African Americans as Violent Stereotypes in Rap Songs

Many recent rap songs by a male artists have lines that portray the African American male as extremely violent. The songs “m.A.A.d City” by Kendrick Lamar and “I’ll Still Kill” by 50 Cent use lyrics mentioning how the artists have and will kill others and keep weapons near them at all times. This stereotype results in society viewing African American males as more of a threat to others than they actually are.

This stereotype has recently turned into a major problem in the nation due to the increase of police officers shooting unarmed black males and the Black Lives Matter movement gaining support.

Rap lyrics, including “Fuck the Police” by Boozie Badazz, have added to the stereotype, with the study “Stereotypes of Music Fans: Are Rap and Heavy Metal Fans a Danger to Themselves or Others?” showing that people view rap listeners as being a threat to others, and that mainly rap listeners are black (Fried). Although, this professor only mentions who people think listens to rap music and overlooks the actual fact of who really does listen.

Also, another study, “The Threatening Nature of “Rap” Music,” showed that when give the same lyrics, people had a more negative reaction when they were claimed as rap instead of country (Dunbar). As a counterpoint, some may argue that African American males are just more violent than other groups in society by citing the study Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance – United States, 2015, which has a statistic showing that more black boys got in physical fights compared to white boys (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention et al.

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10). However, the same study states earlier that white males were more likely to have brought a weapon to school, showing that the violent African American male stereotype still exists (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention et al. 10).

The male rap artists are the ones at fault for this stereotype because of their use of extremely violent lyrics. The best solution would be to ditch those kinds of lyrics in order to save other males of their own race, even if they may be singing about what they had to live with in their childhood. Without violent lyrics, society will no longer have any reason to believe that black males are violent just because of the lyrics of the music genres they are involved in. African American males would experience less friction with police officers and have a slightly better lifestyle with this solution put into practice.