In the world of rap, life imitates art

A post by "Miss Pavla" To see more posts click here

The rap scene has been quiet for some time now in terms of senseless murders or violent crimes but, to my surprise (or maybe I should say lack of it) there was brutal murder recently, continuing to fuel the image that rap seems to have a hard time shaking – that thug life persona. Rapper Dolla of Atlanta, GA, a protege of Akon, and signed to his Konvict Muzik label, was gunned down in a Los Angeles mall.

I really had this perception that after the duo of Biggie and Tupac met their demises that not just the rap world but, the music industry in general would take a step back and look at the thinning line between artistry and reality. But as I continue to think, this isn’t an issue of just rap, its an issue of art and how life and art are continually at odds. We can make the assumed generalizations about rappers being drug dealers and criminals to fittingly surmise that karma bit them in the ass, but I don’t think it applies across the board. Some of rap is just art – rappers painting glorified images of violence to sell records. And dichotomically, there are rappers that clearly voice their non-fictional stories artistically.

So this just leads me to question, is it life that imitates art or art that imitates life?

Its no question that much of rap has violent content and attracts its fair share of artists that ironically have been either exposed to or have participated in violence on some level. In direct comparison to perhaps opera, who I will naively, and yet confidently, say probably has no artists that are violent criminal offenders or drug dealers. But it is an age-old question whether life is the cause or the effect. There are plenty of foretelling examples:

Barack Obama’s run to the presidency was depicted in the last season of the NBC television show, West Wing.  You’re not going to convince me that the US government contrived a presidential race to mimic a television series.

The 1898 novel, “Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan”, written by Morgan Robertson, was a book about an indestructible oceanliner that hit an iceberg and sank. And we all know what happened 14 years later with the RMS Titanic.

These are both examples of art foretelling life, but you have the argument that many rap artists give stating that art simply imitates life:

“While the makers of the videos and the music insist culture doesn’t cause crime, it only documents it, many law-enforcement agents say the rap scene stokes gang life, gunplay and bloodletting.” Those are just a few examples but there are many more. Maybe its safe to say that with anything you can rationalize truth. But then again, I don’t believe in coincidences.

udothedishes…

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” – Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist, and Critic, 1854-1900)