A few years ago when I was researching the impact of rap and hip-hop music on youth culture, I learned that a huge percentage of rap songs glorify the sexual exploitation of women. I can’t print too many examples of the lyrics here because they are laced with some of the most disgusting profanity imaginable, and many rap videos should be classified as pornography.
And yet rap/hip-hop is the most pervasive music genre in the United States today, and a huge percentage of listeners are underage school kids. With their smartphones, youth today are listening to hours and hours of songs with lyrics that glorify gun violence and sexual cruelty. Is it any surprise that kids are shooting up schools or abusing classmates when they are listening to lyrics like this?
— “Dumped her body in the trash like I never knew her / Blood runnin’ down the gutter into the sewer.” (Esham)
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— “Snuck up behind him, had his hands in his pocket/ Took my pistol out, unlocked it/ Pulled the hammer back and cocked it/… And killed his [obscenity] just like Jesse James.” (Scarface)
— “Man I murder for fun but my job is never done/ From morning morn’ to the setting of the sun/ Bad men come, come, come get murdered for fun.” (Gucci Mane)
— “Any time I got you, girl you my possession/ Even if I hit you once, you part of my collection.” (Future)
— “I punched her in the ribcage and kicked her in the stomach/ … I stomped her and I kicked her and I punched her in the face.” (Kool G Rap)
These examples are tame compared to what is streaming today. Rappers shame women with racial and sexist slurs, talk about graphic sex, encourage violence and celebrate prostitution. I’m sure you’ve heard some of these songs—because rap music has become the most dominant genre in American music. In 2018, Soundscan reported that eight of the 10 most-streamed artists were rappers.
Much of the success of rap can be accredited to Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is known for being one of the wealthiest musical artists in the world. He was worth $1 billion in 2022, but he is now sitting in a prison cell in New York—awaiting trial on a long list of charges including racketeering, sex trafficking and kidnapping.
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