I’m Goin’ Baby on Baby

In the world of music, rappers’ careers are one of the most idolized by young people.

Rappers often boast about violence and drug abuse in their songs. Many rappers vocalize their reckless use of drugs and alcohol to portray themselves as “cool” and “hardcore”. This has been a process used since the 1980s and has gained more and more popularity in recent years. Only a select few artists get signed to major record labels. Once these artists get signed to mainstream labels, this only solidifies the ideas in their minds that these topics are what sells songs, rather than instrumentals or more meaningful lyrics. These lyrics don’t gain anything for these artists, other than attention and scrutiny from the police.

With the popularity social media has gained in the past decade, big name rappers are taking their performances online. This brings many controversies and accusations along with it. For example, in recent times, rapper Tekashi69 has been convicted of federal racketeering and firearm charges. Once convicted, Tekashi69 immediately started throwing his friends and co-workers under the bus blaming these charges on them. This led to a lot of outrage on social media platforms leading to many threats towards Tekashi69 and his family. Furthermore, DaBaby has had his own life threatened in person. In the article pertaining to DaBaby’s personal life, he states that he was shopping with his daughter, mother, and another child when two men threatened him with a gun. In self defense, DaBaby fired off one shot killing one of the men. He was charged with a misdemeanor for carrying a concealed weapon instead of the murder. Rappers expose themselves to the public, revealing personal details leaving them vulnerable to people who want to take advantage of their fame.

Speaking out against certain styles of rap on mainstream media outlets portraying the use of drugs and violence against others, is the only way we can help these artists on the right track, but more importantly guiding our youth in more positive ways.

Many up and coming artists get swept away with the fame, but that usually ends up in many legal problems later on in their career.