Extremely Powerful Influence of Rap Rap music has been a part of this world since the 1960s and has gone through hundreds of different stages over its time. However, the first thing people think of when they hear rap music is crime, violence, alcohol, drugs and other negative influences. Despite these common beliefs about what rap music is, it can have an extremely positive influence. Educate youth and the community about the bad things happening around us and how they affect people. It can also be used to give people ideas on how they can help improve these negative events. In general, rap music, whether you believe it to be negative or positive, can be agreed that it is one thing for everyone, and that is that it is influential. People all over the world are influenced by music, but gangster rap has its own type of influence. “In 1992, former Vice President Dan Quayle (R) asked Interscope to stop selling Tupac Shakur's album 2pacalypse Now because it was linked to a murder in Texas. Nineteen-year-old Ronald Howard said that after listening to rap tapes, including music by Shakur, he was inspired to kill a police officer. A Texas jury rejected this reasoning and sentenced Howard to death in June 1993. "This proves that rap has an influence on people that can radically affect the way they think and act. This also shows that rap is generally considered a bad influence, but due to its extremely powerful effect on people, it can also be used for good purposes. Additionally, "a July 1995 New York Times poll found that Americans blame popular culture, particularly television, for high levels of teen violence. Twenty-one percent of respondents voluntarily named television as more than a...... middle of paper ......eb. February 18, 2014."Hip-hop culture." ICOF (2009): n. page. Problems and controversies. Internet. February 13, 2014.icof_story.aspx?PIN=i1000590&term=Rap+Influence#i1000590_3>.Hosten, Allissa. “From Street Poetry to Pure Politics: Hip-Hop’s Growing Influence on Social Issues.” Student resources in context May 3, 2004: 61.Rpt. in Student Resources in Context. Np: np, nd N. pag. Print.Julian, Tanner, Mark Asbridge and Scot Wortley. “Listening to rap: cultures of crime, cultures of resistance.” Social Forces os 88.2 (2009): 693-722.EBSCO. Internet. February 11, 2014. detail?vid=5&sid=bb8f36d0-2f56-49a9-a53d-ac83a4ed41c3%40sessionmgr4002&hid=4101&b data=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bsh&AN=47617801>.