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Last weekend, two men were shot at an afterparty for a book-signing of an unauthorized account of Dr. Dre and West Coast hiphop down in Tukwila. One of the men died from multiple gunshot wounds and was identified to the press late last night as a 24-year-old from Renton named Deon T. Guidry.
We've been following the story via the P-I, wincing at the familiar knee-jerk comments (Socially Inept writes, "People tend to get shot when you mix young people, alcohol, and hip-hop culture"), and wishing we didn't have to have this conversation about hiphop and violence yet again.
But the conversation's just not over yet. Every time an even tangentially rap-related tragedy such as the Tukwila shootings occur, we have to re-examine and carefully prod at the racially loaded questions that arise. Is there something inherent in rap (or in rock, in metal, in screamo) that gives rise to violence? Why does it seem like every club shooting happens on a hiphop night? Even Alicia Keys is talking about violence and rap: "‘Gangsta rap’ was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. ‘Gangsta rap’ didn’t exist," she told Blender magazine in an interview published this month.
"Hip Hop Sucks" by iammeltron.
Though it tends to bring out the reactionists, racists, and frighteningly music-obsessed, it is a conversation that's too important to dismiss; it touches on some of the country's most important values: our basic need for security, freedom of expression, right to bear arms, and the transcendental power of music to change lives and speak truth.
Oh, and by the way, from the P-I's article on the Tukwila shootings:
Police had no reason to suspect the shooting was connected to the authors or the organizers, Murphy said. There was no word on whether police think it was gang-related.
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"the country's most important values: our basic need for security, freedom of expression, right to bear arms, and the transcendental power of music to change lives and speak truth."
Don't think the fourth has quite the stature of the first three.
I guess you could say that music falls under freedom of expression, yeah.
"There was no word on whether police think it was gang-related" doesn't always mean it wasn't.
Hip-hop causes shootings like skyscrapers cause terorrist attacks. It's ridiculous to hold any aspect of art responsible for the behavior of fearful, weak minded people. Art can trigger the entire spectrum of emotions, which is part of its function. It is entirely up to the individual how the emotion presents itself.
But people will not question the motives and psychological development of the shooter. Abuse, failure, fear, greed, jealousy, rage... these are some causes of violence. But now if caught, we label the shooter as crazy, throw him in an institution that gives even less shit about him than the one that developed him into a skillful shooter.
Individulas are responsible for their behavior. I am not blaming the system. However, our lives are encompassed not within one system but rather a plethora of overlapping systems (and values) within families, cultures, occupations, TV channels, communites, religions, states, nations ... the list could go on forever.
Instead of forgetting and crossing our fingers, why don't we wonder what combination of systems and values (or lack thereof) generated a response so intense that a human being, at least for a split second, thought that murder was just.
If we see patterns and commonalities in violence, we have already taken the first step to further understand ourselves. Society at large understands that the victim and shooter cannot be saved. Blaming art (or any one thing at all) is shallow, thoughtless, immediate gratification and much more fun than studying ourselves.
If we stop answering questions so quickly with headlines and consider the overwhelming amount of difficult questioning that is necessary to better our species, we won't have to work so hard wondering why and fixing people because we will have already begun to address the problem.
I once read somewhere there is a correlation between poverty and violence. That sounds about right.
Actually, the correlation between shootings and evil is probably a lot more spot on.
Great, we solved it! Evil poor people are to blame for violence. Good job.
I guess we don't have to talk about this until the next shooting.
"There was no word on whether police think it was gang-related" doesn't always mean it wasn't.
It's not whether it was gang-related or not, it was whether it was related to the music or not. Which police don't believe it is.
I grew up in Tukwila. For 18 years I sat there and watched a lot of stupid people do a lot of stupid things for stupid reason. Music was never one of them.
You can argue the violent aspects of hip-hop's culture, because it's there. Just as the overt-drug use in Rock and Roll culture is there. But to say that a type of music is inherently violent is I think the argument popping up and the argument the author is hoping to address.