What musical artists say aren’t real threats; it’s a way they express themselves. Within the music industry, artists use words to show what they feel, to give a sense of themselves within a song.
The media needs to understand that what an artist is portraying in a song doesn’t mean they will act on it.
Unless the line has a direct threat to a specific individual, it shouldn’t be taken to a state of evidence against an artist.
Most artists use violence in their music to get out a sense of emotion to express themselves.
In one of 21 Savages lines, “You could get hit in the jaw, the chopper can hit all y’all,” makes a line of violence that could be taken literally to some people.
Throughout his music, he makes “threats,” but to no one individual, showing that he doesn’t specifically want someone to die.
A line from a band named Bring me the Horizon states, “Just pull the plug, yeah, I’ve had enough,” meaning that the artist wants to die, but in the song, it’s not a literal threat that the artist is suicidal.
Music puts a specific line of feelings within the individual singing it and without using this the point would not be put into context.
Within the music, they are trying to express hardships and trauma but to have the action released only in words, not in actions.
The alternative band Twenty One Pilots sings, “I could go out with a bang, they would know my name.” They are saying that maybe if he ends it, people will know his name throughout the world.
Using this line gives the emotion of what the artist is feeling, and from that, we can develop, the deeper meaning within the music.
In YNW Melly’s song saying, “I reloaded my pistol, cocked it back and shot him twice.”
With his case, the rapper is actually in jail charged for murdering his two friends. The violence was real and should be taken seriously, however, this is a very unique situation.
The rapper’s lyrics were more about actually killing someone and saying he didn’t exactly care.
Rappers using a state of free speech shouldn’t be looked down upon when they’re only using words, but when they’re actions actually reflect the words is a whole different story.
With that being said, I don’t condone violence at all, but I do give artists a chance with their lyrics. I honor that they’re giving out a voice that they want to be heard.
Wouldn’t we want artists using their words other than doing the action? When people take the lyrics literally it makes people not see the real side of the story the artist’s telling.
Without artists giving a state of mind with the music, it wouldn’t be as the artist envisioned it, giving the artist a barrier within the art they’re made to make.
We should let artists make the music they want to make and stop giving them a hard time about it.
Listen more with the backside of the story. Try to give people a chance to release their emotions in a safe place.