"I feel like role models today are not meant to be put on a pedestal. But more like angels with broken wings" -2Pac 

Have u ever thought about who today's role models are? Hip-hop's success brings up this question everyday. People blame the culture… gangsta rap to be more exact… every time our society has to face the fact that we ain't living in a perfect world. So are rap music, hood movies and other stuff like that responsible for our reality? No! It's an art. Art only reflects the reality. So if we say that gangsta rap reflects violence, it means that violence preceded rap. So who's the one to blame? We crowned rappers, called them our role models and now we expect them to be angels. Say what-a-a-t?!!! Are you serious? Sorry, but when I listen to all those records I hear the same little scarred boys and girls from the hood. As Mary J Blige once said, it’s really easy to hide your fears and insecurities behind fame, lavish lifestyle, and celebrity status. But what makes us think that they are in peace with themselves, that they are ready to be responsible for OUR kids, that they are ready to preach something other than GHETTO gospel? This is their reality or even our reality: single parent household, no pops around, moms works 9-5 to bring some “food”; school that ignores their problems, it doesn’t practices what it preaches…the reality where they live watching two neighbors... Let’s call them Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones. Mr. Smith is a good guy, he has a college degree, he works hard, he obeys laws, but he has no respect from the society. Why? Because of the power of C.R.E.A.M. He lives a very simple life, so he is nobody to the society. And what about Mr. Jones? He is a bad boy, he's a thug, but he lives that “American dream”, he came from “nothing” to “something”. He doesn’t have to live in the slams anymore. He “runs” the town. He is “the man”. Who those kids gonna admire after all? Let the truth be told: we live in an era of double standards. This is exactly what hip-hop tells us each and every day using them f, n, b, h-words. So who's the one to blame? I'm not saying that it’s okay, but it’s a consequence. If YOU preach one thing and practice something totally different, can YOU blame rap cuz YOUR kids lost their way? Can WE blame rap? I don't think so. Who is a role model? Well, it’s you. That's right YOU! You, me, the family next door, everyone. WE make up the society. And it’s up to US what it’s gonna be. Rappers are ghetto poets; their songs recreate the reality WE are responsible for. So maybe it’s time to stop blaming each other and to do something? Besides, all people hear is negativity, but to listen to the message and to hear the message are two different things. I’m that ghetto child and I’m proud to say that hip-hop culture saved my life. It taught me to respect myself as a woman and as a person, to put on my purity ring, to be hungry for success and self-improvement, to respect my roots, to forgive my pops (he left us when I was 8 and I haven't seen him since then), to forgive and to love my enemies, to be strong in my weakness, to be nobody but ME, to be strong enough to speak my mind, to distinguish the good from the bad, and the most important – hip-hop brought me to my Lord Jesus Christ. The list can go on and on. What I’m trying to say is that … well, Pac said it best: "If you walked by a street and you was walking on the concrete and you saw a rose growing from the concrete, even if it had messed up petals and it was a little to the side you would marvel at just seeing a rose grow through concrete. So why is it that when you see some ghetto kid grow out of the dirtiest circumstance and he can talk and he can sit across the room and make you cry, make you laugh, all you can talk about is my dirty rose, my dirty stems and how I am leaning crooked to the side, you can't even see that I've come up from out of that".