Rap Influences

By Ashley Dreier and Keisha Ramos

Guns, violence, money, drugs, and sexually explicit content are what most people think of when they hear the word “rapper.”

Famous rap artist Remy Ma was arrested Saturday, July 21, for attempted murder after she shot a friend following a verbal dispute at a Meatpacking District night spot. Other famous faces like Ja Rule and Li’l Wayne were also arrested on Sunday night. When Ja Rule was stopped for speeding, police officers found a .40 caliber pistol in his car. Within an hour, Li’l Wayne’s tour bus was stopped and cops dispatched to the scene smelled marijuana and discovered a .40 caliber pistol. With these and other indiscretions, are today’s rappers good or bad role models for their many fans?

“I respect them as artists, but I don’t always like their material,” says Eileen Kleinman, 54, a Bronxite.“They can be negative [because of] the language they use in some of their songs.” Although unsure about the message that rappers send through their music,she still allows her three children to listen to hip hop, hoping they
don’t act on any possibly negative influences.

Jean Ibara, an 18 year-old teenager from Westchester Square, thinks it boils down to a matter of dollar bills. “They got money,” she says.“If they got money, they gonna do things like that.”

Louis Sojo, 35, a sergeant and supervisor of the New York Police Department, believes everyone is an individual and doesn’t put all rap artists in one category.“Everyone who is in the spotlight should be conscious of what their doing, because everyone is a role model,” he says.