Rapper's Audiences

The most interesting topic we discussed this past week was that of rapper's lyrics and their targeted audiences. Many people assume that since rappers are discussing degenerate people, drugs, violence, crime, and abuse in their songs that people whose lives revolve around these characteristics are the ones purchasing the album. This is in fact a myth and surprisingly the majority of the money these rappers are making come from middle to upper-class white teenage boys and young men. For some reason, this demographic of people are most interested in the music produced by the likes of Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Jay-Z and so on. Because of these wealthy kids willing to support artists such as these, the rappers are usually laughing all the way to the bank. An average person may think that kids living in ghettos and in poverty are the ones supporting these artists work, however, usually people from that background do not even have enough money to begin to pay for a twenty dollar CD. Obviously the desire to have music such as rap produced by many of the famous artists today are fueled by someone and these people are usually the white upper to middle class. I doubt Lil Wayne and Kanye West enjoy listening to white men singing folk music and acoustic guitars in their free time (although one never knows), so it is interesting to think about why white people enjoy listening to rappers scream profanity and discuss drugs, crime, violence, and abuse....