Is Rap A Negative Externality on Teens?

Kate Previte

Mrs. Straub

AP Economics

14 October 2014

Is Rap A Negative Externality on Teens?

                                                                 

As G- Eazy Quotes in his song, “Opportunity Costs”,  “Everything costs something bro. Winning somewhere, somewhere else you just lost something though”. Since this blog is related to economics, one might question, ‘why would you relate a rap song to exemplify an economic principle?’ Well, the answer is simple. Not only is the song revolved around opportunity costs, but it also leads me to my main topic of research, the negative externalities of listening to certain rap songs, such as leading teens to drug and alcohol use.

        Don’t get me wrong- I love rap. For me and many others, it brings a very large amount of utility. In this situation, the non- drug using, rap listening teens, like myself,  are the outliers in the data. After this project and research, I took the study into the point of view into a school setting. It made me wonder if just because the people around me liked rap, were they also interested in illegal substances? Are the illegal substances a complementary good to the music? Research has proven that the more teens are exposed to drug references, the more likely they are to be interested in trying the drug. Rap refers to many illegal substances in songs (if alcohol, illegal until we’re 21), and one has to wonder if the two relate. Is rap music a negative externality on our youth society?

          

To start my research, I had already had prior knowledge of the study of the effects that drug references had on teens. So to take this a step further, I did some research on the average drug reference in one rap song. The results came in, and some might be shocked, but if you regularly listen to rap, it didn’t come as much of a shock.

“Additional analyses explored the frequency of drug references and the type of drugs mentioned in the 41[out of 93 total songs of different genres] rap and gangsta rap songs that mentioned illegal drugs. Multiple references to drugs were found in 59% of the songs. Marijuana (78%) and stimulants (22%) were the most commonly referred to drugs. In addition, almost half of the songs (49%) made general references to drugs or drugs not included in the coding scheme. Few songs mentioned hallucinogens (5%), inhalants (2%), or narcotics (7%) specifically, and none of the songs coded referred to depressants. Of the 41 songs that contained a reference to a drug, 98% conveyed a negative message about drugs.” (jiy.org)

           As you can tell, the demand for rap/ gangsta rap is very high after seeing that in a study of students, 41/ 93 of their favorite songs fell under those categories. Taking my research back to a school setting, because that is where teens spend most of their time, I wondered if the people I was seeing around the hallways or sitting around at lunch, also were part of the large majority of drug abusing teens that listened to rap.

        Again quoting G- Eazy, “The cost of opportunities is always good to know, but if you know that then you're good to go,” (Opportunity Costs). Knowing the opportunity cost of listening to rap music, is it going to change the majority of the population of teens music choices? Probably not, but knowing the facts can prevent teens from taking the music too seriously. After all, is the opportunity cost of doing drugs because a song referenced it, worth the risk of possibly destroying your future?

 

Works Cited:

"JYI: Substance." JYI: Substance. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://legacy.jyi.org/volumes/volume8/issue1/articles/brookshire.html>

"G-Eazy – Opportunity Cost." Genius. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://rap.genius.com/G-eazy-opportunity-cost-lyrics#note-3336133>.

"'Cookie Dance' Is Another Unbelievably Stupid Music Video About Food - RYOT News." RYOT News. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://www.ryot.org/cookie-dance/470625>.

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