No chapter in Essays of a Penitentiary Philosopher is more controversial than Rappers & Politicians. There are those who agree with my perspective and those who take offense, since they seem to think they are gangster rappers too. Being in a maximum security prison, most people I'm debating this issue with are convicted murderers.
I knew that a white guy criticizing such a prominent element of black culture would be a hard sell. Yet, the older criminals seemed to unanimously support my position. A Chicago native said, "Rap and crack destroyed our cities." After reading the book, another killer said, I was surprised at how real you kept it in Rappers & Politicians." Then of course there were doubters. Their main arguments, as wannabe rappers, was that it's not their responsibility to raise someone else's "Punk Ass Kids." I'd be really surprised if they made any effort to raise their own kids. The other justification was that financial reward supersedes any other concern. "All I care about is the money." Never mind that none of these guys have ever made a dime off rap. When you hear someone running at the mouth about money, there's a very good chance they're broke.
Let's discuss the responsibility factor. When you become an adult in society, you understand that your adulthood is predicated on an understanding of your responsibility to your community. You are not a "man" until you take ownership of your actions, and the consequences to yourself and most importantly, others. Another convict argued, "Would you smoke dope with, or give a gun to a thirteen year old? So how do you justify glorifying it to them?" Indeed, how could you?
The differentiation of children from adults has developed with societies over the centuries. There is clearly a time when the child is influenced, and then with adulthood comes the responsibility to be a positive influence in the group. The lengthier the time period we allow our children to develop without negative influence, the more likely they will be able to achieve their peak potential. Only the most primitive of men would argue that they lack any responsibility in how theirs actions influence children. Rappers are not the first to exploit this demographic for financial gain however. Our commercial culture has been doing this for decades with video games that promote violence and rock music that promotes drug use. etc... It is because the consequences of rap have been so devastating that I use it to make a cross-cultural point.
The justification gain implies a desperation similar to what we would find in wildlife that is fighting for survival. Researchers noticed that when bred in captivity, Iberian Lynx cubs would fight each other to the death after they were about one month old. The instinct to kill their sibling makes perfect sense from the perspective of natural selection. It ensures that only the strongest cub survives and gives their genes a greater opportunity to be passed on. Since this species faces extinction, researchers had to stop the cubs from fighting. Who will stop the rappers from poisoning their sibling's minds?
Rappers encourage the destruction of their "brothers" and "sisters" by warping young minds to have an anti-intellectual disposition. No thinking adult is concerned with "street cred". Rappers' ability to kill off their siblings by promoting a thought process that encourages behavior that leads to murder, drug addiction, incarceration, and disease makes rappers the ultimate Kane. Rappers' rationalizations are as selfish as Kane's when he tried justifying killing Abel.
The rappers greed pales in comparison to our bankers and politicians who routinely sell out an entire nation for personal gain. That was the point of Rappers & Politicians. It wasn't to pick on the rappers, but to show how little differentiation there is between the two in their quest to enrich themselves at the expense of their communities. If we are going to resort to a survival of the fittest mentality, prepare for chaos. We will then regress to our most primitive instincts.
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