Intro to Sociology (SOCI 100) Information Literacy Assignment Part II

The Main Purpose of this article is addressing how top selling rap artist view fatherhood, motherhood, and parenthood. This happens to be a hot button issue of black men and how they are as fathers. According to research it shows that from 2004 to 2009 rap music was able to reach the masses like no other time. Thus the researchers wanted to analyze what the music that was being circulated was saying about black families and how these artists depicted themselves. So in the past has shown black men not as involved with their kids or involved all together due to many issues like poverty, education, and not taking personal responsibility. Because of this research that has presented in the past this article is addressing what black men say, especially black rappers on how they feel about their fathers, on them being fathers, on their mothers, and the mothers of their children.
The key question the author is addressing happens to be “The Black Family”. Specifically how rappers represent or show through their music how it is. This author breaks it down into smaller parts but throughout all the research this is the common thread. For example he references many artists like Nas, Kanye West, Rick Ross and many more, lyrics they have used in songs. The researcher defined these lyrics and explained what these artists were saying through their music about baby mamas, their fathers, their kids, and so on.
The most important information in this article is lyrics that rappers have said in their songs addressing different aspects of the black family. For example when it comes to baby mama’s research shows among majority of rappers a negative connotation on how they feel toward them or disappointment of what they could have been if they weren’t such hard obstacles. In “War,” Nas (2004) mourns over his relationship with the mother of his first child by saying:
[“Planned to be a strong Black family/
But we both were too young, too strong, too much flashin/…
But we brought my baby home the first night/
Cursed like sailors, burst out of crib/…
Grabbed her by the pony tail, “never disrespect me”/
I’m street vet, regret sex, but not Desi/]

The main conclusion of this whole article is said when the author said “Black male rap artists openly express their love and affection for their children, fully accepting the fatherly role as caregiver. This specific finding differs from Weitzer and Kubrin (2009) who state that rappers fear”(oware pg. 341) “fatherhood in general” because, “…nurturant and caregiving behavior is simply not manly” (p. 18). So even though research suggests that black male rappers don’t want to take responsibility in their music at least that happens to be a completely false statement.
The key concepts we need to understand in the articles are even though there might be some commonalities in some rappers lyrics on how they feel about certain topics like hard working mothers and the mothers of children wanting to use them financially. The theory that fathers are overwhelming bad an absent isn’t true. For example the researcher says; “Biological fathers were referenced less than biological mothers by one percent (8%) in the lyrics of rappers. While mothers of rappers received praise and material benefits and baby mamas engendered scorn, biological fathers resided somewhere in the middle. Fathers of rappers were neither honored nor overly demonized. Some rappers had upbeat and affirming relationships with their paternal figures while others expressed anger toward them because of their absence.” (Oware, pg. 338). The main assumption underlying the authors thinking is using the rappers own lyrics added up the majority shows extreme love for the mother but also a bond with the fathers. Yes not overwhelmingly positive but at the same time not negative. If we take the authors research and assumption seriously it shows that the majority of black fathers are not hated by their rapper children. Also those young black rappers are majority involved or want to be according to how they express themselves in their music. If we fail to take this line of reasoning we could question the researcher by saying he doesn’t know these artist or how the truly feel. The only thing the researcher is doing is trying to get some insight from their lyrics. He also doesn’t know or have access to getting the research of why they sing the songs or choose the topics they do. They could be saying these to relate to the masses of record labels could be pushing them to cover certain topic convincing their artist of the formula of what sells and doesn’t. If we take this line of thinking seriously the implications are taking away a lot of merit from the researcher. Because we have to allow the fact that the artist are singing about their feelings and true experiences. If they are not though than the whole research would almost seem like a complete bust. The main point of view represented in this article are we happen to have a preconceived notions on what a father is and what he teaches his children. That is so many black men are considered bad fathers but the author also hints at us that even if the father is doing illegal activity and was arrested or kids doing that he could have been teaching them at that time what not to do. Another things is even when the father is absent deadbeat and hurt his child it doesn’t mean it will affect these rappers relationships with their kids. “Whereas some artists held malevolent feelings toward their fathers, no artist in the sample, who made reference to it, displayed any antipathy toward their own children (referenced in 7% of the songs). In fact, all artists fully embraced their roles as
Fathers.” (Oware, pg.339)
A topic that relates to this article that we have learned in sociology is Family and Conflict. The First, the family as a social institution contributes to social inequality in several ways. The social identity it gives to its children does affect their life chances, but it also reinforces a society’s system of stratification. Because families pass along their wealth to their children, and because families differ greatly in the amount of wealth they have, the family helps reinforce existing inequality.
Second, the family can also be a source of conflict for its own members. Although the functional perspective assumes the family provides its members emotional comfort and support, many families do just the opposite and are far from the harmonious, happy groups depicted in the 1950s television shows. Instead, and as the news story that began this chapter tragically illustrated, they argue, shout, and use emotional cruelty and physical violence. We return to family violence later in this chapter.