[Scape]

[Johnny_H]

I'm huge Jay-Z fan, have been since the first Blueprint album. Hip-hop gets a bad name due to the likes of "Souljah Boi" and "Lil Wayne" who aren't worth a pot to piss in.

Jay is a classy guy though, and he makes good music.

[Laura Adams]

At least Souljah Boy is harmless. The recently-organized street gangs in our town are all named after Lil Wayne songs/lyrics, and they do their best to live out his lyrics. I hate drive-by shootings.

[Johnny_H]

I don't think Lil Wayne's lyrics are anymore responsible for the acts of criminals than games like Call of Duty are responsible for random school shootings.

If there was no Lil Wayne then those gangs would be named after something or someone else.

[Laura Adams]

I didn't say they were responsible for the acts of the street gang members. Only that he's got a tremendously powerful influence on the youth in our town, which he clearly does. He's all the young gang members talk about, he's their hero, their musical messiah. They want to be him, so they imitate him, including naming their gangs after his lyrics/songs (Young Money, Money over B@@tches, Cash Money Ballers). The criminal activity would go on irregardless, but it's very disturbing to talk to them about Lil Wayne.

That's changing slowly, though. Over the last couple of years so many of them have been killed and crippled or are in prison, that they've been moving more towards being drug and crime gangs than street gangs.

Eventually the survivors get taken over by the older gangs, like the Latin Kings and the Gangster Disciples. They don't go around shooting each other, they just quietly sell crack and other drugs, engage in B&E's, and mostly fly under the community's radar.

[Choban]

Quote:

Eventually the survivors get taken over by the older gangs, like the Latin Kings and the Gangster Disciples. They don't go around shooting each other, they just quietly sell crack and other drugs, engage in B&E's, and mostly fly under the community's radar.

That or the smaller gangs become puppets of the larger and do the dirty work while the big names make all the money