Though I’ve written columns before where I’ve vehemently defended rappers, sometimes I realize I need to step back and let their lyrics do the work for them—and not in a particularly good way.

I was mortified while listening to the song UOENO, the Kendrick Lamar version. It started off fast-paced as Lamar snarled in a low, confident voice that he had been one of many to change the rap game.

While each artist sifted through his verse seamlessly, I bobbed my head along to its contagious beat.

It wasn’t until I strained my ear just a little to listen closely to the husk in Rick Ross’s voice that I stopped enjoying his verse altogether.

And so he jeered with a smirk on his voice, “Put Molly (the drug) all in her champagne—she ain’t even know it. I took her home and I enjoyed that—she ain’t even know it.”

Now while packed in a car or a club or at a bar, weaving in and out of not-so-sober state, bodies gyrating closely to the beat, one doesn’t feel inclined to pay any mind to the song’s lyrics.

Until I spent the afternoon cleaning around my apartment and casually mouthing along to the words, that was when I stopped cold and frowned, then thought, “Hold up. He didn’t just say what I think he did.”

It scares me how troubling some of these lyrics have become and how desensitized we are to them when we don’t even realize we’re singing along.

Why do we glorify rape culture in songs?

Clearly what Ross (hopefully) jokingly says he engaged in was rape. You’ve drugged a woman out of her body and mind without her consent, kidnapped her and violated her body in the worst way possible—while she was unconscious.

That just reads creep all over, to me at least.

While other artists like Eminem also angrily spew some rather disturbing lyrics, I believe their work comes from a darker, metaphorical place.

Other artists create alter egos, personas and end up telling stories through their characters—much like a horror film.

Nevertheless, figures like Rick Ross and Future are parading around their lifestyle as though it is something to be envied—as though others should aspire to their status.

Why are we being told in their lyrics to laugh off this kind of behavior?

I know nothing will change because it’s just what’s in right now, but I’m genuinely curious as to why.

It’s disgusting.

Margorie Clemente is a senior English major and can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].