. He and others only seemed to be interested in playing the music they enjoyed – regardless of the inappropriateness for children. Then he said something to me along the lines of Well you’re the only person who thinks that way. With a heavy desire in my heart to punch him unconscious, I walked back to my seat because in some way I felt like he was right in some odd way. I do not notice many (and sometimes ANY) other people putting a barrier between gangster rap music and the psyche of children. I’m aware that there are millions of people out there who understand and agree with what I’m saying because I’ve had a lot of conversations with people agree with me in regards to this topic. I just don’t see a lot of this ‘thinking’ translating to ‘action’ in a way that protects the psyche of children. The psyche (mind, spirit and soul) is nothing we should be frivolously playing with. DISRUPTING the stabilization of psyche of anyone and anyTHING, is dangerously tampering with the life and wellbeing of the self and others. Or as Shahrazad Ali once stated: tampering with nature. I do not understand why people don’t get that. There should be a societal “…community where this is not allowed to happen to begin with,”
·
“... aggressive music can stimulate listeners on a
physiological level, increasing respiratory rate, blood pressure, and heart
rate, possibly leading to a more unstable psyche.”
|
A good deal of what I discussed in the previous section also applies here. One of the professional things I have prided myself on is that I do not force beliefs and ideas on people. Not solely because it is unethical but because, to me, it is commensurate of rapist behaviors and qualities – forcing something on a individual/group that they may/do not want. I really do not like being referred to as a therapist because if it spells ‘the rapist’ (SMH – good job to whoever gave us helpers this title *sarcastic clapping*). I don’t force my work, my books, my anything on people. I may be passionate in conversation but I am not going to try and submit you into something you don’t want or are not ready for. The reality is that people are much easier to teach and collaborate with when they use their own autonomy and make their own decision to invest in holistic health and wellbeing. With that said (and being a bit long winded), I am encouraging you to begin (or continue) to seriously research, reflect, and consider ALL of the potential impacting ways of how inappropriate music of any sort, can – will – and are play/playing a role in your family’s life (including yourself). Music can be a power element of society and it is a form of education. Many of the risky, aggressive, and unhealthy behaviors I saw and engaged in during my youth, I directly and indirectly learned from toxic hip hop and pop culture. And since music is a form of education, we must understand that “…one of the major instruments for putting people out of their minds is education. It is often the very basis for making people ignorant,” (Wilson, 1991). What global and universal healthiness can come from educating the psyche into instability and ignorance?
·
“Music, particularly among adolescents, is a very powerful
motivator of behavior…I don’t think that we should underestimate the power of
music because music touches the limbic system…the emotional system of our
brain – which actually though slower than other parts can overwhelm ALL of
the other parts,” (Michael Rich, MD, MPH, 2008).
|
I should add that some
of Kwong and Levitin’s separate literature acknowledges music’s ability to
impact the brain; particularly the hippocampus.
“The hippocampus is the area of the brain that is responsible for emotion
regulation, memory retrieval, and behavior inhibitions,” (Kwong, 2016) .
Furthermore, if you do
not understand what Dr. Rich is saying here, please allow me to [sarcastically]
translate for you. Translation: Allowing a child to listen to certain types of music
can potentially interfere with their brain activity and cause disastrous
behaviors. There is much about the brain
that human beings do not know. That has
not stopped me from researching and building on what we do know about the
brain. As a depth oriented professional
counselor, I have explored the symbolic significance of various parts of the
brain and more specifically, placement of parts within the brain. For example, broca’s area – which is a part
of the brain that deals with speech, and another part of the brain within the
temporal lobe, Wernicke’s area – a part of the brain that controls the
understanding of speech, both appear to be located fairly close to parts of the
limbic system. I have previously
reasoned that The Divine has placed these two parts where they are for
emblematic reasons. One of those reasons
being that broca’s area and Wernicke’s area are both in between the frontal
cortex (the part of the brain that deals with decision making and other things)
and the occipital lobe (the part of the brain that governs our visual
capacity); symbolizing that our speech (broc’as area) and what we talk about in
addition to the words and messages that we allow into our minds (Wernicke’s
area) can get in-between our healthy views and visions of
ourselves and the decision-making and thought processes that need to occur in
order to bring those very visions to fruition.
In the same play on science, philosophy, and symbolism that I used to
get to this emblematic conclusion, I also believe that there is a symbolic
connection between the close placement of broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, and
the limbic system. Dr. Rich validates
this point when he says that the limbic system can OVERWHELM all other parts
of the brain. If this is true, I
postulate that the first parts of the brain that the limbic system would affect
are the ones closest to it.
Interestingly, Kwong’s citation from an experiment completed by
Mireillie Besson, Julie Chobert, and Celine Marie in 2011, appear to
scientifically back up my existential wonder and claim about the connection
between the limbic system, broca’s area, and Wernicke’s area when they write, “Similar
areas of the brain that are activated during comprehension of emotions and
language in the temporal lobe are also activated when listening to music,”
(Besson, and Chobert, and Marie 2011).
·
“…an avid listener of aggressive lyrics may not
necessarily be more inclined to harm another person, but may have more of a
tendency to utilize aggressive language,”
|
The first thing I think about when I read this is the foul mouth of
adolescent and teenage girls that I have heard throughout the years of
providing mentorship and mental health counseling. Of course, boys curse and use vulgar language
– which should not be tolerated as much as it is, but how can girls grow up to
be healthy and quality women when they have mastered the use of inappropriate,
tactless, and aggressive language by the age of 10? One of the saddest things about this
situation is that they do not simply learn it from the music, they learn it
from their parents (their own birth mothers and grandmothers in particular –
who as of now, where probably raised on the same negative content-based music
as they were).
·
“The unconscious [mind] is conditioned through
pictures and music. Whoever controls
the pictures and controls the music, controls the children,” (Umar Johnson, Ph. D., 2020).
|
Yes…my point exactly. This
statement from Dr. Umar Johnson encompasses the seriousness of the matter I am
bringing up with this blog regarding the need to completely eliminate children
being able to casually listen to toxic music.
I postulate that most, if not all sane people, would agree that children
should not be viewing porn. If you are
amenable to this (which I pray you are), then what is sane about
allowing children to look at the inappropriate and toxic images in some of pop-culture
and listen to the unhealthy messages that it promotes? I want to be direct and not cause you to feel
like you have to read between the lines; allowing children to listen to
aggressive and/or toxic heavy metal, rap, and/or any other genre of music shows
a complicity in insanity. With
respect to cheerleading coaches, I am not in agreement with some of the songs
selections where toddler, adolescent, and teenage girls perform dance routines
to them. The primary image I get is when
I was at a little league football game in Ohio and I witnessed adolescent aged
girls performing a dance routine to Trillville’s rap song Some Cut which
consisted of the little girls dancing to the rhythmic ‘bed squeaking’ that was
part of the instrumental. I don’t
believe that I’m insane for thinking that it is egregious for hundreds of boys,
girls, women, and men in the stands watching little girls dance to
sexualized sounds and rap lyrics. I
anticipate that you understand how many potentially horrific things could occur
from sick people having visual access to children in that particular way. It’s
insane.
·
“I wouldn't say music has special properties – but,
it has the ability to distract or engage in ways that other stimuli don’t.”
|
Again, this statement is not necessarily playing both sides of the fence but it is somewhat careful to not be too definitive of any danger to the psyche while still being informative enough to acknowledge that music has the ability to at least ‘distract or engage’ the psyche in various things. I have no problem with music. I have a problem with many aspects of toxic music – especially when it has the ability to do the type of harm that it can. What good reason is there to negatively affect the psyche – specifically of children? The true danger of disturbing the psyche with horrific musical content should not be ignored or passively reflected upon and discussed. “All you have to do is listen to the music of a generation; and you know the…consciousness of that generation…[Negative music] indoctrinate[‘s] our children against their greatness [and] alienate[‘s] you from who you are,” (Umar Johnson, Ph. D., 2020).
·
“Results demonstrated that listeners of the
aggressive rap music scored significantly higher in the dimension of verbal
aggression. These findings suggest that aggressive music can make listeners
more aggressive emotionally compared to other types of music,”
|
I do not believe that scientists of any industry should have the final
say about anything because scientists are not God and we also know from
previous occurrences in history that scientific studies can be unethically
manipulated. Overall, one should still
have a healthy respect for science.
Here, we have scientific proof that in one particular study,
aggressive rap music was found to be
correlated with higher aggression in an actual domain. To me, the particular
domain doesn’t even matter. The ‘fact’
that aggressive rap music causes a person to be more aggressive in any way is
enough for me to significantly limit my own encounters with it and definitely
discourage children listening to it unedited, unsupervised, and/or all together
at all. I am very passionate about
encouraging parents, mentors, and adults – collectively – to take these matters
that I bring up here, serious, because in order for the intellectual state and
psyche of children to evolve healthily and maximize it’s potential, parents and
adults should not be carelessly exposing children to harmful material. “…If certain parent-[child] interactions are
related to enhanced intellectual functioning during and after childhood, then
teaching parents more effective methods of interacting with their [children]
might be effective in preventing cognitive deficits or in enhancing their
children’s intellectual capacity,” (Wilson, 1991).
Shawn, you’re an Ol’ Head Though…
I
assume there are some people (younger and older) who will say that I am only
writing about this topic and/or chastising rap and hip-hop because I am getting
older and entering into middle adult hood.
My response to that is 1) that is/would be an erroneous thing to say
because I have been addressing toxic pop-culture with this level of
consciousness since my early-to-mid 20’s, 2) older people are not the only ones
who see what I see and feel the way I do about this. Rapper YK Osiris who is a relevant recording
artist of this current hip-hop era posted a video of himself ranting about how
the music industry will cause you to “destroy yourself,” (Osiris, 2019) . YK Osiris is currently 21 years of age. Andres Tardio quoted rapper Saigon words in
saying the following:
“I
play the kids channel on Sirius [Satellite Radio] when I’m driving with my
children in the car. Even on most daytime radio stations the music is
inappropriate for children. It’s a shame but it seems like popular Hip Hop
music today is all about sex, drugs and alcohol, which is not suitable for
young children. You would’nt show a kid a porno would you? Well its almost the
same thing allowing them to listen to the poison that is populating the airwaves.
…(*Note to reader: I was not aware of Saigon’s porno
statement before I made my comment previously in the blog; but it goes to show
you that some rappers align with my views of this topic as well.)…
As
my child grows I will not shelter them from the world, but the same way I
monitor what they watch on television I will monitor the music they listen to.
I believe there are a select few Hip Hop artists they could enjoy but hopefully
being I have daughters, they don’t ever have an interest in Hip Hop. Anything
but Hip Hop, because the imagery of women in Hip Hop today is disgusting and
embarrassing. I hope my daughters never get into Hip Hop. Please God. [Laughs],”
(Saigon, 2012) .
Tardio also quoted Rapper Crooked I in saying:
I’ve
got two daughters and a son…I play radio versions. I don’t let my kids listen
to pops going the [f**k] off. I don’t know. I just want [them] to have a
different life than I had. I used to listen to N.W.A. and all that [sh*t] when
I was like nine or 10 years old. It kind of made me a monster.
[Laughing],” (Crooked I, 2012).
YK Osiris, Saigon, and Crooked I are all rappers from two different eras who have reached some level of prominence within the music industry and are ‘singing the same tune’ as me when it comes to their agreeability in the idea that aggressive and toxic music is not something that their children should be listening to. Saigon and Crooked I in particularly are rappers who have created music with aggressive content, so them saying what they are quoted as saying, coming from the very culture that they don’t want to expose their own children to, is evidence that people within the music industry have the consciousness to not allow children to listen to inappropriate music and lyrics.
Conclusion
In
conclusion, “…historically, the way popular music has been sold is through
airplay. We can’t expect a system to be
put together that will perfectly protect us.
We need to protect ourselves. We
need to be aware that these media change us and affect us. And we need to actively understand what
they’re doing, how they’re doing [it], and make choices of whether we
want that to be done to us,” (Michael Rich, MD,
MPH, 2008). Remember, it takes a village to raise a
child, but it also takes a village to destroy one.
Thank you for reading. “What more can I say,”
References
Ali, S. (1989). The Blackman's Guide to
Understanding the Blackwoman. Cincinnati: Shahrazad Ali.
Bilyeu, T. (2020, January 14). Tom Bilyeu - He Explains
in 51 Seconds Everything That's Holding You Back | Les Brown on Impact Theory.
Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeK9EeKNXDM
Boyce Watkins, P. D. (2019, October 19). Your Black World
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Byrd, C. (2015, April 27). Armstrong Williams - Is Hip
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCaKb8El5S8
Daniel Levitin, P. (n.d.). American Psychological
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https://www.apa.org/research/action/speaking-of-psychology/music-health
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Children's Hospital - How does music affect behavior? Retrieved from
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Mireillie Besson, J. C. (2011). Language and Music in the
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Osiris, Y. (2019, October 24). Hustle Hearted - YK
Osiris Says He Wants To Get Out The Music Industry & Explains Why.
Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueZ5cY8eNzg
Saigon. (2012, June 15). Hip Hop Dads: Rappers Explain
Music That's Played For Their Children For Father's Day. Retrieved from
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Umar Johnson, P. (2020, January 01). The SOS Show Live.
Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXYKwwTzEAc
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Hip Hop Culture destroy Our Youth & Communities? Retrieved from
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Wilson, A. (1991). Awakening the Natural Genius of Black
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Retrieved from YouTube:
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© January 02, 2020 PerspectVe LLC / Shawn Coleman, MS PC
