yelnatsch517 wrote:I never understood hip hop and rap's obsession with being ghetto. Why is it they are so proud of being ghetto and why is it that fans like being ghetto as well? Honestly, I would be embarrassed about being so ghetto.
As for trying to get the message out about issues, it doesn't help one bit. To the rest of the world and society, it would be most analogous to religious nuts preaching about the gospel. It only turns people away. Another good example would be forums just like this one. How often do we make fun of people who don't spell properly or use proper grammar in their posts? We do that because we know that impressions matter and nobody will listen if we don't. The same is true for people trying to enlighten the public about issues in the ghettos. Nobody will listen if they keep acting the way they do, all ghetto.
As for growing up differently... I can tell you from experience that ghettoness and immaturity look extremely similar to the outside world. I know a lot of people personally that grew up low to low middle class and their behavior comes off more as immaturity than ghettoness. The sad thing is that they just don't know any better because they weren't raised correctly. Yet, more often than not, they complain about their living style and want to live a better life, essentially want to escape the ghettos, but for some reason no matter how much you try to change them, they just won't. The point of all this is that for anyone who want to escape the ghetto, they need to first lose their ghettoness, just like that saying: "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have."
well, it seems like you're referring specifically to gangsta rap, but here's my take on it. Gangsta rap, yes it portrays ghettoness, violence, drugs, promiscuity, and other things looked down upon in society... but it also portrays agression and a sense of pride from where you're from. Very similar to that of the talk that your parents give "when I was your age, I had to walk to school, I ate from a wooden spoon, yadda yadda..." There are several other genre of music have similar styles or agression and pride. The mentality of "I've grown up in the ghettos" rises a sense of feeling that if you can withstand that, you can withstand anything (physically wise at least).
Aaand, not everyone wants to leave the ghetto. Let me use my uncle for example (he's what got me into rap in the first place). Born and raised on the East side of Long Beach and still lives in the house that he was raised in. He loves rap soo much that he built his own studio in one of his unoccupied rooms as a hobby (some of which a lot of underground LBC rappers have probably recorded at for cheap), but he's smart enough to know that he needs education to survive comfortably. Today he's rockin a Masters in teaching (emphasis on math) via CSUDH and teaches full time at Cabrillo HS (one of the ghettoest schools in Long Beach)... but he loves it. If you've ever had a conversation with him on his off time, he'll talk to you the way he's been raised to talk to, "dog," "cuh," etc... but professionally, he carries himself very well. but then again, he's asian... we're raised differently.
