“It’s about my persona. Ain’t nothing like a man that can do what he wanna.”
— Ice Cube, from the song “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It”
Looking at images of murder victim Nick Winsor in St. John’s in the news this week, you had to wonder what prompted the 20-year-old to have “Trust no one” tattooed on his arms at such a young age.
And why his Facebook page — and the pages of countless other people his age in this province — features youth striking menacing poses, flashing hand signals, brandishing weapons, showing off tattoos and piercings.
When did young people start aspiring to at least look like gangsters?
Is it about individualism and personal expression or a need to belong to an identifiable group of likeminded people? Is a desire to emulate some rap hero or to feel stronger and more powerful than you might otherwise appear? Or does it reflect defiance and an anger at the world?
Of course, that’s not to say that everyone who dresses and swaggers like a gangster is a criminal — you see kids wandering through the mall every day who look like they’re auditioning for rap videos, and the most illegal activity they might ever be involved in could be jaywalking. Neither are multiple piercings an indication of a criminal mind.
But there seems to be a trend among kids and young adults of trying to project an image with a decided edge. And there seems to be growing disenfranchisement with mainstream society among some young people.
The influence of gangster culture is widespread and unavoidable in our time. You can see it in graffiti language and violent video games, and hear it in rap and hip-hop music and videos, Hollywood movies and American television shows.
But just what is the attraction? What makes the image gangsters project so alluring to youth here? Is it the accompanying connotations of wealth, sexual prowess and physical power?
And it’s not just a North American phenomenon — far from it. Writing in Britain’s The Independent back in 2003, commentator Trevor Barnes took a thoughtful look at where so-called “gangsta culture” might have sprung from.
Referring to modern youth he writes:
“…When they look around them and see, day after day, the triumph of game-show and lottery lifestyles over hard work, little wonder many are dispirited. Open any magazine today and you are welcomed into some soap star’s ‘fabulous home,’ where the trappings of fame, fortune and success are on display. The message is simple. This is the life and without a similar sort of conspicuous wealth you have no life at all.”
As rapper Big Sean writes in his song “My Last”:
“Big ass bottles, Big Ice buckets
I work too hard to be ballin’ on a budget
Me and my people do it big out in public cause
Cause if you don’t do it big, you aint doing nothing”
Chris Brown, in “Look at Me Now,” has a similar message:
“Yellow model chick
Yellow bottle sipping
Yellow Lamborghini
Yellow top missing
Yeah, yeah
That shit look like a toupee
I get what you get in 10 years, in two days …
Gotta taste it and I gotta grab it
And I gotta cut all through his traffic
Just to be at the top of the throne
Better know I gotta have it, have it”
The frightening thing about the arrival of gangsta culture on our shores is the possibility that it is adversely influencing young people and leading them to seek out others who share the same sense of disconnect and alienation.
A desire to buck the mainstream and flout convention can lead to lacking respect for others and breaking rules. Breaking rules can lead to breaking laws, and criminal activity can escalate as the resulting adrenaline rush and “high” to be had from doing something bad and getting away with it can lead to riskier and riskier behaviours: doing drugs, carrying weapons, committing violent crimes, establishing territories and starting turf wars.
On a British website devoted to the Caribbean community in the U.K. (Itzcaribbean.com), freelance journalist Ron Shillingford wrote this week about the knife epidemic among teenagers:
“The maximum sentence for someone caught in possession of a knife has just been doubled from two years to four years but that evidently does not deter thugs. Yet many even see a prison sentence as a badge of honour, an inevitable consequence of their street life.”
In the St. John’s area, more and more police reports contain references to stabbings, slashings and assaults with other weapons; baseball bats, brass knuckles and bear spray must be flying off the shelves like hotcakes.
So how do we stem the influence of gangsta culture? It’s a problem not easily answered. Let’s face it, education campaigns probably won’t reach people who have only ever attended the school of hard knocks.
Meanwhile, too many troubled teens and young adults will be developing their philosophies and taking their lead from rappers like Rick Ross:
“They say we can’t be livin’ like this
For the rest of our lives
But we gon’ be livin’ like this
For the rest of tonight
And you know they gon’ be bangin’ this shit
For the rest of our lives
Live fast (Live fast)
And die young (Die young)
Live fast (Live fast)
And die young (Die young)
Live fast
And die young.”
Pam Frampton is The Telegram’s story editor. She can be reached by email at pframpton@thetelegram.com.
Twitter: pam_frampton
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