Nielsen revealed that hip-hop was the most listened to music genre in 2017, accounting for 25% of all music consumption. Despite hip hop’s rise to prominence, it is still blamed for social problems such as violence and substance abuse. U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel from Ellisville brought this blame game back to focus during an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Eddie Glaude Jr., who is a Princeton professor and Mississippi native asked McDaniel what he would do for African Americans if he was elected, given his past statements regarding hip-hop being “morally bankrupt” in America and responsible for the rise of gun violence. McDaniel explained to Glaude that the story you told — about hip-hop’s connection to violence — was a Berkeley study. McDaniel said that Berkeley is not a conservative university, but that it did link hip hop to violence in a 2006 study. McDaniel used 1,056 students from central California community colleges for the study. McDaniel suggested that McDaniel was implying that McDaniel had implied that McDaniel meant the University of California Berkeley, but rather a Maryland-based research organization called Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. This liberal institution has a reputation for being liberal. Although the study showed a strong correlation between drug use, aggression, and listening to rap, the authors cautioned against drawing wider conclusions. According to a press release, “Researchers stress that the survey results can’t determine whether listening to particular music genres leads you to alcohol or illicit drugs use or aggressive behavior.” McDaniel made his initial comments about hip hop in 2014, during his first run for the U.S. Senate. McDaniel stated that Canada’s new wave of gun violence is not due to the United States or guns in an advertisement for a program he hosted between 2004 and 2007. It has everything to do morally corrupt cultures. Is that the kind of culture? It’s called “hip-hop.” Mississippi hip-hop artists, experts, and others criticized McDaniel for using a racist argument. They also pointed out that McDaniel’s study ignores the importance of education and poverty in perpetuating violence in America. Jason Thompson, also known as PyInfamous, is a Crystal Springs-born rapper, who now lives in Jackson. “People don’t want to deal with elements of our social network that are corrupted and distorted.” “If you can claim it’s hip hop’s fault or rock and roll’s fault/poor people’s blame, then you don’t have to deal the fact that institutions like slavery, legacy of a patriarchy, are to blame, Garrad Lee, a Hinds Community College professor who teaches lessons about the Civil Rights era, said that there is no evidence that hip-hop music is more violent than other types of music. Old country songs are about hitting women, killing people, and getting drunk. Pop culture music is full of violence. Hip-hop has a racial element, the black male stereotype. People will search for what they want to find when it comes down to that.” Brad “Kamikaze”, a member from a Mississippi hip-hop group called Crooked Lettaz pointed out another comment McDaniel made during “Morning Joe,” which also caused controversy. McDaniel was recently quoted by Franklin as saying that McDaniel had said that black people should not beg the government, but that they all have their hands out. This is the same Southern conservative mindset we’ve been dealing in this state. It is absurd to think that McDaniel would know what the black community needs. On numerous occasions, he has demonstrated that he doesn’t understand the black community.” Others said that although the themes raised in the study are present in hip-hop music and that people should be able to identify the context surrounding them. Joecephus Martin (a.k.a SkippCoon), a Jackson rapper, said that “only a fool would claim that there isn’t violence and drug in hip-hop.” “This is the problem with that analysis, but what else could those people talk about?” I was born in 1980. My entire life I lived in Jackson. There was a lot of drug activity in the late ’80s/early ’90s. There were many gangs. Jackson was home to a lot of things. How could that not have an impact on my music? Chris McDaniel and others like him don’t acknowledge the influence society and culture have on people. They want to believe they are responsible for their own actions. It doesn’t make sense. Amanda Furdge from Jackson believes that music is more a reflection of cultural issues than a cause. She said, “Nobody is making music in any genre that makes people feel like, ‘Let me stand in a welfare-line or let me receive food stamps.’” “That’s not happening.” Artists agree that there is a double standard when it comes down to hip-hop blaming problems on hip-hop. “Nobody has attributed any of the actions that led to the opioid epidemic to any cultural thing. Thompson stated that nobody said it was rock-and-roll, country music, or reality TV as it primarily affects white Americans. It’s not joblessness, it is the changing economy and it’s lack of education. We know that the same factors have had an impact on communities of color for a long time. Now, we can criticize hip-hop because cultural issues are the problem. People want to claim — this is the 1600s narrative — that people of color are somehow inferior. This argument is not new. This argument is not new. It’s lazy to put it on hip hop. It’s hard to think of a better way to say it. “You can ban hip-hop tomorrow and all the problems that exist today will continue to exist.”