Let's Face It, Rappers Are Just Diamond Encrusted Thugs

It used to be that inner city youths aspired to be sports figures to get out of poverty and get pussy. Now you don't have to throw the ball the furthest, make great rebounds or even really practice, it seems all you have to do is work out, rhyme words to music and have a record (criminal that is) to get a record deal. Let's face it, rappers are just diamond encrusted thugs - Don't Get Me Started!

Don't even start with me that rap music is an art form to be compared with jazz. Guess, what? Black people starting both types of music is where the similarity ends as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who has listened to Ella Fitzgerald could not possibly compare that artistry to the dreck (Yiddish for "shit") that passes for music known as rap. And please don't tell me that I'm too old to understand or appreciate the music. You see there is no music to appreciate. Oh wait, let me rephrase that, they take a song we all loved from the 70's or 80's steal the melody of it so we think we're going to be listening to a classic and then they talk all over it with such clever lyrics as, "Fuck up your brother, suck your mother them whores don't know shit." Oh yeah, that's just as artful as say, "Somewhere there's music, how faint the tune. Somewhere there's heaven, how high the moon."

So the news of late is that rapper TI (no, I'm not talking about the recently re-branded Treasure Island hotel here in Las Vegas). TI, whose real name is Clifford Harris was arrested on Saturday in an Atlanta shopping mall parking lot for possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers and possession of firearms by guess what? A convicted felon. Lest the old adage be tarnished, the hip hop awards show did in fact go on...even without TI. (Who still managed to walk away with two awards from his nine nominations.) Rapper "Common" was quoted as saying, "I salute my guy TI, who also won, wherever he is" during his acceptance speech. Does anyone else in the world find this disgusting? I really don't care that "Common" and "TI" won CD of the year and what's more "saluting" the felon that was just arrested continues to send a dangerous message to all of America that in order to make it you have to break it (the law that is).

I'm going to go further on the limb to which I've all ready climbed. I don't think that Tu Pac was an artist that needs to be revered after his life was taken by another thug. I didn't really think all that much of his music when he was alive. And just because you die, it doesn't make you talented, it just makes you...well, dead. I'm not saying that his life wasn't worthwhile or that the loss of it wasn't devastating. I'm angry any time I see life taken for what I call, "N.A.R." (No Apparent Reason) and I'm sorry for all the families that have lost their famous rapper children to violence that is not only encouraged but applauded in that industry. But at least his family can turn out a posthumous album and make millions. What about all the kids that die aspiring to be their rapper role models? Does Diddy want to talk about that or is he too busy dressing in Armani and his own clothes line to be bothered?

Am I angry, you bet but the bigger question is why isn't anyone else angry? I'm not talking about censorship, labeling their albums offensive like we didn't have free speech in this country. Who cares how the albums are labeled, ask yourself if it isn't more important what they're promoting and setting as the example? And just because MTV or the like have started bleeping out words like "ho" in my opinion doesn't make them any less responsible for the deaths that are on all these rappers hands, the record labels that make a fortune from them and the networks that air this crap.

And isn't that what it all comes down to anyway? The money that is made? No one really cares that they're making art, they just want to make enough money to "pimp out their ride" buy a diamond encrusted crucifix longer than their penis and hopefully end up with a reality show where cheap women with low self esteem and necklines throw themselves at them because they've acquired so much money.

Here's the deal. Throw TI and the rest of his merry band into jail and be done with it. Let them work out and make their music from a penitentiary and then let's give the money that they make for their "art" to get some health care for the masses and help the homeless. Both groups are much more deserving of the money than the rappers. And while we're at it, let's throw a little money to education in this country so that the children being left behind in the current education system will be educated and see the life possibilities in front of them for working hard and not just throwing a ball or talking to music. Not everyone is going to be an American Idol or the next rapper with a fur coat and diamonds on every finger and it's not wrong for our kids to want to be these things as long as they understand what goes with it. Taylor Hicks is now opening local farm equipment retail locations in his home town and TI is being arrested in parking lots.

Let's face it; being famous isn't what it used to be. Anyone can be famous, if you have sex and (you'll pardon the expression) leak the tape on the Internet, have a good or bad audition on American Idol or appear on Girls Gone Wild you can be famous. The possibilities in today's world for becoming famous are endless and I get that's the way things are but to become famous for committing and advocating violent behavior used to make you infamous and call me whatever you like that I think that's the way it should still be. I don't and won't listen to rap and I sure as hell won't watch award shows celebrating rappers. Let's face it, rappers are just diamond encrusted thugs - Don't Get Me Started!

Read More Scott @ www.somelikeitscott.com