Word: gangstas
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...Nas’ “It Was Written,” Fiasco doesn’t project Escobar’s hard image. He’s a devout Muslim, doesn’t drink or smoke, is into animé and skating, and runs a decidedly un-gangsta blog. Plus he wears glasses, and while he claims they’re Cartier frames, he’s still a mite nerdy: four-eyes Fiasco. That bookishness suits him. He’s a talented social critic, and he doesn’t have West’s often...
...problem is not that today’s hip hop artists are less talented or ambitious than their predecessors. Instead, it seems that most are more interested in living the gangsta lifestyle—characterized by conspicuous consumption, loud parties, drug use, belligerence toward competitors, and defiance of authority—than in making creative, meaningful records. Somehow, Pac was able to do both...
...gangsta mentality is so dangerous because when rappers think of themselves as mobsters instead of artists, they reach for their guns instead of their pens to settle disputes. Although it may seem funny, it is really just tragic that rappers feel the need to wear bullet-proof vests in public. But the greater tragedy is that, after what happened to Pac, rappers and their associates are still dying violent deaths...
...care because this is an age when entertainers have ever-greater influence over how young people think and act. A boy in a poor neighborhood with poor schools is more likely to model his behavior after his favorite rapper than his favorite teacher (if he has one). As the gangsta lifestyle becomes normalized through this process of imitation, delinquency and ignorance pervade and destroy entire communities...
...song “Unconditional Love,” Pac deconstructs the gangsta lifestyle and shares his optimism about the future: “This fast life soon shatters/ ’Cause after all the lights and screams nothing but my dreams matter/ Hoping for better days, maybe a peaceful night/ Baby don’t cry, ’cause everything gonna be alright.” Rappers today are still addicted to the fast life. When will they wake up? When will the violence end and the better days arrive...