Much of today’s music is crude and sends listeners an awful message — “addiction is cool.”
Artists who advocate for drug addiction make these themes more acceptable. The blatant, terrible messages corrupt listeners and chisel away at society’s ethics and intelligence.
Smut had been present in mainstream music since the early ’50s, with the introduction of rock ’n’ roll, which gave rise to sexual themes in music. In fact, the term “rock ’n’ roll” was a double entendre meaning dancing or having sex.
Today’s music is doing what it has done for more than half a century — making money out of filth. The only difference between today’s music and the classics of the 20th century is the obvious message.
There is a subtle difference between Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” and Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait.”
Notice the difference in “She’s my cherry pie. Cool drink of water such a sweet surprise,” from “Wait til you see my d–k, hey b—h! … I’m gon beat that p—y up!”
There is a slight difference. Both songs are referring to sex but relay the message differently.
OG Maco recently ranted about the uniformity of the rap game.
“Rap about drugs and call girls hoes and wear supreme and [vape] and you’ll make it. On my soul,” he said in a tweet.
Maco goes on to say that his hit “U Guessed It” was made satirically and he knew misogynistic rapping accompanied with drug praise was the recipe to success.
Maco also makes a point that little will be accomplished with the “weakness is strength” mentality. Drugs are an addiction, not a creative inspiration. Artists who promote addiction, like Future, are ruining lives by advocating something so dangerous.
“I love Future but I also understand that Future has destroyed countess lives by making it cool to be a drug addict,” Maco said.
Naive people love the glamorized world of celebrities. The excitement and unfamiliar have a strange attraction, and people continue to respond in a positive manner to current artists’ crude motifs.
The negative themes in today’s music desensitizes the public to serious issues. Rap’s glorification of drugs and sleazy women justifies the public’s pursuit of these ideals.
Today’s music also introduces various colloquialisms. Slang including “YOLO,” “crunk,” “swag,” among others, is meaningless jargon, which is the death of literacy. In a world where subject-verb agreement is nonexistent and you can make a contraction out of anything, hip-hop is the breeding ground of ineptitude.
Regardless of its message, crude music is popular. Questionable messages in music are an ongoing tradition, and the public will continue to eat them up. What you can do is not take everything you hear seriously.
Artists don’t necessarily live life in the fast lane, brushing their teeth with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. Their songs may tell one tale, but their lives tell a completely different one. It is up to the audience to take everything with a grain of salt.
The consumer grants the artist permission to brainwash the population when these messages are funded: Albums are purchased, their music is played on YouTube and their concerts sell out. We are to blame for today’s artists’ success, so we may as well sit back and enjoy the music.
Kain Hingle is a 19-year-old psychology sophomore from Mandeville, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @kain_hingle.