Music plays a very important role in my life. It is one of my favorite things to do in my free time. I have a very deep connection to music because of the way I can emotionally connect to it. When I am working out, doing homework, or hanging out with friend’s music always finds a way into my life. When I’m happy, sad, or mad music is always there for me. My favorite type of music is rap, hip-hop, and R&B. The first thing that usually catches my attention is the beat of the music; this is when I determine if I like the song or not. Next, is the vocals they really add flavor and personality to music. As I have gotten older however I have noticed different things about music. Many of the songs produced in this generation talk about drugs, guns, money, or are sexually explicit. Now I may seem like a hypocrite, but some of my favorite songs refer to one if not all four of the characteristics I listed above. I think that a reason why we have so much violence, overdoses, and sexual assault in our world today is because of how music glorifies these things. When a rapper raps about any of these attributes they get respect and are seen as “cool”. This is something that I do not agree with. The music industry is fast paced and constantly changing to please the public. In order to stay on top, you must do whatever it takes or the music industry will chew you up and spit you back out.
A very specific example I would like to further talk about is a song written by a rapper named YNW Melly titled “Murder on My Mind”. YNW Melly was arrested in February 2019 at age 19 where he was charged with two counts of first degree murder. The two victims who were shot and killed by YNW Melly were members of the YNW crew whom he was close too. In the beginning of the song, Melly is talking about how people are suspicious and that he was locked up on Christmas and wasn’t able to see his family. Then the next lyrics state that “Got molly mixed with promethazine cause every time I wake up in the mornin’ I got murder on my mind. AK-47’s, MAC -11’s, Glocks and 9’s” (Murder on my mind 2017). Already mentioned in the first 30 seconds of the song is drugs, guns, and violence. The first time I ever heard this song I was so focused on the beat and his voice that I had not really payed attention to what he was saying in the lyrics. This used to be a song I listened to all the time. When I heard he was arrested for murder, I immediately stopped listening to him because I could no longer support someone with such violent tendencies. Throughout the entirety of the song, Melly puts himself as first person in this song stating that “I didn’t even mean to shoot him he just caught me by surprise, I reloaded my pistol, cocked it back and shot him twice” (Murder on my mind 2017). As a consumer, this would make me very wary of what exactly he is cognitively referring too.
On the surface level this song seems to be very catchy and Melly has a very unique style and voice when in reality, I think this song is about how the artist YNW Melly killed two of his best friends. He has another song called mind on my murder which is a reversal of roles where he is the one being acted upon. Versus in this song murder on my mind he is the one performing the action.
In a verified interview where Melly was talking about his lyrics he claimed that he found his first gun when he was 9, and that he is in love with them and the way they look. In the last few lyrics of his song “Murder on My Mind”, Melly states that “B&*ch, I’m a murderer, I might just kill the boy” (Murder on my mind 2017). I am not sure what message he is trying to get across, but I’m sure I do not agree with all the violence he portrayed in these two songs.
