It's a stage persona. You would never think that about Anthony Hopkins from Silence of the Lambs. I'm a white kid from the 90s, compared to many rappers, espec

It's a stage persona. You would never think that about Anthony Hopkins from Silence of the Lambs. I'm a white kid from the 90s, compared to many rappers, especially from DMXs' era, I had many advantages and seemingly very few things to relate to. First and foremost, these songs were fun to listen to, annoyed parents, which was great, and it's popularly stated that white kids were the main consumers of these songs by market share. As someone now in their 40s, I also struggle with the message of many popular rap songs from the nineties. I worry that it's just a more modern version of minstrelsy in a way. Yet, to this day I love rap, especially 90s rap. I'll admit the most popular / top charting songs glorify crime and up until very recently were much more misogynist amongst other -ists. The thing is, if you do even a just shallow dive, even of some of the top names like Tupac, there are a lot of human stories that are easy to connect to. Like reading a novel about a topic you think you have nothing in common with, you would be surprised. And then there's also early Outkast albums, which in my mind belong in the pantheon of works of art.