Hip Hop / Rap music: do you censor what your teens listen to?

[workwoes123]

DS is 14. He has recently started listening to hip-hop and rap, including Eminem. I've been listening to a bit and yes it's good but wow it's explicit. I know this is no surprise. I don't have a problem with swearing, but I'm cringing a bit I confess at the sex talk and the general horribleness of it.

Do you censor what your kids listen to? By 15 I was listening to Guns and Roses and a lot of other hard rock, which had its own issues.

He doesn't listen out loud very often, just through earphones. HIs friends are all into the same music. He's a very typical white, middle-class, doing okay at school, teenage boy - I'm not expecting him to suddenly change as a result of listening to some sweary music. ;-) Rather than banning it (which wouldn't work) I'm taking the approach of learning a little bit about it, and talking to him about the issues that it raises (domestic violence, treating women badly, gang life, poverty etc) but ouf - it's explicit!

Hi, I gave three kids. 17,14 and 9. They all have different taste. I have never stopped them from listening to any type of music because I want them to have their own taste. My daughter is 14. She listen more explicit music like rap,drill and hip hop. I don't mind that she listens to just that she know half of it is not real and the other writes these go to prison. I just make sure she accept the reality that will never be life that she want to live.

I never censored what my DDs listened to. DD1 loved Eminem and we discussed some of the issues raised by the lyrics, especially if she didn't really understand them. I never censored their reading either.

Think about films that propagate & normalise violence... Not many people bat an eye-lid.. Think about computer games in which you do things that in real life would put you in prison (killing, stealing etc.)

Music is a form of art. Things aren't always literal. lots of hip-hop artists talk about life they've experienced, or use their lyrics as form of catharsis.

Also, How many people question Nick Cave's Murder Ballads..? Horrendous lyrics you'd think - but he's a nice, white, middle class man so we view it as what it is - an art form, a way of self- expression.

Use your son's new found love of hip-hop to discuss those topics. Also, as you've said - do continue learning about it. It's a fascinating genre with a lot depth to be found within.

I personally found rap music empowering (I'm a female in early 30s). It helped me gain confidence and it helped me become more honest as a person. The thing I dislike most about current hip-hop music is prevailing materialism and consumerism - but of course, that doesn't apply to all artists in that genre.

Hope this helps xx

I don't stop my boys from listening, but they know not to play some of the worst Drill when i'm about, i.e. the stuff about shootings and stabbings, cocaine and talk of "her wet pussy" etc. There is a lot of the same lyrics across the artists, lots of Mercedes, Gucci, Hennessy, Pagans etc.

Some of the milder tamer stuff is actually quite tuneful and nice when you get to know it! My boys will save the tuff they think I will actually like and play it in the car for me!

Honestly, just talk to him about the subjects you've mentioned, make sure he understands and let him get on with it.

If you sensor him, it will mean that he will listen to things with his friends without telling you.
You then lose awareness of what he's doing and what content he's accessing.
If you don't like the music, then asking for headphones is reasonable.

I certainly wouldn't allow DC to listen to obscene music in the house where anyone else could hear it. But I would probably draw the line there.