What I found particularly interesting was the complete lack of concern that one particular musician had for the effect he might be having on impressionable minds. In fact, he seemed proud of his crew's reputation.
If your lyrics and videos glorify guns and violence, I feel you have a duty to say that you're not necessarily sanctioning this way of life. Unless, of course, you are...
Even more importantly, any young person that sees the 'gangsta lifestyle' and aspires to it is, in my view, lacking the one thing that he or she needs the most: effective parental guidance.
There's no doubt parenting is not what it was. The stress of urban living is so much higher. There's always something else to buy, something else we need, something else we want. There's more pressure on young people to have the latest designer gear and electronic gadgets, for the boys to maintain a thuggish image and the girls to dress like sluts.
There is also the pressure to have sex earlier.
In 1998, Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Health Authority reported over six times as many cases of uncomplicated gonorrhoea, and four times as many cases of uncomplicated chlamydia among young black people aged 19 - 24, as they did among their white counterparts. This is particularly worrying. Where STIs go, HIV usually follows.
So there can be no debate. No matter how busy we are, no matter how stressful our lives get, no matter how hard we have to struggle to make ends meet, we parents

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have an obligation. We chose to bring children into this world and it's up to