How rap music has gone from condemning drug use to glorifying it

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The number of drug references in rap music has risen sixfold since the genre revolutionised pop music.

Researchers who analysed the lyrics of hundreds of songs say rap has been transformed from one which warned against the dangers of drug abuse to one that routinely glorifies it.

And because many of the references are coded, many parents are unaware what their children are listening to.

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"Positive portrayals of drug use have increased over time, and drug references increased overall," said Dr Denise Herd, who led the study.

"This is an alarming trend as rap artists are role models for the nation's youth, especially in urban areas.

"Many of these young people are already at risk and need to get positive messages from the media."

Dr Herd looked for blatant and hidden references to drugs in 341 of the most popular rap songs released between 1979, when the genre was in its infancy, and 1997.

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Each song was categorised in terms of its attitudes towards drug use and consequences.

The number of drug references increased 600 per cent over that time, while the number glorifying drugs also increased.

The study found that drugs were increasingly used to signify glamour, wealth and sociability.

"This indicates a shift from cautionary songs, such as those that emphasised the dangers of cocaine and crack, to songs that glorify the use of marijuana and other drugs as part of a desirable hip-hop lifestyle," said Dr Herd.

'This is alarming because young children are exposed to these messages. I don't think this is a story we as a society want them to absorb."

Dr Herd, reporting in the journal Addiction Research & Theory, found that, of the 38 most popular songs between 1979 and 1984, only four - or 11 per cent - contained drug references.

By the late 1980s, that number had increased to 19 per cent.

After 1993, 69 per cent of rap songs mentioned drug use. Mentions of cannabis and "blunts" - marijuana-stuffed cigars - doubled between 1979 and 1997.

Early songs in rap history were often cautionary tales.

One of the first to get mainstream radio airplay in Britain was White Lines (Don't Do It), released in 1983 by Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five, which warned of the dangers of cocaine.

But nine years later Dr Dre's 1992 gangsta rap album The Chronic - regarded as one of the most influential hip-hop records of all time - was littered with drug references.

The title is slang for cannabis, while the cover pays homage to a brand of cigarette paper.

The mid-1990s saw the promotion of codeine-laced cough medicine abuse in lyrics from the underground rap genre known as Screw Music.

Dr Herd, of the University of California, Berkeley, said: "Much of what is discussed in rap is in code. The kids understand but parents don't."

She urged parents to monitor their children's listening and to educate themselves on the terms being used in popular songs.

An earlier study by Dr Herd using the same lyrics concluded that alcohol use was also increasingly glorified.

The current study finds that, in more recent rap songs, illegal drug and alcohol use are often paired.

Recent songs with drug references were three times more likely to have themes related to glamour and wealth than earlier titles, and seven times more likely to emphasise drug use as recreation or as an accompaniment to sex.

There is also a trend for more recent songs to emphasise drug use as part of a criminal lifestyle.

 

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