Common...A Thug?

This weeks discussion about ideologies got me thinking about an article that I read a while back entitled “Obama Invites Thug Rapper to the White House” While reading the title I thought the worst, I envisioned them talking about someone with a mouth full of diamonds and pants hanging off their butt. I was shocked to later find out that the dangerous thug rapper that they were referring to was actually Common. “I met this girl when I was ten years old and what I loved most, she had so much soul” Common. The article later goes on to say that the Obamas invited this “thug” rapper to the White House for a poetry reading (sounds really thug to me). 

The article got me thinking about society’s ideology of what a rapper is supposed to be, how they’re supposed to act and how they’re supposed to dress. In society’s eyes a rapper is supposed to be a thug, but this isn’t always the case. While some rappers out there do fit the description of this ideology, most rappers today don’t really fit. People such as Mos Def, Talib Kwali, Common, B.O.B., Kendrick Lamar, Wale, Kid Cudi and even Drake don’t fit in the “thug” category. Rappers have changed but society’s connotation of rappers has not.