Much to my horror, my 10 year old son likes rap music. He’s been pestering me to buy him a emiem CD and a 50 cent CD.
There is no way I’m buying him a emiem CD, even a Wal-mart edited one. I don’t know much about 50 cent, but I haven’t heard anything good.
The only rapper, I know of, that I’ll let him hear is Will Smith.
Are there any others ?
Thanks.
Digable Planets
No hardcore stuff, it’s kind of a jazz rap. And it’s defininately suitable for kids- no gangsta stuff, they seem to have more of a Beat Generation influence to their lyrics and style.
I can’t stand rap, but I really like the one CD of theirs I own.
Um, went to look at the name-- “Reachin’ (a new refutation of time and space)” from 1993.
I don’t think RunDMC cursed too much or discussed inappropriate subjects. The same with the Beastie Boys.
The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is a great CD and I think it may be OK for kids.
Why is it so horrible that your kid likes rap?
i’ve not really done any rap music for a while, and what i’ve heard lately is really not suitable for little kids.
i’ll second digable planets, though some of their stuff is political with some harsh language. I LOVE BDP and KRS-1…very good beats, lyrics are very positive (he actuallly tells stories, goes over things like african history, etc.), same with GangStar.
Maybe try some of Will Smith’s stuff? he’s fairly entertaining…i still have my orginal tape of ‘I’m the Rapper, He’s the DJ’ from way back.
like i said, i’m not very current…for what it’s worth, i am and Eminem fan, though i would not recommend any but a few of his songs for kids.
I’m guessing because he’s 10 and because the most popular rap is pretty vulgar it requires a thread like this to find something that’s not.
i agree with the suggestion from stonebow for both digable planets and will smith…
also, if you happen to be a mac user, you can use the new itunes store and get clean copies of 50 cent, and i think eminem as well(but i’m not sure about eminem)… it’s kind of a compromise, but while it’ll take out the profanity and probably most of the gun references, it won’t take out the fact that eminem’s rapping about killing his mom, so that’s a parental kind of decision… then again, as will smith said, parents just don’t understand 
good luck…
I would suggest early DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. I’m sure you can find some copies at a used CD store or something. All their big hits were pretty harmless lyrically (Girls ain’t nothing but trouble, Parents just don’t understand, Summertime).
Somehow I just don’t think this kid is going to be happy with music that was out of style ten years ago. DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince was considered outmoded to the point of geekyness when I was ten (and I’m a college graduate now). I owned Parents Just Don’t Understand on record!
Kids know what they hear on the radio, what their friends listen to and what they see on MTV. They arn’t so easy to trick. And no matter what you do, he’s going to hear these songs anyway. You can explain to him why you don’t want to spend your money on them, but you can’t convince him that the music isn’t cool.
My advice is to talk to him, and maybe to his friends. Find out what he likes in the music, and see if you two together can’t come up with some agreement. I’m sure he has some ideas about music you’d approve of.
what about arrested development?
I’d just go ahead and get him the Wal-Mart versions that are edited…
An edited Nelly CD wouldn’t be bad either…
Only because I hate it and I’m going to have ot hear it too.
Perhaps Aceyalone. He might not like it though.
you might give me phi me a try. i’ve always found his lyrics to be very positive for the most part. he had a song on the reality bites and strange days soundtracks.
you can check out his stuff at his website right here…
Kriss Kross’ll make you Jump Jump!
Just a thought, but possibly Sean Paul? He could be saying the most vile things ever, but you (or at least anyone I know) can’t decipher word one.
And definitely, whatever you do, stay away from D12. It’s really, really good rap, but there is the most vile things ever in the (understandable) lyrics.
boogie monsters’ first album is really nice, it’s called “riders of the storm.” they’re actually christian emcees, but they don’t hit you over the head with it. actually, i don’t think they mention god or jesus at all by name. and they make catchy stuff.
digable planets is good. your kid wouldn’t catch the marxism of it all, and if he did, what does a 10 year old want with socialism?
de la soul’s stuff might be good to look at. their last couple albums feature a lot of guests so the language tends to get a little blue, but their eralier stuff is pretty tame. sexual innuendo, but nothing a 10 year old would figure out for a couple more years. no gun talk, no drugs, and no “bitches and hoes” stuff.
blackalicious is at least a contemporary group who keeps aways from the “gangsta” leanings of the current trend. you could check them out. “melodica” is a good album. i don;t have their new one.
but like a prior poster said, your son wants eminem and fitty. i doubt he’ll want to hear hiphop from 1989.
you prolly have to pick your battles here. fifty raps about drugs a lot. nelly raps about sex. eminem… well, everyone knows about em’s propensity for misogyny, violence, homophobia, matricide… do i need to continue? you can’t win them all.
i would try to download what you could, make a decision, buy the edited disk, and listen to it a couple times through. a lot of the stuff will sail right over his head, and he won’t be able to understand a quarter of the words anyway. trust me, i’ve been listenening to rap for 15 years, and half the stuff they talk about i can’t even decipher…
Now, I’m dating myself here, but 'owzabout:
These will all be far too aged and untrendy for some young chap, mind.
oh, and i forgot to say this:
with the ubiquity of cd burners today, your son will probably get an unedited version of whatever he wants if you don’t get it for him.
when i was his age, we had my neighbor’s older brother buy us eazy-e’s “eazy duz it”. that was right at the beginning of tipper gore’s labeling crusade,and you had to be 16 or 18 to get anything with the “explicit lyrics” sticker. it was pretty rotten, and we wore it out, got tired of it, and threw it out. when i got old enough to ride my bike to the record store i bought a lot of stuff my parents hated. they went through my room and threw out a lot of tapes. i just got copies from my friends.
anyway, it didn’t scar me. i might have swore a little more, but never around adults or at school. it didn’t make me violent, it didn’t make me hate women. i understood it as a song, as a story, as fiction. maybe not every kid can, but i think adults don’t give kids enough credit.
so i don’t know what you should do. well, you can talk to him about it. he won’t be happy about that, but you can explain your concerns to him. maybe listen to the cd with him. yeah, talk about major akward moment, but hey, that’s what you’re both in for the next 10 years…
Slight hijack: are there edited Eminem CDs out there? Is it standard procedure at Walmart to “protect” their buyers from what they choose to buy?
Not strictly rap, but Outkast does some really great stuff, on interesting topics, and using vocabulary that’s atypical in rap/hip hop. There are clean versions of all their albums, but even the explicit versions aren’t that explicit.