Positive Music or Negative Music? Let Your Money be the Vote

Not all music is negative. Some music is inspirational. Many artists like Talib Kweli, Common, and Kanye West all have very inspirational music. These are artist who write about change. As much as we talk about how we want positive music we really don’t. Why is 50 cent making more money and selling more albums than Common? Why is Soulja Boy selling more albums than Kanye West? I think that America should not only say that they want positive hip hop artists but support the positive artists when they enter the profession. How can we truly want to change the music we listen to if we patronize in artists who profit from negative music?

Negative music is music that has a message that is appalling, an appalling message that you would not want you or your child to hear. Artists like 50 Cent, Soulja Boy, and Lil Wayne are the number one manufactures of this ignorant form of art. It is estimated that rapper Lil Wayne is worth between 55 – 75 million dollars, in 2005 rapper/entrepreneur 50 Cent was worth 60 million dollars, and rapper Soulja Boy is ranked number 29 on the top 50 albums of 2008 so far with a enormous 409,735. Again these are the artists that epitomize negative music. Positive music is music that makes you want to better yourself and gives you that since of confidence that you are somebody. Artist like Talib Kweli, Common, and Kanye West are the ones that produce positive music. Kanye West was placed number 40 on the top 50 albums of 2008 so far with only 301,632 the same one that Soulja Boy placed number 29 on. Common's first album sold only 123,000 copies far less than Soulja Boy’s first album.

Artist like Talib Kweli, Common, and Kanye West make positive inspirational music. Their music always has a message behind it. These men are not just rap artist they are more like social activist. Their message is deeper than usual. They are more conscious and tend to make music that make people want to change- Music for Social Change. Two out of the three artists listed above have some of the lowest selling albums in the Hip Hop industry. What does that say about the world? If the corporate world doesn’t sponsor them we the listeners should serve as Philanthropist and give them the financial support that they need because ultimately negative music is affecting us as a whole. The corporate world signs artists according to what the consumers want to hear. They sign the people that are going to bring them the most money. Of course they get the assumption that we like negative music because we patronize it. If we start to patronize in the music we want instead of settling for what is offered we will be in the right path toward change.

Change is a transformation that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another. That means with change come transformation. So if we can change the music we listen to we will transform into the people we want to be. Positive music can illustrate positive people and that’s a change we all want to see. The way we spend our money illustrates our value for goods. So if we spend our money to support negative music does that say that we value those artists? Yes. We need to show artists that we want change. We can do this by not buying the negative music. Let your money be your vote in excluding negative music from America.

~Khary Carrington