Analytic: Current events

Many people think that gang violence and hip hop are related, like when there is a shooting in a black neighborhood, people think that hip hop has had something to do with it. Because of this many black public figures like Oprah and Hip Hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons have tried to make artists change their lyrics as Simmons said "We recommend that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily remove/bleep/delete the misogynistic words 'bitch' and 'ho' and the racially offensive word 'nigger,' " They want artists to get rid of swears and dirty words in their songs, because they think that it would lead to young black listeners use of those words. Many artists have refused do this, most saying that it would alter their image and less people would buy their music. Rapper Fifty Cent said on this topic "For me, don't expect me to compromise myself," like most rappers Fifty cent has built his music career on his thug image and the whole drug dealer turned rapper ordeal. It is easy to see how hip hop and violence is connected, many young listeners see their favorite artist getting arrested or involved with firearms. Rap legends Tupac Shakur and NOTORIUS BIG were both shot to death, and rap superstar Lil Wayne is going to jail because of illegal firearm possession. What these performers are doing effect all of their fans. If a kid thinks it’s cool to have a firearm because Lil Wayne had one then who is to blame. Changing the lyrics to a song won’t change what is happening. Artists have to realize what they are doing affects millions of people.
Violence is not the only problem hip hop is having. The other problem is happening to every genre of music; it is illegal downloading and piracy. Since the advancement of technology, the music industry has been losing money, cd sales have plummeted and record stores have started closing done all over the country. Less and less people are buying cds and more people are downloading music illegally. As Mitch Bainwol said “At any given time, 3 to 5 million people are on the Internet, downloading music and violating copyright law,” avid listeners download music because it is free and cds are too overpriced. Many artists are mad about this also because they are losing money and they want to be paid for their work. As LL Cool J “The majority of artists want to be compensated,” the people who are downloading music illegally don’t realize that other people are being affected by this, that people are losing money because of what they are doing. In an article about the future of hip hop the author says that most of the listeners that buy cds are rich white suburban kids, but this is not necessarily true, because many rich white suburban kids download music illegally. The main reason that people download illegally is that people don’t want to spend more than ten dollars on a cd especially if they want to listen to just one song. The music industry has tried to fight this by filing lawsuits against piracy and illegal downloading, like Napster which shut down then went back online as a low fee music downloader. Some bands have found ways to make money of this, by offering their listeners the ability to download music off their website for free, or they can donate a small amount to a “penny jar” on the website, that would pay for the album. Surprisingly many people donated to the website. Even though music has been through many changes it still has survived and will always be around.