Originally Posted by Fmeh

Tacoma Washington must be a real shithole, because there are SO many people here that live their lives that way here.

This town is VERY gang infested, and because of it, it's almost impossible to tell the difference between those that are just doing it "to be cool" and those that are really in gangs.

You can't even go to a Denny's that's located in the more redneck/meth parts of town without having 3 out of 10 people in the restaurant acting, dressing, mannerisms the same, as EXACTLY the crap in those "songs".

The thing is--I REALLY don't think this is a Tacoma thing--it's in Seattle, Kent, Auburn, Fife, even Bellevue (the rich snobby city where housing communities have rules as to what color you're allowed to paint your house)--I don't think it's a Puget Sound thing either--it's also in Portland, MUCH WORSE on the outskirts of Portland, it's REALLY bad in LA, San Bernandino, Riverside, it's even bad in many parts of San Fransisco. It's bad in Dallas and Fort Worth. It's bad in Nashville. It's a culture, it's a lifestyle, it's something that MTV pushes more than ANYTHING ELSE--and let us make no mistake about how much influence MTV has on youth. How about Flavor Flav's show on VH1? Yep, they're not promoting misogyny, or homophobia, or violence--not at all. Come on now.

This whole thing is WAY more out-of-hand than people are willing to talk about.

If MTV and VH1 and mainstream radio ACTUALLY HAD ALTERNATIVES TO THIS CRAP, and if it was something that wasn't MAINSTREAM, if it was more of an underground thing like what it was back in the days of NWA> EZ-E, Ice-T, etc., it wouldn't be an issue--AT ALL!

Let me repeat: THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE IN MAINSTREAM! Hip-hop IS top 40 right now, in the United States. When you put on a top 40 radio station, you hear rap and hip-hop, with those same messages.

The problem that I have is that it's MAINSTREAM, and the record industry and the whole entertainment industry is pushing it as if it's actually something worth while.