Rap/Hip-Hop and the Media

While rap/hip-hop music is one of the most popular genres of music in today's society it does not always do much to help with racism problems that are still present to this day. Songs about how rappers are going to attack each other and how they will have their way with women does not help stereotypes that African Americans are a violent race. These stereotypes are only enhance by other forms media. Looking at the Wikipeia pages of Tupac, T.I., and 50 Cent there are direct links to their legal troubles and for the most part these are the biggest sections on the page. Generally, one will most likely see a rapper on the news because they've been arrested. What both of these forms of media fail to show is the charitable work that these artists are involved in. For all three of the artists that I've mentioned their Wikipedia page does not even list any of the charity work that they have done. A quick Google search shows that Tupac was involved with "A Place Called Home" program that helps underprivileged children, T.I. regularly helps with the Wheel Chair Charity Inc. to get wheel chairs to those in need of them, and 50 Cent is on the Board of Directors for the G-Unity Foundation which helps low-income communities. Even though a lot of songs in rap do not help them it is easy to say that the media is also playing devil's advocate.