When you hear the names of rappers such as the Notorious B., Tupac Shakur, and Puff Daddy what thoughts cross your mind? Maybe you think of them as artists but most people think of them as thugs and hoodlums. Their names are associated with everything from drugs to drive-bys, murder to gunfights. There is a very negative stereotype surrounding rappers in American society today. We need to investigate why and how the rappers are given such bad reputations. We must also examine how the rappers' violent images affect their ability to market themselves effectively and sell records. Another important aspect of this argument that we must analyze is how all of this violence is affecting our society.
Hip-hop artists have bad reputations mostly due to the violence that seems to follow them around. I believe the reason for this is the media's constant extreme focus on rap stars and their subsequent violent behaviors. The biggest story to date in the hip-hop world was the feud that went on between the east coast rappers and west coast rappers. The assumed leaders were Tupac Shakur representing the west and the Notorious B.I.G. headed the east coast. During the war, the only time that rap was mentioned in the news was to tell about someone getting shot or words that had been exchanged between the two sides. All a person heard about was the violence that was taking place in this rap conflict. It ended with Tupac and B.I.G. both dead, killed by gunshot wounds. In "Bang: Guns, Rap, and Silence" written Jay Nordlinger for the National Review he mentions another recent hip-hop headliner. Puff Daddy, a foremost representative of hip-hop music, recently had a run in with the law following a shootout in a New York nightclub (Nordlinger 620). Shyne Barrow, Puffy's protégé, supposedly shot a man after the man had poked fun at him and was later found guilty of first degree assault (620).