"Gangsta rap" has been defined as, "A style of rap music associated with urban street gangs and characterized by violent, tough-talking, often misogynistic lyrics." (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)

Lyrics often reflect their author’s life experience. While I understand that the works of rap musicians may reflect their own personal negative and violent upbringing, I cannot help but feel that their music, and the videos that go along with them, glorify and perpetuate violence and misogyny.

Take, for example’s rapper 50 Cent’s thoughts on being shot nine times: "It’s cool if people laugh. I mean, it’s not funny when you’re actually getting shot, but afterwards, yeah, it’s funny. People ask me questions about it all the time. Like where does it hurt the most? The hip. When I got shot in the hip it cracked bone and when I got out of the hospital they didn’t give me medication, so that really hurt." (Time Magazine, Feb. 17, 2003)

Despite 50 Cent’s eloquence, somehow being shot nine times does not seem to me to be a laughing matter, much less something to sing about.

In this week’s parsha, Beshelach, we chant one of the greatest songs of the Tankakh, Shirat Hayam. The Song of the Sea is the epic poem that Moses and the children of Israel sang in thanksgiving to God when God saved them from the charging Egyptians at the Sea of Reeds:

I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously;
Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and might;
He is become my deliverance.
This is my God and I will enshrine Him;
The God of my father, and I will exalt Him. (Ex. 15:1-3)

The commentator Chashva L’Tova notes that despite all of the miracles that God performed for Israel in Egypt, Israel never sang a song of thanksgiving to God until they witnessed the splitting of the sea.

Chashva L’Tova says that this is because the plagues were primarily for the benefit of the Egyptians. God wanted to show them that God, and not Pharaoh, was the source of all power and life. Although the Israelites benefited from God’s works, they were not the primary audience.

However, the miracle at the Sea of Reeds was first and foremost for the benefit of Israel. To be sure, the waters returned upon the Egyptians afterwards, but this was secondary. The most important part was that God’s might and power had saved Israel from further enslavement or death. (Beshem Amro, Beshelach)

It was witnessing the awesome power and love of God that moved Moses and the Children of Israel to song. The death of the Egyptians did not. That is why the Israelites never sang to God when they were enslaved in Egypt. The suffering of God’s children did not inspire them to rejoice.

The Psalmist wrote that God created human beings little less than divine (Psalm 8). However, at least when the Israelites responded to God’s splitting of the sea, they proved themselves higher than angels.

Contrary to the Israelites who sang when they experienced God’s salvation, the Midrash teaches that the angels rejoiced and wanted to sing when they saw Israel’s enemies drowning. God stopped and rebuked them: "How dare you sing for joy when My creatures are perishing?" (Talmud, Meg. 10b) The Egyptians, too, were God’s children.

What inspires one to song speaks volumes about the quality of one’s heart and the quality of life one desires to perpetuate.
          —Donald H. Harrison