Hip hop culture, Thug mentality

Im a person of color, living in Brooklyn Ny my whole life. I grew up listening to Hip Hop in what I would call its hey day during the mid to late 90's but thats another topic. I still listen to it everyweek but not everyday.


I see teens and young adults all day. I work in all five boro's. I travel to the poorest parts of each boro. I see people all day just hanging out acting out this thug mentality they hear and see all around them. Most of these people are straight ignorant. The rap music played on the radio has an agenda. There is really positive rap music but those that seem to control the media do not really want that played. If that is what the people want how can you blame them because thats the culture that dominiates. I have seen cool little kids that were respectful turn into straight shooters. I really think rap media is destroying poor people lives. Also the media is what it is but where the hell are the dam parents. Like seriously. Kids with guns, mobs of kids beating and robbing people all over the country. On youtube the people doing those things all look like me and my ancestors. They all have rap culture in common. Happy 420 people

a reply to: Prisoner60863

It's easier to rule over people that are kept ignorant.

Greetings from the Bronx

a reply to: Prisoner60863

I live in Seattle and we have gangs that do drive-by shootings for gang initiations; or they do a group harassment and/or robbery...they think it is cool.

To me it is very disturbing the directions some of our young people of today are going...I am afraid for the children of today...I am afraid for (we the people) who choose to be good...for we are the ones these thugs are seeking.

a reply to: Prisoner60863

I just moved back to rural Indiana, my first week here a mob of young kids shot a pistol, right in the middle of downtown Indianapolis.

Wtf is going on?

Hopsin said it best recently...

"The is how sinister the industry is...

Rappers talk about popping molly and turning up...


But if you talk about God they won't play it...

Why wouldn't you wanna spread that message to somebody's mind...

That means the radio are sayin "let's play this, cos it's gonna f# these people's minds up...and that'll cause them to do more messed up things because it keeps them at a level below the ones who are successful..."



I mean, you can say "I'm drinking, I'm smoking, I'm f#ing in the club"...

But you can't talk about God...




That... Sounds like Satan to me!"

Fear not folks, for the majority of these youths will eventually grow up and fall in line like the rest of us working class plebeians.

Just like the devil worshipping Elvis generation...

And the rabble rouser protesting hippies...

Etc etc.


The rebellious hellraisers of today become the lawyers and bean counters of tomorrow... And then one day they wake up and ask themselves: "How the hell did this happen ?"

Irony - it's the food of life.

Turd Life is the next wave.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

I don't think it's Satan but I definitely believe it's the Private Prison Industry.

I don't listen to enough radio to really comment on that in any length. I will say, at most music can be a snowflake in the avalanche. On one hand, you never know what snowflake will cause the avalanche, and on the other, what's the probability of the same snowflake being predominately responsible for all avalanches.

I kind of like the safety aspect produced by hip hop, and popular culture in general. When I was young, in the mid Nineties, I moved around a lot and there were all types of styles to hoodlum's. I was caught off guard quite a few times by some preppy and valley girl-esque hoodlums. Cowboy hoodlums, yup, was not prepared. Deacon's daughter, turned out to be a hoodlum. The only group I was never surprised by was the skateboarders listening to sublime and wu tang. Proley because wu tang is for the children, you know.

Anyways, now there's more of a uniform for every group, just like there used to be, except it's now, so it's different, kind of, but not really by much.

a reply to: CranialSponge

yea those groups were not doing drivebys and gang rapes selling crack etc...

If you are treated like a savage for long enough you just might turn into one.

Please don't take this for racism, it's not.

I believe the hip-hop (or modern "rap") industry has sown the seeds partly, but so has law enforcement, the government and the very people themselves.

Black people have had a terrible history of exploitation and humiliation, in and around Africa and the world (with a few exceptions of strong black civilizations) and similar to the way black people took the hate N word and made it their own to a degree, after so long of being discriminated against, many have become the worst of what people claimed they already was.

Just look at slavery in the US, the still negative view towards blacks in many sections of society, the syphilis "experiments", hoods and ghettos, the CIA introducing crack into the black community - I could go on and on.

In short, Hip-hop is just one piece of a very big mess.

The black community as a whole needs to embrace education, school or preferably self tuition for relevant learning - and show whitey (the man, not all whiteys that we are all just flesh and blood with something special trapped inside, that is true for all creeds.

Lets all just get along, and help those who need it up into the wider community - carefully!

originally posted by: Prisoner60863
Im a person of color, living in Brooklyn Ny my whole life. I grew up listening to Hip Hop in what I would call its hey day during the mid to late 90's but thats another topic. I still listen to it everyweek but not everyday.


I see teens and young adults all day. I work in all five boro's. I travel to the poorest parts of each boro. I see people all day just hanging out acting out this thug mentality they hear and see all around them. Most of these people are straight ignorant. The rap music played on the radio has an agenda. There is really positive rap music but those that seem to control the media do not really want that played. If that is what the people want how can you blame them because thats the culture that dominiates. I have seen cool little kids that were respectful turn into straight shooters. I really think rap media is destroying poor people lives. Also the media is what it is but where the hell are the dam parents. Like seriously. Kids with guns, mobs of kids beating and robbing people all over the country. On youtube the people doing those things all look like me and my ancestors. They all have rap culture in common. Happy 420 people

I'm in Bed-stuy Brooklyn as I write.

First, yes, I grew up on 90's hip hop, but in CA (the other hip hop center). I agree that there was and is good and intelligent hip hop. But as you say, there is also the opposite. All musical genres are neutral and capable of good and bad.

However, let me push back a little bit. A lot of kids and people that you speak of are exhibiting manifestations of poverty, broken communities, gangs, drugs, etc.

WAY before hip hop or rap became popular across the US (or the world), there were thugs, gangs, drug dealers, drive by shootings, hard-a$$ people, etc. Do you see what I mean? Is so-called thugged out gangsta rap simply a mirror to that. I hardly think it created "thugs" and gangstas.

However, it may have popularized it.

I think that rap is less responsible for creating such issues in inner cities than through the media and MTV making stupid kids in either rural or suburban areas think that this is how one should act.

I saw this happen in 1994 when Snoop dog and Dr. Dre got big in California and the US. All of sudden things shifted from rock, grunge, metal, and so on on the radio to rap rap rap. Kids started dressing like gangstas. It was good to be hard. It was good to be a playa. It was cool to do drugs.

originally posted by: CranialSponge
Fear not folks, for the majority of these youths will eventually grow up and fall in line like the rest of us working class plebeians.

Just like the devil worshipping Elvis generation...

And the rabble rouser protesting hippies...

Etc etc.


The rebellious hellraisers of today become the lawyers and bean counters of tomorrow... And then one day they wake up and ask themselves: "How the hell did this happen ?"

Irony - it's the food of life.

Lol, truth for the most part.

I'm in that boat. I was a little hippy raver kid from California, and embodied a lot of the 60's counterculture (and lived in it in Nor Cal).

While I still feel it on in the inside, externally due to professional work and also kinda being over trying to "look" different or be hip, I look pretty normal and bland lol. It's funny when some younun's get all uppity about issues ranging from music to counterculture to protest and project on to me because I no longer look the part. All I can think is "I was going to crazy underground parties when you were a small child."

It can be kinda nice though to let go of all of it and live a little more relaxed life.

Just a wild idea,

We all need to start making links, building bridges with those in our community's, and those around the world with a similar world view (anti-establishment).

What if you could gather enough of a community together, the "normal" people who hold down jobs, run businesses, retirees, everyone willing to try to work together and try something new.

Then we work out the details and resources between all those people, and march down to the hoods - the more people the better, and propose to the people there living the thug life, that the members of the community (as the government has failed, and even intentionally caused most of it) will offer - Jobs (fair trials - no worky no job), Training, advice, support.

Mentor these young guys, before the wrong people do.

Also as a mark of solidarity and trust, the community could pressure the police to lighten up at least temporarily on searches, detainment and general harassment of the black community, to give them the chance that they have asked for.

Stop treating them all as criminals and they might just believe they can do something else with their lives.

It's all a bit optimistic and idealistic, but a guy can dream right?

a reply to: CranialSponge

While I agree that many of the wannabe white thugs may have a chance at a decent career in the future with some hard work, I fear that for black and white youths in the low income neighborhoods, that it will be much less probable that they will get a stable enough home life to learn the skills to live by themselves, never mind to be lawyer.

I know, I am from a fairly wealthy area, and most of my family is comfortable, one even being loaded (not that I have any relationship with them - not the loaded one) .

But my mum is/was poor raising 3 boys on benefits in a council house, I went in care at around 12 and then was fostered by my grandparents at 14, but by that time I was full of issues, which I still haven't totally shaken off - but I am working, getting trained to lay bricks - but that is luck as my dad is a bricky - and I won't be a lawyer.

My point is I had a pretty quiet upbringing compared to the poverty stricken black communities in the US, I just can't imagine many of them getting the opportunity's even I had - and how long until they want to take them even if they did?

Took me a while!

a reply to: Prisoner60863
I hear teens rattling off hip hop music with their ear phones on. To me it sounds gibberish. The kids laugh at me when I say it sounds like they're possessed.

I think today's poor behavior of teens stems from many things. I have to agree the violent lyrics and glorification of a thugs life in hip hop music plays a part. In addition to that, I feel the following also contributes to today's out of control teens.

-Poor role modeling of celebrities and athletes

-Immoral role modeling in reality shows

- Babies having babies

- Lack of parenting

-Government taking discipline rights away from parents

-Violent video games

-Lack of physical activities due to video games

-Lack of face to face communication due to cell phone texting and Face Book

-Vulgarity in public, the media and music has become acceptable

-Easy access to online pornography

-Lack of consequences for poor behavior

All of this has created a generation of lazy, mean, rude, vulgar, violent and disrespectful teens. Definitely not a good outlook for this country's future.

a reply to: Prisoner60863

What you are also witnessing, is quite simply, the rise of crime in NYC.

For 21 years straight, crime was on the decline in NYC, and now in the last 2 or 3 years crime has risen 200-300% or more.

I was all over NYC, and 5-10 years ago, things were quite peaceful, but I am seeing something stirring in the last couple years. Activity, and people about, more homeless people walking the streets. Maybe for many people the economy is good, but for many others it is not. It depends on where you come from naa I mean.

a reply to: Prisoner60863

I don't know man? We can talk about the Illuminati or the 1% deliberately taking over the music industry and infecting the kids minds, simply because Bob Dylan had way to much influence over the masses and damn near took the whole system down in the sixties, with his revolutionary music.

But at the end of the day, who really cares? If it wasn't the music industry, they'd just find another way to keep our frustration at bay and keep us from starting a revolution against the system.

There is a few gangsta rap songs I get into. But over all I never really understood why my friends did listen to it as teenagers in the 90's. I mean, what does a non-compliant white boy living in Australia know about the American black slums?

I have been obsessed with Eminem for the last 15 years though and still listen to him nearly everyday. Is he the reason I still sag and wear nike air shoes in my early 30's? Or the reason my dialogue tends to have some urban slang to it? Probably!

So I'm not saying music doesn't have some influence over us. But I haven't murdered my ex yet and dropped her body in some lake, nor do I have any intention too. So I really question the logic in claiming this music has any influence over our moral behavior.

Though, I can say that Eminem's music has given me a way to relieve a lot of frustration over the years and is probably the only reason I never ended up on my face in cuffs, being done with some domestic violence charge. If I never had that 'Kim' song to turn up full blast and scream the lyrics out to, who knows where my frustration at my deceiving lair of a girlfriend in my younger days would have been distinguished on? lol.

I don't even know if my heart would still be beating away today, if it wasn't for eminem. His music really has taught me to just flip that bird and say I don't care what anyone thinks about me!!!



"Or for anyone who's ever been through s# in they lives
So they sit and they cry at night wishing they'd die
'til they throw on a rap record and they sit and they vibe
We're nothing to you, but we're the fking s# in their eyes"

You should check out some kiwi hip hop.

a reply to: Prisoner60863

When authoritarians impose their will on you daily WTF do you think the theme of popular culture will be? The faux indignation by authoritarians gives me the urge to vomit.

Wake up. It's an expression of protest. To be a "Thug" in your vernacular simply means you don't respect authority. Can you correctly identify the "Thug" in this picture?



I thought so. Fear the neck under your boot. There will be perdition.