Does Rap kill?

In my opinion, music of any type doesn't influence crime, drugs, or the other "evils" of society. What does influence crime, drugs, and other "evils" is movies that glorify violence, drug use, and other acts, the value of the dollar which makes it next to impossible for the average citizen to make an honest living (earning minimum wage honestly or 6 figure incomes from selling drugs), live the American dream and buy a house that doesn't cost an arm and a leg for 30 years, and allow one person in the family to work while the other can stay at home and keep an eye on their children, are the reason our world has gone to "hell in a hand basket".

Granted, the days of "Donna Reed" are long gone. It is sad when 80% of the children in grade school today come from 'single parent' households. Kids don't have the luxury of being kids anymore, society, television, movies, computers, and technology have forced them to grow up way too soon. Innocence is a thing of the past, but Music even "Rap-Crap" isn't to blame on the ills of the 21st century.

Rap/Hip Hop is just another "easy excuse" for this generation, in the 60s it was Rock and Roll, and so on and so forth.

Dyiana, well stated!

A professor of mine was fond of saying '______ doesn't kill, people do'. You can fill in the blank with Rap, video games, etc. Teaching our children to discern the difference between irreversible reality and fantasy is a really important offering.

     I believe it to be reverse, the drugs and violence already existent in the culture influenced rap/hip hop, which are both evolutions of jazz and rock n' roll. If this form of music is to blame for societiy's ills, how do we explain their existence in the past?(rap/hip hop were created in the bronx in the 80's). How do we explain drug use and violence before recorded music then? The fundamental problem is not with violent music, but with the perception of the cause of violence and drug abuse, and blaxploitation for that matter.

     Consider this theory I present humbly. People generally operate from programs running in the subconscious mind. You automtically act differently when you enter a church than when you enter a bar because your behavior is being controlled by a program(i.e. a "church" program that "makes" you walk gently, speak softly, etc. as opposed to a "bar" program where you "automatically" walk in with a swagger, speak much louder than usual, crack jokes etc.)

     These preprogrammed responses usually operate below the conscious level and affect our decisions, usually giving the illusion of free will. Example: Your body has reached critically low levels of water> psycho/somatic processes signal organs to produce hormones that chemically signal reactions that register in the brain as instructions to seek water> you suddenly get the feeling of thirst, walk over to the fridge, and "choose" to drink water to satisfy your "craving". This kind of process is natural to human thinking, and the reason why you have no idea why stuff happens. So here's the kicker:

     The reason you see problems in the world and the people you know is because of the self-reflexive nature of consciousness(i.e. you can become aware of your awarness, then become aware of that awareness, and so on ad infinitum). Meaning the reason a problem bothers you is because YOU HAVE IT! What I mean is that you are recognizing a diffrent manifestation of the same program you are currently running within yourself, in the other person. Example: you are bothered by the lack of control and addictive behavior you see in heroin addicts, and probably feel superior for "seeing" their problem, while at the same time you yourself can't stop drinking, or eating cupcakes, or gambling, or masturbating, or arguing with loved ones, the list goes on!

     These memory/programs exist in the collective unconscious(see Carl Jung) and are the controlling factor in the lives of most human beings. This connection is one reason why synchronicities occur, such as you thinking of someone you haven't spoken to in a while, and a second later they call, or any correct intuition for that matter("something just told not to go there that night","I have a gut feeling about this"). This patterned nature of existence is why you always date the same kind of person, find jobs with the same kind of crap as the prevois ones, and why some have the eperience of everyone being "crazy" or "unreasonable". However, there is a way out:

    Only by taking 100% responsibility for your experience, meaning the way others think and behave also, will you start to loosen the chains(the one constant factor in any problem you perceive, the one thing that never changes is that YOUR THERE, after all!) The process of liberation is through an appeal to divinity(God, Buddha, nature i.e. a higher power of any kind you know) for self-forgiveness, you ask for help in forgiving yourself for whatever unknown process going on in you is manifesting as the problem you perceive. You do this by saying to Divinity constantly: I'm sorry, please forgive me, I Love You, Thank You(Google Self-I-Dentity Ho'oponopono for more info, or go to www.hooponopono.org/).This allows allows you to reach a void state where Divinity will live through you and fill you with light, don't take my word for it, try it yourself. What do have to gain?

     Rap, hip hop, movies, none of these is responsible for a shitty world. Each one of us is 100% responsible for creating our experience and the only kind of control we have is choice. We can choose to live life from inspiration or from memory/programs. That choice, and everything else will become clear as you wipe your slate clean.

Peace of "I"

-Z

P.S. Joe Vitale's book "Zero Limits" is also a great intro to Self-I-Dentity Ho'oponopono.

The music isn't responsible for anything because, one, who created this rap and hip hop? Humans. So if so, it isn't the music that is influencing these negative affects, it is the people that create the music.

I believe that violence is better than rap

many said the same things about punk and metal in the 80's. people always seem to look for the convenient explanation rather than work to find and fix the root cause. 

so, no, rap isn't the reason some rap fans kill. it's much much more complex than that.