Hip Hop, Violence in

In the 1970s, as disco ruled the mainstream airwaves, music artists in the urban ghettos of America were creating a sound and a culture that would be around [Page 382]for several decades. Hip hop culture encompasses elements such as rap, break dancing, and graffiti. Academics and parents have spent decades trying to understand the appeal of this culture to young people. In the early days, young African Americans embraced hip hop culture as a way to reject a racist power structure. Today, hip hop culture's influence expands beyond any race or geographic border. However, its producers and the images are still largely African American. Much research has examined the impact of hip hop culture, of which rap is a central component, on violence in society in general and on young people in particular. Early research on the genre seemed to suggest that rap music helped to glorify violence.

As a culture, hip hop encompasses several forms of rap music, gesture, and attitude. “Gangsta” rap, or hard-core rap, seems to be at the center of much criticism. For decades, researchers have explored the effects of rap music on adolescent behavior. In one of the early studies on rap music and teen dating violence, James Johnson, Michael Adams, Leslie Ashburn, and William Reed discovered that adolescents accepted violent behavior after being exposed to rap videos depicting violence. The researchers interviewed 60 African American males and females aged 11 to 16. In the study, the researchers exposed the participants to violent and nonviolent rap videos. They then asked the adolescents to provide their reactions to a story about teenage dating violence. The most significant finding of this study is that the girls who were exposed to violent rap music videos tended to be more accepting of violent behavior in relationships. The results of the study suggest that exposure to rap videos did not change African American males' acceptance of violence in relationships. The researchers suggested that this might be a result of their prior attitudes toward teen dating violence. Although these studies illustrated the need to examine the effect of exposure to rap music on young people, they failed to put it in a broader context.

Many researchers note that the violence in some elements of hip hop culture cannot be ignored, but they question whether demonizing the producers of the genre is the solution. Scholars such as Michael Eric Dyson argue that focusing on the negative aspects of any genre is too simplistic. He acknowledges that rap music can be violent and sexist. However, he, like scholars such as bell hooks, argues that the violence illustrated in rap music is indicative of the violence in society as a whole. No one musical genre or culture can be responsible for the excessive violence in America. Furthermore, the attention that media and some scholars pay to the violent nature of rap leaves the dominant power structure unaccountable for the violence in society. Scholar Tricia Rose echoes this sentiment. In her research on rap music, she addresses public's obsession with rap-related violence. She argues that media and scholars continue the social discourse that posits young African Americans as social deviants.

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