“Who The Kids Gonna Listen Too? I Guess Me If It Isn’t You.”
Can you imagine this being the rhetorical question asked by all rappers? Presently, who else is engaging our youth? Most elders are too scared to engage our youth. Too many of our youth are too disrespectful to our elders to be engaged by them. It’s obvious that many parents aren’t engaging their own children. And nobody else is intervening. Remember years ago, the television commercial that raised the question, “Do you know where your child is?” I think the new question should be, “When was the last time you engaged your child in a conversation?’ Or better yet, “When was the last time you engaged any child in a conversation?”
Written by Cornell Dews
So when Kanye asked the question and responded by answering, “I guess ME if it isn’t YOU,” it appeared to me that he acknowledge the fact that he’s filling a void by someone who blatantly vacated the position. Sidebar: I’m a big fan of Ms. Hill’s, but believe me when I tell you, that line was bigger then Lauryn and applicable to far too many.
We’re now witnessing, Hip Hop versus America, the Congressional Hearings, Bill O’Reilly and others, the countless written articles and numerous Internet bloggers who attempt to solely hold the artist at fault. Now by no means do I intend to give these artists a pass, but in all honesty, how can they alone be faulted for the mess we find our community in? Should they be more responsible with the words some so eloquently articulate? Certainly they should. Should they be held accountable for the imagery they project through their songs and videos? Certainly they should. But should they solely be held responsible for the ills inflicted upon our community? Hell No!
I love hip hop music and certainly can appreciate true lyricism. I watch the videos and listen to the music (minus the profanity) with my nine year old child. And as we’re listening to the music and watching videos, I engage her in conversation about what she’s listening to, what she’s seeing and her interpretation of it all. Oh yeah, I engage mine. I ask her opinion of the “video vixen.” I explain to my daughter, based upon my interpretation what was meant by certain lyrics. And as soon as I turn my television or radio off, that “lifestyle” that’s projected is no longer witnessed or observed by my daughter while in my presence or in our home. My wife doesn’t dress like the young ladies seen in most hip hop videos. My daughter never heard me refer to her mother as a “bitch” or a “ho.” I’m not smoking blunts or drinking forties in the presence of my child or any child. She has never seen me sell drugs. She hasn’t even glimpsed my “legally registered” handguns, that I purchased solely for one purpose. And no I haven’t killed anybody nor do I intend to. Hip Hop can’t make me do those things. And I bet I’m no different as a parent, then most rappers.
However, I realize that I’m a grown man, so I can discern reality from entertainment and teach it. The question is more pertinent for those who can’t discern reality from entertainment because for many their reality is what’s being depicted on screen or heard through speakers. That’s when it’s suggested that rap artists need to be more responsible with their lyrics and held accountable for projecting a lifestyle that they’re so far removed from, just for the sake of album sales. But where is our responsibility? You know, those of us who can relate to the stories from past experiences or the fact they we were raised in similar circumstances, but managed to (1) survive and (2) change our conditions. Where’s our responsibility, to intervene where we see no intervention taking place? Where’s our responsibility to talk to the youth in our community? Where’s our responsibility to expose our youth to something outside of their neighborhood? Where’s our responsibility to mentor? Where’s our responsibility to bridge the gap between our elders and our youth. What are we doing? Or to make it even more personal, “what are you doing?”
So, who are the kids gonna listen to other then those who are already speaking?
Written by Cornell Dews
15 Comments so far
SOME KIDS OR TEENAGERS ARE OING TROUGH OUT HERE IN THE WORLD.SO, WHO DO THEY TURN TO? ITS NOT ALWAYS GOING TO BE SOMEBODY POSITIVE.BUT THAT ONE PERSON WHO LISTENS TO THEM WILL AND CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THEIR LIFE.WE HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE YOUNG KIDS AND SUGGEST WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT THIS.
First…and i dont know what this thing bout ima read it later…hahah
Vitamin Water
50 Told Me Go Head And Switch Yo Style Up…
Vitamin Water!, TRY IT! :@
I have a 13 year old daughter & besides teaching & talking to her about my opinion & my view on things, I also listen and converse with her about her opinion & view on things. We have to talk to our children & we also have to listen to them as well…………
Cornell Dews - “Who The Kids Gonna Listen Too? I Guess Me If It Isn’t You.”…
Can you imagine this being the rhetorical question asked by all rappers? Presently, who else is engaging our youth? Most elders are too scared to engage our youth. Too many of our youth are too disrespectful to our elders to be engaged by them. It’…
I just think that there is more than one influence in all life. Not only do flowers need water to grow, it needs the sun, and not only does it need the sun, it needs nuturing…I said all that to say that people are the same. There’s going to be more than one influence in your life, and it’s up to you to decipher what’s going to make you grow because unlike a flower, it can’t take care of itself. Kids are smarter than what everone is making them out to be. I was a kid when I was first exposed to vulgar hip hop like NWA and Luke…I heard it, my parents didn’t talk to me about it–hip hop wasn’t the first time I heard that language. I didn’t let it shape my mind into thinking that I am what they were saying???? I saw music for what it was, it’s not my parent, or my God. It was a sound, a beat, a thing. Could it have influenced me? Sure if I let it…but it didn’t. People need to stop acting like kids are so mindless that they can’t tell the difference between this, that or the other. Sure everyone doesn’t have parents, but everyone that didn’t doesn’t attribute their lives to music and if they did then ok. But Nelly, Snoop, Pac, or whoever never gave me anything but a dope sound to bob my head to because that’s all that I accepted it to be to me
real talk
RealTalkNY brings the real. And yall said they fell off. tisk tisk. I like reading Cornell Dews posts, he always writes about about what i’m thinking, and great minds think alike, aha!
Cornell, you’re writing is the primary reason I still come to this site.
I think that parents have tried talking to their children, but as you said, kids have becoming even more and more disrespectful of their elders, whether their elders are grandparents or even older siblings. They fall into this psychologically molded impression of consumerism and extreme individualism. I’m only 19 yet I can still clearly see the disparity amongst my generation and the one below mine.
Parents definately need to be talking to their children more, yet in a respectful way. As one of the commenters mentioned before, children are smarter these days, thats why parents cant talk down to kids like they themselves probably were talked to. Parents need to have an open forum with their children rather than telling them to “do this” or “dont do that.”
i just say whoop yo kids ass it worked me and everybody i know…..
i second that opinion, whup dat ass as hard as u have to.
yea i know its about more than that, luckily i dont have kids yet, just siblings and i’m the father figure for them.
we got the shit beat out of us, and we was still bad but not as bad as kids today. the way society is going kids are growing up twenty times faster in this country. u can instill morals and values and things like that but kids will eventually rebel, its life its gonna happen, and all your teaching will have a reverse effect just cuz they 14 and u aint cool in they eyes.
i think sex is wayyyy to acceptable today in children, i hear kids singing it “it hot in hurr, take off all your clothes” and they dont know what it means.
when i was lil girls had cooties, now lil niggas talkin bout i’ma grab her booty
Basically we need to grow up! This topic is pretty broad and doesn’t really dig into the problem.
I’ve thought about this situation and I tell grown men to young kids what I feel is right (in VA I had to tell some lil dude he was jus being foul mouthed even though his point was valid)
But there are factors that fit into the situation. Like paper chasing. people put escalating their income over instilling some serious values into their children. Then there are the parents who have to work 2 jobs jus to make ends meet and seriously don’t have much time to spend with their children due to the system we live in. So those kids grow up in peer groups gangs and sh!t like that. its really an bleek situation and as a culture or race we need to figure out what we can sacrifice to really move ahead!
this was a good read and i feel like music is a strong influence on wat kids think but its more visual more girls wanna be video hoes and shake they ass then niggaz wanna be killers or sellin drugs so the women need to set a better model for lil females…
I semi agree with JB in post 13. Most lil dudes really don’t want to do a lotta of the sh!t they do but the feel you gotta have that under your belt to get the chicks therefore they go and ruin they futures!
But females can’t be blamed totally there still is a precedent set by older people who these kids are following.
Also parents need to stop exposing children to adult situations and topics…LET THE KIDS BE KIDS!
Kids are growing up too fast and are being exsposed to adult stuff, I think parents should monitor kids doing more than they do especially as far as music goes cause little girls see all these videos hoes in music videos and want to be like them. Parents should talk to their children more than they do their is a lack of communication these days between parents and their children.