Violence in rap trickles down to all listeners

It has been five long years for Suge Knight. Locked up in Mule Creek State Prison near Sacramento, Calif., Knight has served the majority of his nine-year sentence for violating parole and looks forward to taking a nice, long bath upon release next week, according to Newsweek.\nKnight, the "father" of the infamous Death Row Records, told Newsweek about his deep love for his dead prodigy Tupac Shakur (my hero) and of his plans to hit the streets in South Central to find the future Snoop Doggs and Dr. Dres.\nI realize that what Knight's release means to rap music and the music industry in general is far deeper than rap beats and new talent. He scared Jesse Jackson into a crusade against gangsta rap and scared Eazy E (a dead member of the rap group N.W.A.) into freeing Dr. Dre from his record contract so he could join Knight at Death Row Records. Knight has proven to be a force of violence in the rap and ghetto worlds of which he has many times proclaimed himself king.\nThe implications of his release, his quest for new talent and his perch atop Death Row Records, almost silenced during his imprisonment, reach more than the artists he signs or the beats he produces. \nKnight's violent nature comes through in the lyrics he promotes. And it impacts many of Death Row's devoted fans, who listen from the penthouses to the projects.\nA misconception exists that only people in the hood act like gangsters and listen to this music. I think about this as I, a white, Anglo-Saxon boarding school graduate, blast my favorite Shakur hit, "Life Goes On."\nAfter months in a federal halfway house or a work-release program, Knight will be back to doing what he does best, running a highly successful record label that promotes messages that should scare parents and society as a whole. \nHe poses a threat to society that many fail to see: His artists have talent, but their message is one of hate -- the hatred that can harm a young mind. \nShakur embodies this message. He is a legend, of whom I am a proud fan. But his words are derogatory toward women, hateful toward many other rappers and people (both black and white) and full of violent messages. He is a typical Death Row Records artist.\nThere is violence everywhere, from the latest Steven Seagal movie to the albums of many artists, on all of the Billboard charts. But Knight's violence runs from the charts to children everywhere.\nMy laughter turns to criticism while listening to song No. 12 on Shakur's Greatest Hits Disc II, a remix of Junior Mafia's "Get Money" that shouts out death to the East Coast and Lil' Kim's crew.\nSeveral people wrote letters to Knight's parole board to deny his release, fearful for what he means to the world of music and its listeners, according to Newsweek. Gangsta rap as a whole has been proven to incite violence in more than one type of person. My MP3 list reflects just one facet of rap's wide audience.\nCertainly, fans listen to his music and aren't inspired to act violently or disrespect women, but the ones who are influenced can do harmful things to themselves and others. \nThe rap world will have to be careful not to cross Knight. Former Death Row artists Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, who fled the company in fear, will probably try to keep their distance. \nMore importantly, Knight will start churning out beats that suburban 14 year olds will blast without knowing what they mean. And soon parents will have more to fear than Dre and Snoop combined. \nIn Knight's world, thug life is the only way of life, even if suburban listeners could never imagine what thug life truly is. I know I can't, even as I blast rap through my eight-disc CD changer in my Jetta with tinted windows.\nThe violence in America cannot be chalked up to Death Row Records or gangsta rap; but the messages this form of entertainment sends are deep and shouldn't be passed off merely as music. \nI hope that when the time comes to promote the right messages, I am a strong enough fan to stand up against the negativity. But Shakur's "All Eyez on Me" is still playing in the background as I type this column and I know that even in the face of violence, I would still choose to listen. \nHere, my friends, in the ignorance of white female fans like me, is where the problem lies.