COLUMN: Rap music more than meets the ear

    Rap has always been criticized for the glorification of violence, the objectification of women, and the promotion of drugs and alcohol. Many claim that listening to rap lyrics can have an influential and negative effect on youth. However, studies show this is not necessarily the case and rap listeners will tell you that, rather than encouraging them to act out, it helps them cope with issues in life that relate to the music’s content.

    A dialogue about rap lyrics could encompass an entire newspaper, so for this discussion’s sake let’s be clear and upfront – rap lyrics are not oriented around bubble-gum teenage love pop. Rap has always been about reality, telling a raw story without regard to sensitivity or censuring. Lyrics can be ugly and profane, but what other kind of language accurately captures the environments that rap describes? If you were raised in a drug-ridden, impoverished neighborhood where being hungry is a typical feeling and 12-year-olds belong to gangs, the lyrics used to describe your childhood will be as sharp and painful as the situation itself. Most successful rap artists come from less-than-ideal backgrounds and use their music as a way to cope with and express their struggle, telling an oftentimes unpleasant story that listeners don’t hear from other forms of media, but is nevertheless real life for many Americans.

    Although it cannot be denied that violence in rap music has increased in past years, this is more in response to, rather than encouragement of, violence in social conditions. Studies differ in finding whether rap influences youngsters to commit crimes; however, most rap artists agree that rap merely seeks to tell a story and some even find the idea of rap promoting violence to be ludicrous – no pun intended. In his song “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It,” hip-hop artist Ice Cube not-so-subtly states his cynicism over rap being blamed for the actions of young miscreants. Yelawolf, an artist recently signed onto rap superstar Eminem’s record label, expresses similar sentiments in an interview with VLADTV.com. “Listen to my music, and don’t try and re-enact things literally,” he says. “Use my music as an outlet to get away from the (things) that bother you.”

    I can’t count how many times I listened to “Mockingbird” and “Rock Bottom” by Eminem after I got kicked out for reporting an abusive mother, and then again, three months later, for dating a woman. In the times I was the most alone, I could always turn to my iPod and find somebody who could understand how I felt at that moment, even if the situation wasn’t exactly the same. Whether your father is dying of cancer or you just failed a math test, plugging in ear phones and finding an instant best friend in the lyrics of a song is an attribute that no other musical genre can accomplish as well as rap.

    Rap not only helps listeners cope with troublesome situations, but let’s get technical and discuss the mechanics of rap: they’re just plain cool. Regardless of whether you actually like to listen to rap, there is no denying that it takes incredible talent to create the end-rhyme, internal rhyme, alliteration, metaphor, simile, complicated meter, enjambment, and just about every other facet of “classical” poetry that a great rap song encases. In fact, Utah State’s own literature analysis expert, Dr. Shane Graham, admits that artists like Eminem are the masters of internal rhyme.

    So whether you’re a fan of Dr. Dre, Lupe Fiasco, Nas, Wiz Khalifa, Tupac, Jay-Z, or you hate the genre altogether, rap, despite its many criticisms and faults, takes incredible talent and is invaluable as a source of respite for millions of listening fans – and when others are finding their lives made easier by simply listening to music, then maybe we should cut rappers some slack and let them tell their stories with a little more understanding.

Liz Emery is a junior majoring in English with an emphasis in creative writing. She can be reached at liz.emery@yahoo.com.