<p>My sweet son has recently discovered a passion for writing and recording rap and posting it on YouTube and Facebook. He’s actually quite good and is getting positive feedback from his peers. I heard one of the songs last night, and let’s just say I freaked out. It’s profane and disturbing (at least to me as a mom with little exposure to or knowledge about this genre of music.) In addition to my other concerns about how this reflects on his character, I am worried about the impact on college admissions.</p>
<p>Unless his music advocates violence, bigotry or illegal activities, I’d say its influence - negative or otherwise - on college admissions is nil.</p>
<p>Once our kids reach a certain age, I don’t know that it’s possible to stifle their creativity OR protect them. Stifling creativity is probably going to backfire in harmful ways.</p>
<p>I do wonder about the impact of a kid’s online identity on college admissions. Depending on the schools your son is looking at, it seems possible that adcoms might check out his Facebook page, which would probably link to his videos. But a top music school might be won over by especially creative rapping, just as elite schools might look favorably on a challenging but unique writing voice. Larger schools probably don’t have the resources to look at Facebook for every student.</p>
<p>As katliasmom says, as long as his rap doesn’t call for violence, isn’t hate speech, etc., it probably won’t hold him back for college.</p>
<p>I was taking the “don’t listen to it” approach until I broke down and played his newest FB upload last night. It’s very vulgar. I can’t help but think about the impact this could have on the people closest to him, not to mention teachers, coaches, etc. I will keep processing this…I appreciate the input so far and would love to hear more.</p>
<p>I think the effect on college admissions depends on the school. A different problem is his budding music career, and this can be your in if you really want to put the kibosh on little Marshall’s public rapping until he gets a bit older.</p>
<p>Having a bunch of stuff on youtube before you’ve honed your craft is not the best music career decision. It will still exist out there somewhere, even after you take it down, ready for someone in the future to repost it. That could be at best embarrassing, and at worse harmful to his ability to earn a buck at his craft. If he is serious, he might want to polish up his singing and performing, as well as his production skills, before stepping out on to the public stage. People who are serious about the music business wait until they are ready, and the piece is ready, before stepping out from behind the curtain.</p>
<p>You could buy some time by not only discussing this with him, but offering to pay for lessons. I am not sure if rap lessons specifically exist, but I bet they do. There is a reason why certain songs sound great, and he should learn this. I know every major metro area has production classes (video, sound, etc.). If he is going to do it, help him be good, and help him wait.</p>
<p>Lastly, if all else fails, depending on his age you really can just not allow him to post profane lyrics. This might be easier at 13 than 17, of course. If he is close to 18 I’d say the toothpaste is out of the tube, and chatting with him about career strategy might be your only option.</p>
<p>One more thing…You might want to watch The Voice with him (it’s great for the whole family, really). I bet you can purchase the whole season as a download from youtube. I can’t remember if there were any rappers specifically, but the four judges are industry powerhouses and there is a lot of information in there on how to sound good and how to polish up an act and a song. Fantastic show. Quite an opportunity to hear from some folks who have made millions in the industry he may be interested in entering.</p>
<p>We have discussed it and I think he’s actually open to my feedback to a point. He’s torn between the attention he gets for this now and the dream of making it something big versus the reality of the negative consequences he may also suffer. He’s also a pretty typical teen thinking that we older people just don’t get it! I really want him to come to the decision on his own…</p>
<p>You’re focused on how it would affect his admissions chances, but that wouldn’t be my priority right now.</p>
<p>I would be having some discussions with him about what kind of image and message he wants to convey, and whether his works to date are a positive or negative contribution to humanity. He has a voice and he can influence and inspire others with it in positive ways or he can just squander it. With his talents come responsibilities.</p>
<p>You are absolutely right that this is about far more than just college admission. The character issue has been my primary focus along with helping him look at what message he is trying to convey. I chose this forum as a safe and confidential site to explore this topic with others who are helping their kids navigate a challenging period in their lives where everything they do counts on paper as well as in everyday living.</p>
<p>Have you listened to your S’s creations with him? Is it original? Or what rappers with different values than his own put forth? No artist gets very far unless they project their own image.
Spideygirl has it totally right–an artist doesn’t want to put forth an unfinished product. It’ll come back to haunt you if you actually decide to follow this as a career path.</p>
<p>The good news is that most adcoms don’t have time to trace FB or youtube. Nor the interest- they are pretty savvy to what kids can be up to and they are focused on the app package itself, all the ordinary components.</p>
<p>The bad news is that some kids think their work is so great that they put links in their applications- and the random reviewer might go look. Ugh. Then the problem isn’t so much that the stuff is of poor quality (by whatever standard anyone uses) - but that the kid thinks it’s something to be proud of- and it’s really not, to anyone out of hs. A reviewer can wonder what judgment skills he has, what perspective and maturity, etc. </p>
<p>So, he needs to go anonymous on youtube and skip links in his app. If he does mention all the rap and the youtube greatness, a reviewer wouldn’t find him without knowing the name he used. The hs kids he wants to impress can know his handle.</p>
<p>When I talked about getting The Voice from youtube, I actually meant to say Amazon. Then I checked and couldn’t find it there anyway. It does seem to be available on Hulu, however.</p>
<p>I would find this hard to deal with, too, but you know, this could be his career. He might end up signing with a record label and becoming a great success as a rapper.</p>