To be shocked and appalled by music video by rapper "AarDee" (and also shocked that there doesn't seem to be any backlash that I can find?

[theDudesmummy]

OK, so my world would never normally intersect with the world of heavy UK teen rap (or whatever the correct name is for the genre), but I was with my DS at a barber shop today, a trendy one where they show the latest music videos, and while his hair was being cut I happened to see the video to a song called Hello Mate by this guy AarDee (Googling him I see he is 19 and comes from Brighton).

I am very far from prudish or pearl-clutching, was a pretty counter-culture heavy rocker in my day etc. I've seen and done a lot. I am not easily shocked and am strongly in favour of freedom of expression. But: this video has to be seen to be believed. Unless I am mistaken and I was watching some sort of elaborate piss-take, it depicts a couple (AarDee and a girl) going into a shop with a baseball bat and gaffer tape, terrorising and tying up the staff, wrecking the shop, stealing stuff including lots of booze and then retreating to a mansion to celebrate merrily with a huge pool party. The main dude "AarDee" has a constant arrogant and self-satisfied look on his face.

Now, I am sure many people would agree that this guy is probably an arrogant little twerp (irrespective of the merits of the music, which would be subjective, but which I imagine a lot of people like, given his apparent popularity). And the entertainment/music industry has always been full of arrogant twerps and worse, obviously. So that's no big deal. But this is a graphic video, presumably aimed at teens as the boy is a teen, totally glorifying crime and violence, revelling in it. I had a look around the internet for what I imagined would be multiple mentions of this angle, but all I could find was fulsome praise of the guy and his music, including this song. No-one mentioning what the video actually shows. This is just normal then?

Am I alone in thinking this is a real problem? Am I missing something here?

@PonyTime right yeah!

@TheOriginalEmu I was shocked not by the video itself (I work in a field where I encounter descriptions of very serious, sometimes bizarre and extreme, violence etc all the time, in real life) but by the fact that it seems that it is completely mainstream and unquestioned to depict dissocial behaviour by young people as "summer fun". I realise I have no bedfellows in this view though (at least not here) so will retreat, muttering furiously, to my videos of early Led Zeppelin...

I don't know if this is an age thing either but I think that youth culture now seems a bit bleak in comparison to when I was younger. Goths were bleak but a clear affectation, much of today's youth culture seems to me to be a bit more committed to whatever they're into and there's much more complete lifestyles rather than just liking certain music and dressing a certain way.

Not seen it, but every time I see Arrdee (or however you spell it) I can’t get past the idea of what an irritating wee shite he must have been at school 😒

I remember the smug satisfaction of the woman in the Take That video 'How Deep Is Your Love'. She had them all tied up and pushed them off a cliff at the end.

I'm sure that started the spiral of violence in music videos.

Shocking stuff.

Ok, is no one bothered this was playing in a barbers shop in public where young boys could go? I’m all for not censoring…but isn’t their any moral obligation on shop owner not to allow children to see this sort of stuff - like what we have water sheds for? It’s like people (men) watching porn on buses or trains I. View of others - there’s an appropriate time and place for that.

Though I guess it is the OP who should have asked owner to skip that video or walked out with her son. She didn’t have to stay knowing it was a “trendy “ video showing barbers.

People don't record music videos

It will have been on a music channel

Therefore it will have been deemed suitable for showing at that time

In the Telephone video by Lady Gaga and Beyonce they poison someone amongst other things.I doubt anyone would have thought ooh that looks good ill copy that.I think you're over reacting a bit.

You would expect a teen boy to walk out a barbers with his hair half done because his mum didn't like a music video?? 😂 Yeah, righto.

Yes Arrdee is a little wanker, that's sort of his whole thing though - 'I don't give girls flowers, I'll give you good wood though'. I always think his mum much have such mixed feelings lmao.

It’s just acting I doubt most teens would emulate it in real life
music culture has always kick back - the stones and the pistols shocked people at the time
as for drill music - there are some amazing female drill/rap artists from the UK - my teens introduced me to - especially Abigail Asante

Have you watched it?

The little drug but at the end is probably the only but that would get it pulled up as unsuitable.

The bit in the shop is pretty horrible but also a pretty sanitised version of violence.

Do people or have people ever taken music videos as instructional though?

I don't know if this is an age thing either but I think that youth culture now seems a bit bleak in comparison to when I was younger

War On Terror > Housing Crisis > Austerity > Brexit > Hyperinflation.

Can't blame them for a bleak outlook, really.

Drill and rap are overwhelming black guys/gangs glorying in violence and culture drugs and sexism. There are drill song in which gangs boast about killings other from another gang.
Kelvins Coffin is just one song in which rappers boast about killing someone (Kelvin was his real name)
Of course it would not do to say this is unacceptable.

If it was a white gang you can be sure it would be called out.
Accept that this is sometimes depicted in films but many of these songs refer to real life events not fantasy

It really isn’t comparable to Tarantino (or any film where characters are acting out a storyline) to me though. I think the difference is (to young people) that the rapper is portraying himself and clearly he thinks that’s ‘cool.’ I wouldn’t be worried about my son acting it out, I just find it cringey and embarrassing that it’s seen as cool. I’ve heard the song though and I think it’s piss poor, so there’s that.

Just to add when I was 13 I watched Snatch every day for a year. I managed to never get in to bare knuckle boxing, stealing diamonds or holding up bookies.

Of course you are.

In the exactly the same way as others are entitled to ignore your opinions.

In a thread about a white rapper

This thread is about a white artist

How silly do you look

I don’t think you are being unreasonable OP. People may remember the murder of teenager Olly Stephens last year. He was killed by middle class teenagers who had got carried away by the glamorisation of violence and gang culture on social media (they were not gang members). So yes this stuff is harmful.

I was idly scrolling TikTok this morning and was confronted on my fyp with a video clip of a frmale rap group, I think called City Girls. The lyrics were basically the plot of an, erm, adult movie. All captioned. Get my pussy wet and I'm gonna get your cock out and suck it, lick my slit, eat my pussy like you own it etc. etc.(I'm paraphrasing, but they were the actual lyrics. Dressed in a skintight see through green catsuit.

Such imaginative, poetic lyrics 😳

Made me long for the simpler times of Mike Reid/Radio 1 banning Frankie Goes To Hollywood tbh.

I dint own pearls to clutch. Ive no idea why it was n my fyp as I like rock/metal

My DS didn't see it, he was having his hair cut and facing the other way the whole time. Had he seen it I would probably have had a conversation with him about it.

Well that title is pretty offensive in itself.

He wasn't killed by middle class teenagers

The girl involved was, not the two boys who carried out the attack

They were known thugs in the area and not from great family backgrounds

Also have you even seen this music video?

No, I haven’t seen the video but the link between drill music/videos and crime has been explored for a while. Drill videos have been shown as evidence in trials. So I just wanted to express the view that actually yes, violent music videos can be problematic and it’s not pearl clutching to think that.

@Cheeselog

The links between drill music and crime is for those who are rappers, aspiring rappers or those called out in revenge tracks

Not those who listen to them

There will be just as much a link between a mainstream drill rapper and generalised violence as there was from any other type of 'edgy' music