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Hip-hop music has changed over time since it has been created. Starting out as a form of expression and storytelling, hip-hop has transformed into one of the most popular and controversial music genres in the music industry today. Hip-hop has often been criticized for the explicit lyrics and controversial topics covered in the lyrics written by emcees. From sex, murder, guns, and drugs, there seems to be no boundaries for what an emcee chooses to rap about. Youth across the world see music as one of the most popular forms of media and entertainment. Since one of hip-hop’s most popular topics is drug dealing, hip-hop music affects the acceptance of Philadelphia youth’s regarding the purchasing and supplying of drugs on the street.

I believe that drug dealing is so popular in hip-hop music today because it is something that many people, youth and adult alike can relate to. In some of the poorer neighborhoods in Philadelphia, you can’t go outside without seeing a homeless person begging for drug money or a young boy on the corner trying to sell to you. In some areas, drugs have an overpowering influence on everyone in the community, and it is hard for people to not get into the drug culture when everyone around them have been impacted by drugs in some way.

Philadelphia native and hip-hop super star, Cassidy, frequently addresses the topic of drugs in his music. “I was just tryna make some bread for my family, And ev'rybody got somebody dead in they family, and ev'rybody got some crackheads in they family, So it's no room to hate cause I know you relate (Cassidy).” In the quote, I believe Cassidy explains how drugs effect all Philadelphia youth directly or indirectly. You don’t have to be dealing or using a drug to be effected by it. As Cassidy says, you could also have family members who died from a drug, or family members who are addicted. He also addresses what he views as a justification to selling drugs by saying he was just trying to make some money to support his family.

People often imagine a rapper as someone who only drives a big truck with chrome rims and owns a million dollar house. Emcees tend to portray drug dealing as a get rich quick scheme and all youth want to be rich and successful. One of the main reasons drug dealing is such a popular topic in lyrics and so appealing to hip-hop listening youth, is because of the way emcees show off their money, and brag about how they earn it. Emcees that had a rough past tend to show off anything and everything they have whether it’s the girls, big cars, new clothes, a mouth full of gold, or some new jewelry. Fashion plays an important role in youth’s lives constantly. They see all the expensive things that their favorite rapper is wearing and want to have the same clothes, style, and jewelry. Since most of the times emcees wear only top of the line name brand good, youth need a way of getting money, and they often turn to drug dealing as a way for some quick cash. Instead of going to school and furthering your education, emcees tend to talk about skipping school and dropping out. Instead of spending time in the classroom, they were out on the corner as a teen selling drugs. Philadelphia public schools gradation rate as of 2008 was only 49.2%. With nearly half of all high school students dropping out in the Philadelphia area, the disgruntled youth turn to drug dealing as a way of earning money since their lack of education is a drawback to being offered better job opportunities. The idea of being with your friends all day, being your own boss instead of taking orders from teachers and higher authority, and being able to make quick money in the single motion of a handshake is more appealing to the youth compared to going to school every day and working a nine to five.

Emcees often claim they were much more than your average corner dwelling drug dealer. The more drugs you sell, the more money you make, and emcees will often make references towards large amounts of drugs they’ve sold and the money they’ve made from doing so. Youth hear how these emcees got rich before they got famous, and try to do the same thing. They begin to ignore the risks of getting caught and the repercussions, and only focus on selling more drugs and making more money.

People often imagine a rapper as someone who only drives a big truck with chrome rims and owns a million dollar house. Emcees tend to portray drug dealing as a get rich quick scheme and all youth want to be rich and successful. One of the main reasons drug dealing is such a popular topic in lyrics and so appealing to hip-hop listening youth, is because of the way emcees show off their money, and brag about how they earn it. Hip-hop lyrics make drug dealing appeal to youth because the lyrics promote the glory of the respect and power gained through being a successful drug dealer. Growing up in Philadelphia, youth will often limit themselves to believing that money, power, and respect are the most important things in life. People believe that with money comes power, and those with power gain respect. Youth who grow up in poverty ridden parts of Philadelphia, often believe that they will never make it out of their neighborhood so power and respect in their locally and amongst their peers are the most important thing in their lives, and they will do anything to achieve it.

Ask anyone from a poorer neighborhood in Philadelphia, and one of the first things they will talk about is how bad some parts of Philadelphia actually are. Kids are afraid to go out at night because of the constant killings, robberies, and other major crimes that are often committed, and are forced to live in a constant fear of their own neighborhood. Because of this fear in some parts of Philadelphia, youth seek for power to strike fear into others, and respect from others so they won’t be a target by someone in his or her neighborhood.

Gaining respect from people is an important task in any situation. However, growing up in Philadelphia if you are not respected by other people your neighborhood; no one will care about you, or what happens to you. Crime is becoming such a problem in Philadelphia that you can get killed for walking down the wrong street. Youth want to gain respect as early as possible in Philadelphia so that they can gain a sense of security and power amongst others. However, in order to gain respect you have to give it. Being able to supply your neighborhood and help out the local addicts to be able to get their drug of choice quick and easily, a person can quickly build up a reputation. The more drugs someone deals, the more money they will make, and with more you gain more respect. Youth will often deal until they are caught by the police, or killed on the street, and the more drugs they deal the easier for one of these things are to happen. However, youth are willing to run the risk of being killed for some respect. If possible, people will deal drugs to their entire neighborhood, and label themselves as a “boss”. Being the boss of their neighborhood appeals to youth because they will view it as an opportunity to be able to do whatever they want whenever they want, and as a youth when you are limited by rules and laws every day, the idea of such freedom appeals to most Philadelphia youth.

Power plays a just as important role in the life of Philadelphia youth as respect and money. Hip-hop artists often talk about their stories of fighting, shooting, and killing in order to gain power in their neighborhood. Youth hear these stories and believe that they can take the same measures as their favorite rapper did in order to gain control and power in their neighborhood. With power comes fear, which is vital in Philadelphia neighborhoods. Those without power in Philadelphia fear those with power amongst their peers because of the reputation the person with power has. If anyone could just claim they run their neighborhood, everyone would take the lead. However, since every other block there are different groups of kids with the same idea to get rich and powerful, there are often arguments, or “beef” that go on within Philadelphia youth. The constant fight for power in Philadelphia often leads to death and jail time. So, when someone is successful in becoming the boss of their neighborhood, they often carry a reputation for being ruthless and doing anything it takes to anyone who stands in their way of gaining power. With such a reputation, youth tend to fear those in a position of power, but at the same time look up that person and respect them.

I believe power and respect is so appealing to hip-hop listening Philadelphia youth because of the influence they can have on others. Youth believe that making money and drug dealing can help lead them on the road to success because of what they see and hear from their favorite emcees. They think that the risks they take by dealing drugs and being involved in other criminal activities is worth the possibility of becoming rich and an important member of their community. Often, people only associate hip-hop influence with males. However, there have been many studies on hip-hop’s influence on women. The lyrics in hip-hop music effect women the same way it does men. The lyrics are able to alter the perceptions of female youth on topics like drugs, and how they view drug dealers. With hip-hop music’s constant growing popularity, it is hard to escape the messages and ideas found in the lyrics, thus there being an increasingly large influence over all youth in Philadelphia.

There have been many surveys to observe the possible effect that hip-hop has on its listeners. In one specific survey, 522 African American hip-hop listening women between the ages of 14-18 were compared to women who didn’t listen to hip-hop or watch rap videos. The results concluded that the females that did listen to hip-hop and watched rap videos, were three times as likely to hit a teacher, two and a half times more likely to get arrested, twice as likely to have multiple sexual partners, and one and a half times more likely to get a sexually transmitted disease, use drugs, and drink alcohol.

Money, power, and respect were three of the reasons I covered for why youth often aspire to become drug dealers because of the glorification in hip-hop lyrics today. Females often become attracted to men with money, power, and respect because of the sense of security they believe they get from being with someone in a position of power. Since drug dealers are constantly making money, women think they are capable of being able to providing for them.

Women often put themselves in degrading relationships when they choose to be with a drug dealer. In many situations, women know they are getting cheated on, and yet they are okay with it because they know it comes with the lifestyle of being with a drug dealer. Emcees often refer to their relationships as having one “main” woman to be in a relationship, but often times they have several “side” women to go see when he isn’t with his main girl. Emcees refer to their main girl in their lyrics often as their “ride or die” woman. Emcees define a ride or die woman as someone who will never leave her man through thick and thin, no matter how poorly she is treated.

The glorifications of drug dealers in hip-hop lyrics attract women to them. The influence of hip-hop on women can be noted as a negative one. Surveys show that hip-hop listening women become increasingly violent compared to non hip-hop listening women. Women need to begin to understand that they should not be attracted to drug dealers just because they have easy money that they earn or because they are an icon in their neighborhood. Women often believe that they can become successful because of the glorification and success stories emcees usually tell in their lyrics. Women are manipulated by the lyrics in hip-hop to believe that it is ok to put yourself into relationships with drug dealers even if the relationship is not a healthy one. However, women should be respected in any relationship, and hip-hop needs to begin glorify the respect of women instead of drug dealing.

The overall style of hip-hop music has changed dramatically since the 1990s from the style of rap, the beats, lyrical content, and culture. However, even in the 1990s, when hip- hop was just starting to become popular, drugs were still a major topic on the minds of emcees and hip-hop listening youth. Many consider the 1990s as “the golden years” of hip-hop. With groups from the Wu-Tang Clan to A Tribe Called Quest and solo artists from the Notorious B.I.G. to Tupac, people say the hip-hop artists from the 90s were more talented then emcees today.

Hip-hop in the 1990s might be best known for the lyrical war that went on between the East and West coast that unfortunately lead to the deaths of 2 of hip-hops greatest emcees, the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac. The two rappers exchanged diss track after diss track pointing out the differences between each other, however, what the two emcees talked about in their music had very similar topics. The most affluent topic the two emcees talked about was death and drugs. With 2 hit albums by the Notorious B.I.G. entitled, “Ready To Die” and “Life After Death”, and songs by Tupac like “Death Around the Corner” and “Only Fear of Death”, the two shared similar interests in what they spoke about.

The Notorious B.I.G. was also known for talking about drugs. One of his most popular tracks about drugs was his song entitled, “Ten Crack Commandments”. In the song, Biggie gives 10 detailed rules on how to survive and become successful in the life of a drug dealer. He starts the track off by saying, “I’ve been in this game for years, it made me animal there’s rules to this, I wrote me a manual. A step by step booklet, for you to get, your game on track, not your wig pushed back.” The Notorious B.I.G. claims these are the laws he lived by when he was drug dealing, and if you do not follow these rules, you will end up dead. Unfortunately, in the violent life of drug dealing, in some senses following those rules are the only way to survive and dodge getting killed. The Notorious B.I.G. was one of the most famous rappers of all time, and with songs such as “Ten Crack Commandments”, youth hear these lyrics and try to base their life off of it.

The influence of hip-hop in today’s world is overwhelming. Philadelphia youth are constantly faced with the temptation of using drugs and dealing them. Often people say youth can use music as a way to escape the streets and do something to become successful. However, such a task is found difficult when one of the most popular topics in hip-hop music is talking about the lifestyle of drug dealing and life on the streets. Emcees are capable of making the life of a drug dealer seem appealing to youth because of the things that come with the life of a drug dealer such as the women, money, power, and respect. Emcees and hip-hop activists have to come to realize that the effect that they are having on youth is a negative one, often making negative topics such as drug dealing and murder seem appealing. Many emcees do not even realize they are altering the perceptions of the youth on such topics. Many say that the youth is the future, and with so many of the youth dropping out and looking to drug dealing as a way of profit, the future is looking dim.