Rap Music Affects Children's Cognitive Development

Since the 1970s, our society has been negatively influenced by rap. If you were to stroll by the streets more than half the teenagers in sight are likely to be hearing this music. However, allowing teens with developing brains is extremely dangerous. This is because rap can affect a child’s cognitive development. Not only does rap contain derogatory terms and explicit content, it also exposes kids to things like dropping out of school, incarceration, homophobia and prostitution. It can be very offending to women, as well. After all, it materializes women. Our next generation is being affected by this; do we really want our country to become even more violent?
To start with, rap music is capable of damaging a child’s cognitive development.

Cognitive development is basically how a kid processes information around him, how he solves problems, and how his brain makes decisions. According to the article by debate.org, the human brain stops its development at the age of 25, meaning that children who listen to rap are likely to copy what the song expresses. They are more likely to become more violent, less studious and add the derogatory terms in these songs to their vocabulary. These children are likely to make bad decisions since what they are listening to interferes with the part of the brain used in decision making. The article named “Does rap music have a negative impact on youth?” by Word Generation states that, “Thus, they say, rap has contributed to aggression among young people and to behavior that disrespects women.” This shows that many people believe that rap is the reason why youngsters are so inappropriate and disgusting towards women, and why this century’s teenagers are more violent.
Furthermore, rap contains derogatory terms and explicit content, it exposes our youth to many things like prostitution, usage of women, dropping out of school, smoking, drinking, etc. If you were to analyze songs that are being heard today like “Habits” by Tove Lo, you are likely to find out that they express these things as something you benefit from. In the song, the singer states “When I get home, I got the Munchies. Binge on all my twinkies. Throw up in the tub, then I go to sleep. And I drank up all my money, dazed and kinda’ lonely. You’re gone and I’ve gotta’ stay high, all the time. To keep you off my mind…” She is exposing teenagers to bulimia, binge drinking, and consuming drugs. She is giving them this message, using drugs, drinking, selling your body, and hurting yourself is the perfect way to make up for a loss, or to get rid of stress. According to the article by ”debate.org”, the usage of these disgusting language, makes teens feel comfortable when cussing, or treating women like an object. They think to themselves, “Well, this person is doing it, so it’s most likely the right thing to do. Or at least what I should do.” In today’s society, cussing and materializing women is something natural to rap-listeners, especially young men. As also said in the same article, “… not only puberty affects their mood, but what they listen to gives them an ‘image’ of what to look like, act like, talk like and dress like.” Rap music tells kids that cussing is okay, that dropping out of school, going to jail, being in gangs, smoking and drinking is okay. However, it is definitely not, it is obstructing kids from getting the opportunity to have a brighter future.
Also, rap music materializes women, it speaks about them as if they were something you use then, throw away.

This is not only inappropriate but sexist. According to the article by “debate.org”, in many songs the male singers talk about having many girls. They often talk of what they would do to them and etcetera. One of the most impacting songs yet, is Eminem’s song “KIM”. In this song, he cusses many times, calling his cheating wife inappropriate words. He tells her to either be quiet, or he will beat her until she can’t anymore. In this song, he speaks of killing her, watching her bleed to death while she screams out for help. THIS is what our youth is listening to. My opponents would say that rap music does not affect youth. As stated in the article by Word Generation, “Still others say that rap is a form of creative expression- this generation’s poetry.” However, the “poetry” they say is being “expressed” is not talking about things that contribute to a person and somehow helps them in their daily lives. As stated by the “debate.org” article, these songs’ lyrics are often meaningless, and simply don’t make sense. This shows that since all rap is contributing to society is aggression, usage of woman, smoking, prostitution, killing, and dropping out of school, what is really the point of this

music?
As you can see, rap music is not good for our youth, our next generation. It makes us make bad decisions which can affect our daily lives, mistakes we might regret later on in life. It encourages us to take wrong paths, to drink, smoke and starve in order to become less anxious or stressed. To use things that hurt us in order for our life to be a little happier. It is not poetry or freedom of expression, it is encouragement of hurting yourself. People that listen to rap often are attracted to the beat of the song and not listening to the lyrics. In the future, if our teens are still attracted to rap our country might become even worse than it already is, more aggression, less politeness and more teenager rebellions.