My generation invented Hip Hop. As music disappeared from schools and we began to make music of our own, Black creativity spawned a musical revolution that has since become the soundtrack of movements, the voice of the streets, the rhythm of struggle, and in the words of Cool G Rap, it’s also become the road to the riches.
But modern Hip Hop has also become deadly, as we witness one tragedy after another. In the latest news, the bodies of three Michigan rappers were discovered in an abandoned apartment building near Detroit. Police arrested a 15 year old who was driving one of their cars. We don’t know what happened at this point, but we do know that Hip Hop is not always the party music that it used to be.
Shocking statistics on murdered rappers
NBC News reports that since 2018, at least 1 rapper is murdered every year. That’s an understatement. According to the Defender Network, 160 rappers were murdered, mostly by gun violence, in 2022. That’s a huge increase over 2021, when 29 rappers were killed.
While we know that these killings are a reflection of what’s happening in the Black community, and America as a whole, we can’t ignore the reality. The violence in the rap style known as drill music is toxic. It’s the soundtrack to murder. When you put that kind of poison into the atmosphere, it comes back with a vengeance. It destroys everything–even those who are trying to do something better.
Nipsy Hussle was among the most prominent rappers who were murdered. It happened after he opened a business in the hood. PnB Rock was killed in a botched robbery after he took rap in a different direction. Others spit lyrics that are creative and poetic, thought provoking and real, tragic and beautiful, musical and mystic, and we have to lift them up for that.
But we have to also acknowledge that when your music is driven by the poison of hatred and violence, that hate will eventually find its mark–and too often that mark … is us.
Photo: PnB Rock, who was shot and killed in a botched robbery in Los Angeles. Photo by DeShaun Craddock. Creative Commons License
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