Lupe Fiasco

In today’s hip hop/rap scene, artists are scorned for their incorrect grammar, vulgar language, and downright stupidity in the songs they make. Many people argue that all rappers make music with the same, recurring, never ending themes: sex, drugs, crime. Senior citizens argue that rap is complete trash, it’s destroying a generation, and does nothing more than promote bad habits. There have been many politicians who have argued that because of some songs, people have done bad things, like killing and raping people. With the way things are going now, the rap scene is heading downward. I wouldn’t be surprised if some politician came up with a way to directly blame rap for the death of somebody, charge the artist, and have the artist sent to jail. And I don’t blame the politicians. They do have a right in saying that rap influences teenagers badly, because it does.

But not all rap.

There are some, and I’m talking a small minority, who don’t make songs about guns, who don’t make songs about prostitutes, who don’t make songs about drugs. There are some rappers who put deeper meaning into their songs, and they sure are an endangered species. One of the endangered is Lupe Fiasco. He swears only when necessary, not for recreational purposes. He drops lyrical bombs that blow your mind away. His beats are catchy yet sophisticated. He’s not one of those “rappers” like Soulja Boy, whose main lines in his song range from “yah trick yahhh” to “youuuuu”. Rappers shove bad habits in the faces of teenagers, and we grab them. When we grab them, bad things happen. Sometimes even fatal things. Lupe’s not like that. He talks about real life problems, in real life situations. Lupe Fiasco is the only shimmer of hope in the rap scene. He defies the stereotypes set by previous artists, and shatters them into oblivion. In doing so, he is breaking barriers, and trying to bring back rap. Lupe Fiasco needs to become famous and listened to, so he can save rap, and save lives.

Most rap this day is plain old stupid. In 50 Cent’s song “Wanksta,” he says “we don’t go nowhere without toast (Cent).” What is that supposed to mean? In Soulja Boy’s “Yahhh,” the half of the song consists of “get out my face yahhh”. Is that really music? Lil Jon has made an entire album that literally consists of him screaming and yelling of the top of his lungs to get “crunk.” In Ludacris’s “Money Maker,” he makes direct references to prostitution: “shake, shake, shake your money maker, like you were shaking it for some paper (Ludacris).” How are young, low-income, teenage girls going to react when they hear their rappers, whom they idolize so much, say that they should prostitute themselves? At the least they’ll consider it, because that’s what the culture they live in tells them to do. This is what our generation is going to be labeled by. Envision a society, 10 years from now, where human beings talk civilized by constantly using bad language, where bad habits are promoted and agreed with in our culture, and where kids think that people killing people isn’t that big of a deal. Looking back on these years, historians will talk about the influence of rap and how it has nailed bad grammar, bad language, and in general stupidity into our culture.

Lupe is the complete opposite; his songs have a deeper meaning. “Streets On Fire” describes a disease of some sort: “the scientists says it only affects the mind / the little boy says it only affects the girls/the preacher man said it’s going to kill off the soul / a bum said it’s going to kill off the whole wide world (Lupe “Streets”).” No one really knows what he is talking about, be it AIDS or greed or corruption or whatever. He leaves that for the imagination. In “Put You On Game,” I personally believe that Lupe is personifying “The Game” as being the root of all evil: “I am the American dream/the rape of Africa / the undying machine / the overpriced medicine / the murderous regime / the tough guy’s front / and the one behind the scenes (Lupe “Put”).” “The Game” is a fictional character in Lupe’s newest album, The Cool. Now I won’t go into the details, because there’s simply too many, and the story is too intricate. Basically, he’s a poet. He can mix and match and make beautiful music with just his words. After listening to every recording Lupe Fiasco has ever made multiple times, I’ve discovered he can weave a song into a story like nobody else can.

So where does this all play into saving society? To put it simply, entertainment influences our actions, the way we look at things, and the way we talk. In Florida, a couple of days after an extremely popular video game “Grand Theft Auto 4” came out, Milton, a 9 year old boy, stole his mother’s car, and went on a joy ride, attracting dozens of cops. Why he did it: “I thought it would be fun…I wanted to do hoodrat stuff with my friend,” said the young boy (WPBF). When word spread out about the incident over the Internet, people started to verbally abuse and accuse the makers of the video game. Not so ironically, “Grand Theft Auto 4” is a game all about stealing cars. So why can’t the same thing happen with a rap? After all, almost all that rap does is advocate bad habits. The truth is, it can, it will, and it already has.

The hip-hop culture promotes bad habits in teenagers. From December 1996 to 1999, scientists screened African American girls in between the ages of 14-18. Participants were asked to estimate how much time they spent watching rap music videos per day, and per week. The more the participants watched music videos, the more they engaged in health-risking activities. 1 year later, of the participants tested, 37.6% acquired an STD, 4.8% hit a teacher, and 12.1% were arrested (Gina). In 2004, 5,292 young people were murdered, that’s an average of 15 children killed each day (“CHARACTER”). That’s a classroom full of kids.

Rappers like Lupe Fiasco are needed. Children are dying. Gang violence is promoted, as is prostitution. Why does rap have to focus on these things? Why can’t everyone be like Lupe Fiasco? He’s not mainstream. If Lupe wanted to appeal to the bigger audience he would have to rap about things that people wanted to hear about. Which is more exciting: a story about a drug deal gone bad filled with curses and gunshots or a story about the flaws of society? Most people would pick the first. Lupe describes it pretty well in “Dumb it Down:” “You'll sell more records if you dumb it down (Lupe “Dumb”). It’s sad: if you want to be famous, you have to destroy yourself, lower yourself, and change yourself to something that people will appeal to. Lupe doesn’t dumb it down. He revs it up. He is one of those gems in the hip hop/rap scene who is still pretty well known, but isn’t your normal rapper.

So when will all this violence stop, or at least slow down? Right now, it’s not on the right track. Child violence, gang violence, all types of violence are still rising. More kids are being drawn into the potty mouths of rappers, and they’re enjoying it. 50 Cent and Ludacris, arguably some of the most well-known and respected artists, exemplify what is wrong with rap, yet everyone buys their music. The only solution for kids to still listen to rap music, but not be drawn into the ever so tempting habits of their idolized rappers, is to listen to artists like Lupe Fiasco, who don’t advocate prostitution, who don’t advocate the use of alcohol and drugs, and who don’t advocate bad habits in general. If kids listen to Lupe Fiasco, rap itself will become better, and without those recurring themes less people will die. Simple. He is an amazing artist who doesn’t follow the rules. He raps whatever he raps. He doesn’t dumb it down. He revs it up. He puts that key in the ignition, and the control is his. All he has to do is drive.