‘I want it all-money,fast cars,diamonds rings and champagne.’So says Warren G in his quadruple platinum single ‘I want it all’.Hip hop artists profess their love for money through such lyrics.They portray this love through their music videos.Flashy cars,expensive clothing,extravagant locations and money are shown with the utmost ostentation.
Young people look up to these musicians as their role models.They believe that those musicians have the perfect lives.You couldn’t possibly go wrong with all that money.Or could you?MC Hammer,Toni Braxton and TLC all have one thing in common-they were all bankrupt at some point in their careers.Whitney Houston is a marijuana addict.Do these people have so much money that they don’t even know what to do with it?Most musicians xompose their own songs and everyone knows that the best ballads are the ones about broken hearts.Therefore,are musicians really rich inside?Wouldn’t we all be if we just looked for the bare necessities in life?Happiness,truth and love.
Happiness as defined in the Oxford Dictionary is a feeling of luck,fortune and contentment.Most hip hop artists express their childhoods as miserable experiences because they grew up in the ghetto.But now that they have acquired all this wealth,their lives just couldn’t be better.Could they have not made the best out of their childhood,knowing that they were loved and cared for?Weren’t they truly happy then without all the material accessories?In my opinion,if you are lucky enough to be alive,fortunate enough to have food and a bed,and content in the love you receive,then you experience happiness which no piece of paper or coin can take away. ‘She’s so lovely,she’s a star.But she cries in her lonely heart thinking if there’s nothing missing in my life then why do these tears come at night.’Is Britney Spears mirroring the life of a real-life artist in her song ‘Lucky’?Are artists really the people we perceive them to be or do they just wear masks to complete the ‘perfect’look?They should be true to themselves by being true to the public and showing us who they really are.
All human beings are unique because God made us that way.In that process He gave us specific talents.The only way to give back to the Lord is to use those talents to the best of our abilities.Musicians start out by wanting to give back to God,but does it always last?In the pursuit of following their dreams,does greed interfere at some stage?Are some artists in the netertainment industry simply for the money?They only got their status because the public supports them.Should they not love their fans enough to show us their true selves?Wouldn’t they be happier knowing that people are judging them for who they reall are rather than the masks they wear? Money can buy you a truck full of material things.But if you don’t have love and you don’t know who you are,it is worthless.A wise woman once said:’What does it profit a man to gain the whole world,yet to lose his soul in the process?’Absolutely nothing.
