Jack Mahoney
English 123
Professor Drown
2/21/20
Should we listen to music against a dead artist’s wishes?
Over the course of the last decade, the music industry has lost some of my favorite artists such as XXXTentacion, Mac Miller, Juice WRLD, and most recently rapper Pop Smoke. With the world and rap communities trying to still cope with the loss of all these amazing talents, one question comes to mind: Will more music from these artists still be released? The answer is yes. Unless the rapper gave family or his or her management group specific instructions not to release unreleased music post mortem, you can expect at least one album, possibly even more to be released. Through voice modification, or having someone finish the music for the artist, this is possible. Personally, I believe we should be able to continue to listen to dead artists’ music. If my favorite artist were to pass away I would want to be able to remember them by listening to their music for as long as possible.
How should we engage objectionionable lyrics?
I started listening to rap music when I was 6 years old, when my cousins introduced it to me. I fell in love with the genre, but was banned from listening to it by my parents.They felt that the explicit language along with the drugs, sex, and violence that was being portrayed in the music was not appropriate for a 6 year old at the time and they were probably right. However, as I grew older I began to understand the message that was trying to be spread in these songs. I felt the pain in the rappers voices as they talked about loved ones who had been murdered and how they rose to riches after coming from extreme poverty. Along with this, I understood why illegal things like drugs allowed them to gain power. I believe that as long artists can keep explicit language to a minimum it is acceptable to include them in the lyrics of their songs.
