by Blair Lovern

So says The Dallas Morning News, after two deaths at Club Angel in downtown Dallas this past Sunday. I disagree.

After the deaths at Club Angel in downtown Dallas early Sunday morning, The Dallas Morning News reports: "Song blamed for shootings." And columnist Steve Blow writes: "This time the link between the music and the dead is irrefutable."

How

often

does

this

sort

of

discussion

pop

up?

Here's a hint from Aristotle, yo!: "Rhythm and melody supply imitations of anger and gentleness, and also of courage and temperance, and of all the qualities contrary to these, and of the other qualities of character, which hardly fall short of the actual affections, as we know from our own experience, for in listening to such strains our souls undergo a change."

Feel free to chime in with your thoughts below. I'd like to add something first: There's something missing in the "irrefutable link" between the music and the dead called "reckless jackass with a gun with problems that are so far beyond rap lyrics."

You can't slather over those problems with a blaming-music-for-murder, watered-down coat of paint. Music didn't give birth to a kid, music didn't feed a kid, music didn't teach a kid right and wrong, music didn't go over homework at the kitchen table, music didn't say "No" over and over and over to every kid's want or request, music did not instill any discipline, or work ethic, or dignity, or hope or faith or charity toward being the best human being possible.

Music is us. Good, bad, disgusting, beautiful, insightful, pointless, whatever - there is no separation. If Dallas police say the song "Put Yo Hood Up" was a trigger to the violence Sunday morning, I can comprehend that. That does not mean I must like it. Read the lyrics yourself.

But if there is a "poisonous streak that runs through so much of rap and hip-hop music," as Steve Blow writes, then that poison must be found somewhere else in the chain of life. Lil Jon and The East Side Boyz weren't on the other side of that gun Sunday. Neither were their lyrics. When it gets to that point in the human condition, condemning the music is beyond too late.

God bless Lendl Carey and Kenneth Haggerty and their families.

• Staff
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• Anonymous

What do you think?