Riding Shotgun

ramblings from the passenger's seat

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Today's post brought to you by the letter V.

Violence in video games is a pretty old school debate. It flares up every now and then. Violence in rap music is a pretty old school debate. It flares up every now and then. Violence in movies is a ...ok you get the point. Now I don't know how this is relevant but these two things I discovered in the last week seemed strangely synchronistic:
Bulletproof

Hang the MC

The first is a critically panned video-game glorifying and fictionalising 50 Cent the rapper-cum-street thug whose misogyny is just a necessary part of living on the mean streets. There is perhaps a lot of offensive materials in this game. The trailers alone feature excessive violence, drug use and...well anyways I'm sounding like an ad for M.A.V.A. V.
which is...gross?
So yeah watch the trailers and see what you think. If nothing else they can entertain with such socialist lines as "What's mines is mines, what's yours is mines..." Who really needs a 50 Cent video game, anyways?

The second is a 4 part CBC series on rap incited violence. I listen to a lot of rap (well ok a lot is a bit of an exaggeration but it is a well-represented genre in my musical catalogue). I am afraid of violence. I don't like holding knives...I'm not sure but maybe there is a causality issue here. Anyways the articles are interesting although they never seem quite finished maybe the last one will tie up the loose ends.

Also today is Speak Silence Day so I guess it is a little late now to get involved but support journos for human rights they're trying to stop some of the violence that is going on against the least privileged of the world. See how neatly I tied that plug in.