I watched a Locked Up marathon on MSNBC and one of the most consistent themes that popped up in every single episode were inmates fighting to get in front of the camera to spit rhymes. When they show the peoples names and crimes they also list their occupation and most of them seem to list “aspiring rapper” as their occupation.
Are our prisons a huge resource of spectacular rappers? Could the next eminem or Jay-Z be sitting in cellblock D right now?
It’s easier to fake rapping skill than basketball skill.
It’s not just prison, there are infinity billion of them free too.
“Spectacular”, no, though. Most aren’t anything special, of course.
Isn’t rap more popular among poor black men than among other demographic groups? And aren’t poor black men massively over-represented in prison populations? Plus it’s something you can do with no tools except your mind and mouth.
The lack of women causes lots of men to turn to rape. Oh, rappers. Sorry.
A simple fact is that prisons are full of young black males. I’m not surprised that a lot of them are aspiring rappers. As a young white male, I waned to be a metal singer…
Joe
Rapping is seen by many impoverished youths as a way to “get out of the hood” and achieve riches and fame. Instead of doing it in a way that would require, you know, actual hard work and education.
I don’t think that either Eminem nor Jay-Z have ever seen the inside of a prison. Unless a video or movie was being filmed there.
I got bad news for hip hop haters: College kids want to be rappers. Cubicle workers want to be rappers. Movie stars want to be rappers. NBA stars want to be rappers. Kids in the slums of India want to be rappers. Gangsters in Liberia want to be rappers. South African youth want to be rappers. White kids in London want to be rappers. I can’t say I’m surprised that prisoners want to be rappers.
Your point is?
Joe
…in the OP… :rolleyes:
There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo.
Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second.
The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card.
I just wanted to add my list of facts that didn’t really have anything to do with the OP.
The fact that those two rappers haven’t been in prison has zero relevance to whether or not prison is full of aspirin rappers, mr. Rolleyes.
Joe
Um… make that ASPIRING rappers…
Joe
Fine, maybe Will Smith will be a more relevant rapper for you. The point is that both of those two borrow from gangsta rap, they aren’t known for (major) clashes with the law.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are lots of aspiring rappers in prison. A large population of young males looking to entertain themselves with few ways to do so? Why not turn to a music form that commonly appeals to men of that dmeographic and requires few or no instruments? And some of them probably do try to get outside attention drawn to their rapping; there’s a tiny but non-zero chance that they could get some notoriety and maybe have a career rapping when they get out, or even mount some kind of public pressure campaign and get a pardon or parole.
Whether any of them are any good… Well, if there are as many as you suggest, and I think it’s quite possible that there are, then probably some of them are pretty good strictly by the law of averages. The average prison rapper is probably not much better than the average rapper who’s not serving a sentence, though.
That’s awesome! Still irrelevant, but awesome.
Bakeries are full of pies.
But look at these pies! They’re not from the bakery!
Joe
I have an order of non-white swans here … who wants to sign?
I’m inclined to distrust anything that appears on TV. However, in this particular case I’d not be surprised if there was a large population of wanna-be rappers in prison. In addition to the demographic trends already mentioned, there’s the basic fact that there’s a strong tie between the ideas of hip hop and violence and crime. Many songs in the genre are about violent crime, and many prominent rappers have actually been involved with violent crime.
Keep in mind that the prisoners you see in shows like Locked Up are a self-selected group. They’re the prisoners who signed waivers to appear on television - so you’re going to see all the wannabee rappers because they’re looking for some publicity.
It’s like if you watch Survivor you get the mistaken impression that the majority of typical Americans are looking to break into acting.