rap, record companies are still producing this kind of music. Time Warner has pledged to do something about obscene and rude lyrics in rap music. The new chairman of Warner Music Group , Michael J. Fuchs, was asked to talk with critics of rap lyrics and to work with other record companies to come up with some regulations for warning labels (Landler D2). Warning labels have been placed on albums with provocative lyrics, but these warnings do little to prevent the lyrics from reaching children. The chairman and chief executive claim that "music is not the cause of society's ills." That may be true but do they have an influence on the people that listen to the music. Many say yes and many say no. An experiment done by James D. Johnson shows that violent rap tends to perpetuate the acceptance of the use of violence and an anti-education mind-set. He thinks that this kind of music should have some regulation. He refers to rap music being like nicotine- it is addictive; it is mood altering and it is available with some strains (Raspberry, "Does" A27). A person has to be 18 years old to buy cigarettes, rent X-rated movies, or get into a strip bar/nightclub and has to be 21 years old to drink or buy alcohol. There are age limits on these things that can endanger young people and there should also be an age limit on buying albums with explicit lyrics on them. Even though there is a warning label on the albums young children can still buy them because there is no law to prohibit sale. There are a lot of people who agree something should be done about the explicit lyrics on albums. Stanley Crouch, a music critic and writer, says that rappers are "a bunch of opportunists who are appealing to an appetite that America has for vulgarity, violence and anarchy inside Afro America" (Sims 3). Kevin Powell, a writer for Vibe magazine, believes that rap music is a legitimate art form, but thinks that the genre has gone too far and the music industry is to ...
