Vicarious

First of all, I am from the UK, born, raised, live and work in London. And as a married man with two grown up sons I do get to hear some hip hop music which are questionable.

Now, in the US you associate violence with hip hop, you may have good reasons for this, as I am not a US citizen I cannot know or experience what you have gone through but you must understand that violence does not exist because the music exist. More than likely it is the other way around, i.e. a situation exist so people sing about it as a form of expression.

And you know as an American that throughout your history African Americans of always expressed their current problems through song, be it Spiritualism (Church singing), Blues, Soul or now, the 21st format of hip hop. That is why I cannot, and will not, dismiss hip hop as rubbish.

In time to come, the bad hip hop songs, like any bad songs, will be forgotten and the good ones will be seen as a form of expression, dealing with and expressing current problems that the rest of the American media want to brush under the carpet.



UK Bob

PS. We have our fair share of violence etc. in the UK, just accept that there are very few places left in the world where a person and his family can live in peace and harmony.