Does Rap Music Equal Gun Crime?

This subject has been on my mind for a couple of months now, but today, our local rag featured photographs of all the people who have been victims of gun crime, since 1999. There were fifty-five people in all, and although that probably doesn't sound a lot to some of you Americans out there (who are probably used to shootings happening on a daily basis), to me, those numbers are absolutely appalling.

What's even worse is that in 29 of the cases, nobody was actually brought to justice.

A lot of the shootings have been due to tit-for-tat gangland one-upmanship, which is something I've never been able to get to grips with.

One of the killings happened a couple of months ago, and made the national news. The boy who was gunned down, had previously refused to join a gang, despite the pressure put on him. Unfortunately for him, his bravado seems to have led to his death.

My question is, why?

A while ago, I was listening to the radio, and the argument was about the role that rappers play in promoting gun crime, and violence.

I must admit, I tend to want to reject that notion altogether. After all, I have brothers who listened to rap music, growing up, and they are both fine upstanding citizens.

I refuse to listen to rappers like The Game, because I think he's a bad role model for kids, due to the themes of violence that seem to run through a lot of his songs, but for some reason, I always thought that he was in the minority. Apparently I don't listen to enough hard core rap, according to some acquaintances, because his stuff is tame in comparison to a lot of the underground rappers. Who knew? Fiddy's as hard-core as I get, I'm afraid.

So waddaya think? Is there a correlation between gun-crime and rap, or do you think rappers are getting a bum-rap, and being blamed for things that are beyond their control?

Hmmm....