Street violence will always be a problem in cities and neighborhoods across the world, but instead of trying to tackle the real issues, far too often the people in power like to blame rap music.
During a recent appearance on The Joe Budden Podcast, Cleveland rapper Doe Boy weighed in on the age-old debate and passionately argued Hip Hop is not the reason street violence is so rampant in the hood.
“It’s real shit going on,” he said. “You gotta think, n-ggas’ friends is getting killed — this shit going on. The music just adding [to it]. That shit gonna happen anyway, that’s another thing muthafuckas gotta understand. Even with us making gangsta music, you can’t blame us because no matter what, that shit gonna go on.”
He continued, “If I stop rapping right now n-ggas still gonna kill a n-gga around the corner because he an opp, because he killed me homie or he killed my brother. You can’t blame us for that shit.”
Doe Boy’s comments come on the heels of a debate surrounding Brooklyn drill rap’s influence on the recent string of gun violence in New York City. Last month, NYC Mayor Eric Adams called for social media platforms to ban drill music videos, whose display of guns and violence he described as “alarming.”
New York rappers Maino and Fivio Foreign took the initiative to defend the genre and met with Mayor Adams to properly discuss the issues with gun violence in the Big Apple.
Fivio Foreign, Maino & More Meet With NYC Mayor Eric Adams Over Drill Rap Debate
“It’s been a lot of talk about drill rap, drill music in New York City, connecting violence with the culture, and I just wanted to create a conversation with the mayor,” Maino said in a clip from the meeting posted to Instagram.
“We brought Fivio here, we got young B-Lovee here, Slow and Bucks here, we got Bleezy here to talk about what’s really happening so the mayor could get a real perspective and real understanding of what drill rap is and so we could have some real dialogue and really make things happen.”
This is an uninformed opinion and I’m not shocked that this site would bring attention to an opinion that’s so often base. Of course the music isn’t soley responsible but it bears a good portion of the blame.
If the message in the music has no impact on violence why the imagery. This guy has a gun and ski mask on. This site is irresponsible for bringing attention to this ignorance.
It is facts, I live in San Diego and people get killed for street affiliations not anything to do with music. But does putting negativity or violent content out there help the situation? No it doesn’t but it’s like the debate of violent video games. So violent video games help promote violence but is it because of them that violence happens? No? We need to be raised right and that stops violence regardless of music tv or games. Are people saying extreme heavy metal “death metal” contributes to violence or are they singling out rap as usual. Bottom line raise your kids right and hope for the best.
the difference though is that violent music often discusses real life situations and people and beefs. Video games and movies are pure fiction.