Cash Rules Everything, Even the Minds Of the Youth Cash rules everything around us, and one of the fastest, easiest ways to make a lot of it is through illegal activity. In the music video C.R.E.A.M. by the Wu-Tang Clan, through their body language and lyrics, they display the brutal nature that is enacted on the streets of New York City during the 1990’s. It is apparent in the music video that all of the main characters are African American. Inspectah Deck and Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan explain the reasons behind their actions at the time. It can be argued that due to the economic inequality and the glamorization of crime through hip-hop and rap music, more and more African American youths were led to live a life of crime on the streets during the 1990’s. Wu-Tang Clan was a hip-hop group that originated out of New York City …show more content…
As Inspectah Deck says in his second verse of the song, “We got stickup kids, corrupt cops, and crack rocks, and stray shots, all on the block that stays hot”(Inspectah Deck 23-24). This line tells about just a few of the problems that these people face out on the streets everyday, and even Inspectah Deck through his lyrics implies that there is less glamour in the lifestyle that most might think. Even with the large amounts of money to be made and the glory of the “gangster” life style, there is evidence to suggest that perhaps the people in the front lines don’t truly want to be there. As Inspectah Deck says in the second verse of the song, “as the world turned I learned life was hell, living in the world no different from a cell”(Inspectah Deck 13-14). These lyrics strongly suggest that even though people become a part of the scene, this doesn’t mean that they like what they are doing and perhaps even feel as if they are trapped with no way