90s throwback

When I think of late 90s hip hop and rappers like Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., old school Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, my mind inevitably thinks of the so-called Coast Battles and the violent way in which Tupac and Biggie ultimately died. But seeing big-name rappers get involved with fatal shootings seemed to be a thing of the past in my mind.

Thus my shock upon reading about the death of Dolla, a relatively new rapper who was shot today in Los Angeles. Now, I neither know much about hip hop or Dolla himself, but from what I can gather here, it's obvious that homicide and assassination were in play, and the obvious question that arises (besides who committed this crime) is the motive for the crime.

Without knowing anything about the rapper himself, and trying to make as few judgments and assumptions as possible, I still find it very interesting that in 2009, rappers and homicide can still be linked together. It's situations like these that lead people to make the assumption that violence in music leads to violence in America. Whether its violence in hip hop, punk, heavy metal or even country (for example, The Dixie Chicks song "Earl"), terrible situations like these serve as the evidence for those arguments.