Rap Music Is Appropriate for Children and Teens

Thanks, Con. In the last round Con deviated from her original numerical points, so I'm going to respond to her individual questions/criticisms hopefully in a coherent manner. She begins... "Are the lyrics truthful or are they not?" ----> Con makes it seem as if I have contradicted myself in noting that some songs are truthful and some are not. However, clearly songs, like movies, can be either fiction or non-fiction. While some songs exist strictly for entertainment purposes, some tell a true story. I don't see how this negates any of my arguments. My point was that since rap is a legitimate form of art and culture, that it can be used for good and to express certain truths. That doesn't mean that every rap song is true. "I can give evidence of rappers glorifying the streets..." ----> Con says she can provide evidence of rappers glorifying the streets and yet she failed to do so. First, note that the link she sent us to was a forum where members can post anything they want, so it's far from a credible source. Second, the post she cites mentions a member of 50 Cent's group assaulting someone. While that may be true, that is NOT evidence of a rapper promoting the gangster lifestyle (perhaps merely living it). It was specified that we were talking about the concept of glorifying criminal lifestyle - not just living it. Con hasn't proven that the rappers involved glorified this situation in any way. "You can't give me a song that curses as much as a rap song..." ----> I'm going to ignore the fact that Con provided a link to Yahoo Answers to make her argument for her. Once again, that is nothing but a forum where people type their own opinions. I'm not debating the members at Yahoo.com. I'm debating Con, so if Con has a specific argument that she would like to make then she can type it up in her own words and not expect me to respond to random people who cannot reply to me. Basically, Con says no other genre uses as much profanity and challenges me to find song that uses a bunch of curse words at least 49 times. Challenge accepted. The electronic song "Fvcking in Heaven" by Fatboy Slim is an electronic song that uses the F word 120 times [1]. Reel Big Fish's "Another F.U. Song" is a ska song that uses the F word 50 times [2]. Blink 182 is a punk band, and the first line to their song "Family Reunion" starts, "Sh!t, piss, fvck, cvnt, c0ck sucker, mother fvcker, t!ts, farts, turd and tw@t... I fvcked your mom!" Needless to say, I can post innumerable other examples but I think it's pretty obvious I have more than met my opponent's challenge. My argument that rap is far from the only "inappropriate" genre stands. "Kids hear the words of rappers and adhere to them; they do not form thoughts of their own..." ----> It seems Con has just skipped my rebuttal and re-stated her original arguments. I more than explained in the last round that parents and not entertainers are responsible for raising children, and how the themes explored in rap can even be used as a catalyst to start important conversations with one's children. Can Con prove that children would be sheltered from these things if specifically prohibited from rap music? I argued no, and mentioned cable television as just one of many other possible vessels of this kind of information. The school yard is another. For clarity, I'm going to extend all of the arguments from above that Con has dropped and therefore I assume conceded to... 1a. Not all rap music contains inappropriate language; there are clean versions of rap songs 1c. Con hasn't explained why profanity is necessarily inappropriate and ignores other bad influences 2a. Con ignores the fact that positive and empowering rap music exists 2c. Con hasn't proven her R1 statistics about teen pregnancy were remotely relevant to rap music 3a. There are no perfect celebrity role models; Con also ignored my priest analogy 4a. Con could not provide an example of rappers glorifying dropping out of school Con also completely ignored my conclusion about the dangers of censorship, and only singling out the negatives of rap in particular. [1] http://www.answerbag.com... [2] http://www.lyricsmode.com...