The Effect of Rap Music on Substance Use and Aggression Level of Undergraduate Students

This literature review examines the impact of rap music on undergraduate students, specifically its role in substance use and aggression. It discusses the legal and regulatory context surrounding rap music, as well as critical reviews of relevant academic literature. The review also includes definitions of key terms and research questions.

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Review
Name of the University
Name of the Student
Author Note

LITERATURE REVIEW
Research Question
RQ1. What is the role of rap music in the lifestyle of the undergraduate students?
RQ2. What are the various means by which students are influenced by rap music to be
involved in substance use?
RQ3. How the aggression level of students are effected by rap music?
Literature Review
Introduction
Due to the introduction of violent and criminal activity in the rap music, a change in
the behaviour and the approach of undergraduate student can be observed. Continuous
listening to rap music is significantly related with drug abuse, alcohol use and the aggressive
behaviour of the listeners. Music containing high degree of sexual or illicit contents can
increase the aggression level in the youth. Listening to rap music that has references to
substance use can be potentially associated with substance use and violent acts of the
undergraduate student. Rap music has stayed in the criminal spotlight from the time it had
entered in the music industry. There has been several incidents where rap music and rappers
have faced a consequence for their work. This report shall discuss the essential definition, the
legal, ethical, political context about the effect of rap music on the substance use and
aggression level and the relevant literature aspect.
Definitions
Rap music: A genre of music that includes vocal delivery of street vernacular, rhyme and
rhythmic speech.

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Gangsta rap: A specific rap style that includes lyrics to explicitly portray the violence of
American inner-city gang life.
Aggression: A feeling of anxiety or anger resulting in violent behaviour.
Substance use: An act of a person consuming drugs or alcohol on a regular basis causing an
issues in their life.
Legal/Regulatory or policy context
A controversy was made about the fact that gangsta rap was the effect of various
wrongdoing perpetrated against the underprivileged neighbourhood of African-American
residents. According to the study of Denise Herd, rap music introduces the dangers and
negative consequences of drug abuse to the youth (Herd, 2014). He also found that with the
beginning of marijuana use in the rap album there was an increased rate observed in drug use
by the young generation. In the case of Haringey Council v Fari, a rapper in UK was ordered
with custodial sentences for performing and re-posting an old gangsta rap. In the murder case
of R v Callum a rap lyrics having a statement of intent to kill was found on the phone of the
defendant, which was considered along with the other evidences (Calvert, Morehart, &
Papdelias, 2014). In R v Palmer the rap lyrics that was posted by the victim was considered to
be the key motive of murder.
Critical review of relevant academic literature
Role of rap music in the lifestyle of the undergraduate students
In the viewpoint of Lozon & Bensimon (2014), music has an influence on the emotion
and behaviour of a person. It has been observed in studies that music is not only a measure
for the listeners for entertainment, but also it affect the mental state. Music can create, alter or
reinforce the mood or mental states of the listeners. Additionally, studies have shown that,
being exposed to music that a person dislike, irritation or anger may arise in them. Certain

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music genres have been identified as a problem music, such as, rock, hip-hop, rap and heavy
metal, which is associated with the social deviance and psychological vulnerability. In their
study, it has been found that the problem music induce negative behaviour, substance use,
criminal activities, aggression, assault and anxiety. Examining the effect of rap music on
human being the authors have identified that it has more negative and less positive effect on
the human being.
Rap music was originated in the year 1970 to reflect the desires, dreams and
dilemmas of adolescents. Conducting a systematic review on the rap music, it can be
observed that rap music taken a negative turn since it was flourished. Gangsta rap is
identified as one of the famous type of rap music, which has established their place in a very
controversial way as the contents of such music is misogynistic, sexist, violent as well as
homophobic. Attention was brought to gangsta rap due to the violent depiction of life in the
music. The African-American community culture was interpreted in the music and the blatant
view of the inner city life was characterized in them. The founders of this music genre were
mainly gang members and they mirrored their gang life experiences through their music. It
has been allegedly promoting the physical and sexual aggression, gang culture, misogynistic
behaviour and substance use. Researchers have found that the negative influence to listeners
increase their antagonism, drug abuse, unprotected sexual and delinquent activities. It was
also found that the undergraduate students who listen to violent rap music on a regular basis,
were prone to accept aggression more easily. Rap artists like T-Bone, Eminem, Snoopy
Doggy Dog and Tupac Shakur were alleged have performed serious delinquent acts and was
charged with claims like rape, homicide and assault. The concern with these type of music
was that the harmful lyrical contents create a negative impact on the listeners and also the
adolescents are likely to attempt to emulate those artists and their lifestyles, who had been
allegedly committed various crimes. On the viewpoint of some researchers rap music does

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not directly cause criminal or delinquent act but actually serve as the inspiration to engage
into such activities.
Observing the survey of Cundiff (2013), it has been found that music containing
violent lyrics influence the undergraduate students to perceive negative attributes and views.
A vast research was conducted to specifically outline the rap music containing violent lyrics
and their effect on the listeners. A sample list of misogynistic theme and explicit content
based music were created in their research and with due observance, the effect was analysed.
It was found that various rap music depicted physical violence, demeaning language and
sexual conquest. Rap music were recognised to glorify physical violence. The survey
conducted by the researchers affirms that misogynistic lyrical content portrays the women in
a demeaning way. The sexual objectification of women depicted in the music and the
derogatory naming of the female were considered to be offensive and led to increase crime
rate. Constant exposure to such violent content changes the attitude of the audience and
increase the issue of domestic violence. The major concern in this music was that they shape
the attitude of the audience towards the decency to the women. Additionally, this
misogynistic music is more male sexual satisfying and creates a disrespectful attitude toward
the female. The nature of the lyrics contribute to sexist behaviour and promote offensive act
with the generation. The respondents in this research considered domestic violence to be a
consequence of exposure to violent music and they agreed that undergraduate students are
most susceptible to experience and accept this kind of behaviour. The habit of the listeners
are also effected by the contents of such music and they obtain a habit based on the music
preference. It plays a major factor to shape the views and attributes of the audiences. Several
acts of domestic violence was reported and after analysing it was found that they resulted due
to the listening habit of rap music.

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The various means by which students are influenced by rap music to be involved in
substance use
According to Slater & Henry (2013), content in music-related media has a great
influence on the initiation of alcohol and substance use by the youth. In association with
violent rap lyrics, the undergraduate students are likely to adopt illicit behaviour. The study
supported the claim that such music containing violent lyrics directly affects the tendency of
the peer-groups and increase the drug and alcohol intake within the peer-group. Their
research suggested that listening to explicit rap music involves a risk factor in respect of the
substance use behaviour by the younger adolescents. While examining the role of music
related media in socialization to substance use, it was observed that it is also responsible for
promoting such activities. This kind of music is said to promote and induce the trend in the
adolescent group to illegal alcohol and drug use. Rap music has changed the concept of music
listening from entertain and relaxing the moods of the audiences to illegal activities taken up
by them. The adolescents are engaging in such activities to evaluate personal and social
identity among them and in order to do that they end up involving in illegal activities. The
popular rap music that endorse substance use implicitly, influences the audience to substance
use by the peer association.
It has been found that not only the lyrics but also the situations, background, images
and stories consonant with such music are subjected to influence the behaviour of the
students. It was analysed from various songs that the contents are responsible for portraying
substance use and promoting it in the generation. Most of the rap music nad videos contained
alcohol and tobacco use. In the absence of sufficient content analysis programming,
substance use is easily promoted through rap music. The wide availability of such substance
use promoting music through the internet has created a major issues in countries like United
Kingdom and United States. The increased alcohol and substance use in the youth can be

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widely spotted as the global acceptance of such music. The listening habit and music
preference within the undergraduate students are spread by one to another. Therefore the
researchers have also admitted a increased use of illegal drugs was noticed. Though the music
does not contain any visual modelling substance use as depicted in the videos, still they have
the power to shape the behaviour of the audiences. The undergraduate students are likely to
acquire the norms and attitudes of the substance using peers, who are regular listener to rap
music. The main issue as identified is not the music or genre, but the contents and the style of
portray to the audiences. The role of socialization played by music has also the negative side
that ultimately result into negative reflection in the behaviour of the listeners. Certain music
genre are mainly associated with the substance using peers. Following the reinforcing spirals
model, it can be argued that adolescents use the media and music for socialising and
developing their social identities. Exposure to rap music for a prolong time gives the younger
adolescents a chance to begin to observe and adopt the social identities in consistent with the
substance using group even at the home. The experimentation with social identities
encourage the involvement of the undergraduate student to embrace such kind of identities.
Once an adolescent gets into touch with such peer groups, he or she will start to follow the
specfic music genre in consistence with such peer group. As an outcome, increased substance
use can be potentially observed within this age group. It was found that apart from the direct
effect of rap music on increasing substance uptake, there are some indirect effect of it which
can be observed from continuous exposure to such music. The direct effect of such music
preference are connected with the socialization explanations, which may lead to adoption of
attitudes and perception of norms relating to their behaviours. The youth culture is
specifically shaped, in both positve and negative way, by such music. Media and music
content leads to selection of communication networks associated with the norms and values
portrayed in the media content, which thereby influence the behaviour or activities.

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In their study of Tucker, Miles & D'Amico (2013), the authors have examined the
relationship between increased rates of illegal or legal drug use with the media or music
related exposure and their potential effect on the undergraduate students. The structural
equation modelling is used by the authors to analyse the association in the media exposure
and substance use. It was found that in modern world, youths are mainly and mostly exposed
to violent music and they accept it as a trend to evolve their social identities. Continuous
media exposure provides the adolescents or undergraduate students a flow of various
massages based on a wide range of topics, such as substance use. In various studies it was
found that a huge part of the rap music contains reference to alcohol and substance use. The
substance use portrayed in the music can significantly shape the drugs and substance related
attitudes of the youth adolescents and promote the use of such products. They are so
influenced by the wordings of such songs, that they are willing to adopt such behaviour and a
potential change can be observed in their attitude towards substance use. It influence the
undergraduate students and perceive them to use the substance by their own. It has been
recognised as a major concern that how the exposure to negative music portrayals in respect
of substance use plays an important role to encourage the youth to experiment with the
substances. A growing evidence has been found that exposure to such violent content in the
rap music spread a massage to the future adolescent to engage in such activities. However, it
was not found whether the connection between rap music exposure and increased substance
use in the undergraduate students are moderated by ethnicity or gender.
Effect of rap music on the aggression level of undergraduate students:
As pointed out by Sharman & Dingle (2015), music has the ability to influence the
attitudes and emotions of people. They have established and affirmed in their study the fact
that listening to extreme or violent music can cause expressions of anger such as aggression
and delinquency by using their experimental methods. The heart rate were examined and

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found to be increased. It has been shown in different studies that anger and stress induction is
higher at the starting of the music and is eventually decreased after the end of the music. The
subjective ratings of positive and negative affect scale of hostility, irritability level is also
notifiable increased during listening to the music. While listening to the music, the positive
and negative affect scale was not seen within control. These kind of behavior matched the
physiological arousal of the listeners who were angry and resulted in an increased positive
emotions. In some case, rap and other extreme music represent a way to process anger for the
listeners. Music is widely available and accessible through the internet and has the ability to
influence the attitude of the listeners. Specific music genre has specified capacity to
manipulate emotions of the audiences. They are likely to attract to those music or music
genre, which reflects or improves the emotional state of the audiences. Rap music comprising
lyrical themes of anger, anxiety, social isolation, depression, as a result of the fact, influence
the behavioral outcome of the listeners. Considering the aggressive nature of the music as
well as the negative theme provoke the listeners to adopt anger and aggression. The main
controversy regarding such kind of music is the aggressive title and the lyrics. It is held
responsible for the social problems such as aggressive behavior, depression, and substance
misuse, which can be referred as problem music in reference to their genre. This can be
associated with the social deviance and psychological vulnerability. A relationship can be
found between the anti-social behavior and the genres of music. The rap music fans were
reported have increased aggression and no control over their mood. As a result of which they
were reported to have engaged in the antisocial activities.
Examining the emotional states and the preferences in the music in different mood, it
can be found that rap music has an actual effect over the mood of the listeners. In a research,
the rap and other heavy music fans was found to have higher symptoms of aggression and
depression and they were tend to more psychological sensitivities. It was also found that such

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music genre had a negative influence on the fans as well as on the non-fans. Rap music
reported to shape the self-control of the listeners. It was found in a research that, people tend
to listen to a genre of music when they have the specific mood that is consistent with the
genre. According to the reasoning of the research, extreme music including rap, rock, hip-hop
are expected to experience higher rate of anger while listening to the music. Therefore, it was
found that anger and aggression is endorsed by listening to the rap music. Some listeners are
reported to feel alleviated of their aggression after listening to music containing theme of
aggression. Though it has been claimed by several listeners that it helps them to process their
aggression, still it affect the mood of the other listeners who were not listening to those music
knowingly. An increased heart rate, irritability and aggression was found after the experiment
as a result.
Additionally, a high number of sexual contents can be noticed in the rap music, which
greatly impacts the emotional and behavioural conditions of human beings, as per Van
Oosten, Peter & Valkenburg (2015). From past few years, music are reported to contain
sexual and illicit contents which results into increased sexual and physical aggression level. It
has become a modern trend that modern music and videos contains severally stereotypical
sexual beliefs and portrays women as a sexual object (Herd, 2015). In this regard two issues
can be found. The first being that there are no sufficient research on the effects of such music
in the aggression level of the adolescents. The second issue is based on the lack of process
underlying the effects of such music. Rap music displays and depicts mostly the women in a
demeaning and offensive way. The objectification of women in music creates an impact in
the mind of the listeners. Offensive word are used in such music to characterise the women in
a derogating way. High levels of abusive words are used for the women in such kind of
music, which reflects a negative image of them in the mind of the audiences. That obviously
results into physical, mental and sexual aggression within the male about the women. The

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female submissiveness and misogyny depicted in such artistic work affects the mental and
behavioural state of the listeners in such a way that an increased level of aggression comes
out as a result.
Theoretical Perspective
To explain the effects of violent music media on the aggression level of
undergraduate students, the General Aggression Model proposed by Anderson and colleagues
(Coyne & Padilla-Walker, 2015). According to this model, dispositional and situational
factors influence the behavioural outcome of a human being. Exposure to violent media may
evoke aggressive behaviour. There are evidence that demeaning of women in rap music is
associated with violence against them (Apa.org. 2018). It was also found that the
undergraduate students who prefer rap music reported more hostile attitudes than the others
and were more distrustful.

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References
Apa.org. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-
845960.pdf
Callum v R, Court of Appeal - Criminal Division, June 16, 2010, [2010] EWCA Crim
1325
Calvert, C., Morehart, E., & Papdelias, S. (2014). Rap Music and the True Threats
Quagmire: When Does One Man's Lyric become Another's Crime. Colum. JL &
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Coyne, S. M., & Padilla-Walker, L. M. (2015). Sex, violence, & rock n'roll: Longitudinal
effects of music on aggression, sex, and prosocial behavior during
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Cundiff, G. (2013). The influence of rap and hip-hop music: An analysis on audience
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Herd, D. (2014). Changes in the prevalence of alcohol in rap music lyrics 1979–
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Herd, D. (2015). Conflicting paradigms on gender and sexuality in rap music: A
systematic review. Sexuality & Culture, 19(3), 577-589.

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Lozon, J., & Bensimon, M. (2014). Music misuse: a review of the personal and collective
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