Rap used to be one of the Five Pillars of Hip Hop originally. I suppose it still is, but Rap has developed its own cultural framework. Especially in context of Gangster/Reality Rap, Horrorcore, and a few other genres both domestically and internationally (some of which developed independently). Take the Insane Clown Posse for example and their grass roots kind of cult following. They have their own gatherings and festivals featuring a set of peculiar cultural idiosyncrasies, like a fondness for wearing clown make-up and obscure soda brands. Their lyrics are explicit, but despite their reputation they're surprisingly tolerant (or supposedly so, according to a friend of mine). You could call them a gaggle of misfits, but that's part of their outsider ethos actually. Nobody wants them, so they do their own thing and become a family to each other.

I suppose you could argue the Insane Clown Posse should be seen in context of American white trash culture, being a backlash against that Sunday school type of Christian fundamentalist judgementalism and its own hypocrisies. But not exclusively. Take Marilyn Manson for comparison (the Rock musician). He likes to utilize some of the same cultural taboos and gets a rise out of whoever ends up clutching their pearls. In turn he was famously blamed for the Columbine High School massacre, or rather him potentially enabling the perpetrators. When asked: "[...] what would you say to them if they were here right now?" he just replied: "I wouldn't say a single word to them. I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did."

Rap has had some of the same issues, like the video game industry. There's probably a grain of truth to the criticism, but to me it's more like a symptom rather than the cause of the actual problem. Gangster Rap for that matter wasn't always about glorifying crime and violence, but an expression of uncomfortable realities. Granted, that might be a bit of a half-truth. Still, it's has been a platform for people who feel both marginalized and ignored. Hence them creating their own culture, which in turn was commercialized and perverted. But then it seems unfair to compare modern Gangster Rap to more Hip Hop oriented genres like Conscious Rap.

The issue with expressing uncomfortable realities is the risk of audiences misunderstanding the actual message. Take movies like American History X or Romper Stomper and them being misconscrewed to be endorsements of the neo-Nazi lifestyle. It's dumb, it's paradoxical, but it's a real phenomena. A bit like how an anti-war film like Full Metal Jacket might encourage a kid to join the Marines, but I digress.

Either or, same as some sub-urban white kid might not grasp the more subtle implications of the inner city experience, I figure certain messages are lost in translation. Often quite literally, like with foreign expressions of American Rap culture. Dutch, French, German, all with their own supposedly marginalized groups. Some of them shoehorning American tropes of victimhood and ghettoization. Or rather, them mimicking something that functions like a self-fulfilling prophecy, willing the kinds of conditions into existence they're supposedly complaining about.

Something like that.

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