What Will We Tell Our Children?

Life happens. As children are born, grandparents pass. But through the ups and downs there is always a soundtrack to your memories. Think about it. Don't you remember being a pre-teen/ teenager blasting dirty rap songs in your room and your mom telling you that music nowadays just isn't the same as it used to be? Can't you hear your mom saying how rap music isn't really an artform, but loud noise with no point? See, my mom grew up on The O'Jays and soul music. She drilled those songs in my head until I could recite the words to 'Backstabbers' fowards and backwards. Which leads me to wonder, what will we say to our children about the music of today.

Most of you will agree when I say, most music out now is trash, or damn near close to trash. We have Lil Wayne, instead of 2pac. Soulja Boy as opposed to Big Daddy Kane. The hip-hop of today is decidedly less about substance and more how thick your money stack is. If hip-hop continues in this direction, it will only be a matter of time before we have songs talking about 'Girl, I got a phat ride and a platinum money clip.Drop down to your knees and suck my dick.' Harsh, maybe. Truth, definitely. So, what will we say to them? Turn that porn you listening to off?

Will we be the kind of parents that allow our children to listen to the crass shit we won't listen to now because that will be the new trend? I can imagine myself telling my son, "Boy, back in my day, we had good music like Gucci Mane and Omarion." If any of you ever hear that come out of my mouth and I'm not being sarcastic, Chris Brown my ass. What music will we play for them like our parents played Anita Baker for us? Or will we still be calling the soul music from the '70s the best music ever. I mean, there is good music of today, but its still not as soulful the music of yester-year. Hopefully, we get to introduce our kids to the hip-hop of today and yesterday without having to justify why we listened to it. Call me a music snob, but I only rock with the best. So that means rappers in the vein of Soulja Boy and Bow Wow won't ever get any kind of co-sign from me in the future. Rappers like Wale and J.Cole will. Singers with Cassie and Ashanti's singing abilities won't be blasting on Saturday mornings, that spot will be reserved for artists like Melanie Fiona, Alice Smith, and Lauryn Hill.

No, I won't be playing today's craptastic songs for my children.They'll probably hear that mess outside of the house. But I will have to give them the "Back In My Day" speech.Its just the way the world works. Its just like getting an ass whooping as a child. I had to sit through it, so mine will have to.Its a right of passage because life happens. Plus, we're always going to need a soundtrack for our memories.