In another line of the song, Joe Budden says, "As our jeans got tighter and our tees got longer/tryna figure out which age group to we belong to." As hip hop itself has gotten older, few artists seem to embrace the fact they themselves are getting older. As opposed to them maturing and acting their age, they instead attempt to continue to connect and relate to people 10 to 15 years younger than them. So, when the kids, who are looking up to these artists that are trying to relate to them, eventually get older, they don't ever really grow up. They are stuck in their youthful ways because that is the way that their role models acted. Therefore, issues that adults are dealing and struggling with don't get mentioned in the music. Instead all we hear about is grown men and women partying every night and shooting each other up instead of handling responsibilities. 

Not only does this music affect the minds of our young people, but adults are also buying into this music. Adults aren't turning to the music for support, guidance, stress relief, or anything constructive. They are just trying to live lifestyles that artists are "claiming" they live. Budden also touches on this when he says, “Did we send the wrong message with our slang/it’s broke n*ggas blowin’ they rent to make it rain.” Now we have adults acting a fool in the club and children growing up and being steered towards acting a fool in clubs. 

I have no problem with hip hop being available to the youth or young people (i.e. Bow Wow when he first came in the game) being a part of the culture and movement. To be real, hip hop is for everybody and anybody or any generation can have a voice in hip hop. However, like anything else, children will try to mimic what they see their "elders" doing, but instead of setting the example for the kids, many artists "try to make gettin' older gettin' younger."  Until artists realize that they can't be 21 (or younger) forever, we will continue to have issue within the music and community.

Any thoughts? Who has hip hop's target market become? Has this become a big issue? Any way of correcting it? Leave a comment and of course you can e-mail at straightouttahiphop@gmail.com. 

Peace.