Gangsta Rap and violence go hand-in-hand. “Mr. Officer, I want to see you layin’ in a coffin, sir,” from The Chronic and “F--- the police,” from N.W.A., are a few lyrics from the music genre labeled Gangsta Rap. Young children have access to this kind of music with virtually no methods of censorship control. Many children listen to this kind of music and believe its expressions are permissible or legal. Many of the lyrics in these songs talk of killing while gunshots are fired in the background. In Gangsta Rap, women, too, are lyrically known as “bitches,” “whores,” and sex-vending “hos.”
Gangsta Rap set off a maelstrom of controversy over its graphic sexual content, violent imagery, and misogyny. Generally, rappers argue they portray women like this because, as Snoop said “that it is just for the women who are like that and if you’re a real woman, you’re classy and elegant. Those lyrics wouldn’t necessarily affect you. You’d just groove to the music.” Richard Shaw, a.k.a. Bushwick Bill, says “I call women bitches and hos because all the women I’ve met since I’ve been out here are bitches and hos.” When Bill was asked at the National Association of Black Journalist’s convention what he calls his mother, his reply? “I call her a woman, but I am not f---ing my mother. If I was f---ing you, you’d be a bitch.” He then apologized for what he said to the reporter.
“If you don’t give a f--- about a bitch/Then you’re rolling with the row,” are lyrics from Doggystyle. If all people thought as the majority of Gangsta Rappers do, women would get no respect at all. It appears these rappers believe they have a right to demean women and treat them in any manner of expression they choose. If we allow rappers to act as if they own women as some kind of sexual property, then younger children and teens will adopt these attitudes. Young children and adults memorize these lyr...