I agree with some points that you made, but with others I disagree. Being a high school senior and attending a majority white high school....I have never really studied minstrelsy? Is that like black face...when blacks would be portrayed as really, really black with very huge lips? I've seen those kind of pictures in my history book but never have we discussed what they were. But I do agree with you about the message of rap music...it's definitely not about black empowerment. But at the same time, how can artists rap about something that they do not practice. Can you really picture a group like Cash Money rapping about Black empowerment?
...uh???? No!!! It's ashame that artists like Ludacris and Cash Money can rap about hoes and bitches and go platinum but artists like Mos Def and Common who do rap about black empowerment and uplifting the community not reach the same status in record sales or notoriety. It's all about marketing and what people are into? I definitely agree that us teens do look to the media and music to find identity...but you have to decipher what's real and what's totally fiction. The average person will NEVER own a Bentley or be able to afford Jacob-the-Jeweler. I understand that music does play a part in where teens go to see what's "in" or "hot" but you can't totally blame MUSIC for this. What about ATHELETS??? The fact is that the average teen age boy wants to either go Pro after high school or make it big rapping. Not many black teenage boys I know want to go to college..they either want to be on the corner slangin'..making that fast money, try to make it rapping, or trying to go pro. Now am I the only person that sees a problem with that.
And as far as me being apart of the problem...no, I'm apart of the solution. I'm going to college (a black college!!) to get a degree and give back to the community. I've seen too many "promising" black people just give their life away because they got impatient because they didn't get what they wanted fast enough. What you have to realize is that THIS problem in our community...is MUCH bigger than watermelon, chicken, and grits!!
~Innocence22~