Mic Check, One-Two Suzanne Fields, the author of “Bad Raps: Music Rebels Revel in Their Thug Life” wrote her article on May 21, 2001 for insight on the news. In her article, Fields talks about how rap music has negative effects on our younger generation. She personally believes that the lyrics in these songs have a harsh effect on our youth and that it is the worst genre of music out right now. While reading, I found her opinion to be extremely biased and unfair. I also found myself disagreeing with almost every bad thing she stated about the rap genre since many other genres can have the same types of effects on younger people when they listen to them. Fields starts out her article by saying that rap music “expresses the worst kind of images” and is harmful to our younger generations. She thinks that the lyrics “employ vulgar street idioms” and are too harsh. She also states that she believes their lyrics come from “a world of broken families, absent fathers, illegitimate children and matriarchal dominance, often subsidized by welfare.” (Fields) Fields continues her argument against rap music by saying that the reason for the harsh lyrics is because language and experience of poetry and romance are absent from the lives of the rappers and their audiences. Fields personally does not know the true lives of the rappers, so she shouldn't be judging them just off of their lyrical content. Fields continues her article against rap music by using a couple facts about other singers, such as Elvis. She uses this to try and prove that rap music is the worst genre. She states that he “brilliantly
Maydan 2 combined the black, blues and sex rhythms of the honky-tonks of the back roads South of his time, liberating teen-age rebels in dance and song.” She also goes on to state that nearly every music hero and heroine after him has had to push the envelope or raise the ante to be successful. She is using this to make it seem like every single person in the music industry was influenced by Elvis, which is inaccurate. Fields then makes another attempt to try and show that rap music is unsophisticated by making a comparison between rappers Eminem and P. Diddy. She says that they “behave badly on and off stage, rebelling like adolescents.” Fields also repeats some of Eminem’s lyrics from his song “Stan” to try and show how terrible rap lyrics are. Not every rapper talks about “bitches” and “ho's”. Eminem may have some violent and even disturbing lyrics, but that doesn't automatically mean that he truly believes in every single word he says. I believe that it is wrong to judge Eminem off of his lyrics and not the person outside of the rap industry, Marshall Bruce Mathers III. I personally think that Suzanne Fields did a horrible job at proving her point that rap music negatively affects the younger generation. All genres, from Heavy Metal to R&B say things that rap music does, just with different lyrics and styles. The songs are sung in different ways, which makes it seem like it isn't the same as something such as “Gangsta Rap”. Also, when Fields mentions the background that rappers have come from I think that she is being extremely judgmental, and even a bit racist. Every genre of music has calm songs and angry songs. In Rock music for example, the artists sing about broken families, being broke, and having bad love lives all the time. Just because it's in their lyrics, doesn't mean that's how they live or it's what they believe in. Music is a way for people to express their feelings through lyrics. Many rappers sing about their past and someone can relate, they will enjoy listening to that specific artist more. It also depends on the person if they can handle the violence and harshness of some of the lyrics that are said. Someone like Eminem who grew up without a father, and a drug addict mother, it's easy to judge him off of his lyrics and not the person. I believe that Fields did think about anything like this while she was writing her
Maydan 3 article. She seems very quick to judge these rappers off of only their lyrical content. Some rappers may have terrible lyrics, but that doesn't mean every single person in the industry has horrible lyrics and isn't spilling their true feelings through a pen. This makes Suzanne Fields argument about rap music being the worst genre of music extremely false.