After hearing the news of yet another hip hop artist, Fredo Santana has transitioned due to health complications induced by drug abuse. The “culture” has to wonder if the concept of “Art imitating life” is appropriate for the current times. A careful and honest assessment of contemporary music will show that Black people are the only group that creates mainstream music that promotes the literal destruction of their community. The bulk of its listeners have become desensitized to the promotion of killing other black people, engaging in chemical warfare through selling drugs to their community, the abuse of drugs and alcohol, and the proliferation of dysfunctional relationships and interaction with each other. As an example, over the past decade or so we’ve noticed a huge infatuation with promethazine cough syrup, more popularly known as “lean” in the black community. Rappers like Lil Wayne contributed to this by walking around with a “double Styrofoam cup” for lean, as almost a status symbol in rap culture. As a result, during his zenith, it became common place to see young men walking around with Styrofoam cups to impress their peers. As a consequence, we’ve seen many rappers and young men die for over dosing on lean. Because of this, many of the older entertainers have critiqued the younger generations for promoting drug culture in their music and lifestyle. The young generation has pushed back by pointing out the hypocrisy of criticizing their musical content when the older generations promoted negativity in the community as well. In November 2017, rapper 21 Savage stated in a tweet, “They say we make drug user music like making drug selling music is better...” which is a good point. However, if one is smart enough to recognize that contradiction, then one is now smart enough to know better than to put out destructive music. It’s not good enough to make the argument that rappers are just making music that reflect their background and environment. They have to be about the business of figuring out ways to improve their former environments, so others can come up too. It’s almost the equivalence of growing up financially broke, and pledging to remain broke, because that’s all you knew growing up. None of these entertainers would do that. So why has it become acceptable for black entertainers to evade responsibility for encouraging the deterioration of the black community? Why are people debating if “Art should imitate culture” or should “Art influence culture”? The answer is conditional. If the “culture” is destructive and unproductive then the artist are tasked with shaping the culture into one that is productive. If the culture is intact, meaning spiritually, socially, politically, and financially well, then the art should reflect that reality. No one benefits from simply reiterating a negative reality that the community is already familiar with. This approach only makes sense if a group is expecting another group to come and fix their community. If one will rely on history, then we know that is not going to happen. Therefore, the rebuilding of the black community is the responsibility of black people. That includes in musicians and entertainers.