Gangs and rap music

When i was in high school, there were a lot of kids who were very fascinated with gangs and being a "thug." This typically tends to come from rap music more than any other genre of music and i find it very disappointing at how young teens are given many opportunities and a future are being influenced by the lives of Chicago rappers such as Chief Keef, Fredo Santana, lil Reese, and by the media in general. Many people i knew in high school were still young, immature, and most probably depended on their parents. They think being a gangster and fighting is cool, but they are in reality posing a false appearance. The most likely reason they act tough is very simply because they are easily influenced by a "gangster" attitude. They don't have a strong mindset or attitude of their own. People like this don't realize how gangsters actually live and especially rappers like Chief Keef. When i hear people holler "GBE", "Oblock", "Three hunna", it makes me think they speak in ignorance. From what i hear, gangsters really have no regard for human life and truly do kill in cold-blood. The personalities that young high school teens show are too fabricated and if they truly saw exactly how these rappers live, they wouldn't support that kind of life-style because they never grew up in that kind of environment.

The media tends to glamorize sex, drugs, violence, and most rappers i listen to tend to make gangs seem cool and they're your "friends" when nothing could be further from the truth. Perhaps i'm wrong, but from what i hear from some former gang-members, they won't help you progress as an individual and if you are honest with yourself, you would not want to live their kind of life-style. Honestly, i was a bit shocked to learn that Chief Keef was actually a gangster rapper ever since he released his famous song "I don't like" and a bit surprised that many high school teens were listening to him, already behaving as if they were gangsters by saying things like "Free my n-gga such and such.." When they weren't even imprisoned. A simple word of advice, don't throw up the blood sign if you have never killed anyone or went to prison, don't act like your in prison if you've never been in prison, and don't rap about being a gangster if your not a gangster. I know of a couple of real gangster rappers and they are nothing like many people who use the label "O.G" like a fashionable trend.

At the end of the day, gangs really have nothing to do with any kind of music, but i think you should always rap about your life experiences, struggles, and inner emotions. Don't ever rap about being someone you are not because people will appreciate you more for who you truly are.