It’s on just like it was on when you were young and you want to say ‘fuck that’. Just like you said ‘fuck that’, back then. So how come, now that I’m twenty years old and ready to start some shit, everybody’s telling me to ‘calm down’. — Tupac Shakur

Whenever a rapper in their early-twenties meets a violent fate, the most common commentary made is about their youthful age. It’s not a coincidence that young murdered rappers are young troubled men. A history of pain, whether inflicted on others or on themselves, combined with paranoia, toxic-masculinity, and depression creates a recipe for tragedy.

The hip-hop community will often speak about how these young men were robbed of an opportunity to mature and right their wrongs. That the positive changes they began to make would be lost in vain over their often questionable and controversial past, and they’re right. Everyone on this planet deserves a chance to learn from their mistakes, grow as individuals, and make amends for their wrongs. The big problem that no one is willing to talk about or have a discussion about the concept of youthism and how it directly affects hip-hop and it’s never-ending problem of young rappers being murdered.

Youthism is a scarcely defined and relatively new term, and in fact ‘youthism’ isn’t even a real word per se. There are two definitions that align with the word and context plays a role in which definition applies. The first is that youthism is an obsession or worship of youth while the other falls into the category of discrimination against the youth. In the context of this discussion, it’s the former. Of course, social media is a major influence in that aspect with many of today’s up-and-coming rap stars accumulating millions of followers via Instagram while before they’re even considered legal adults. Lil Pump is the most notable example of this phenomena.

This has given young artists a 24/7 promotional cycle powered by the fans and the exposure grows the more outlandish the antics. This kind of power and influence often perpetuates these artists to be rewarded for bad behavior and established artists concerned with maintaining relevancy with younger fans often endorse this dynamic. This ultimately leads to an ethical tug-of-war.

The murders of these types of young artists like Onfroy are preceded by legal and personal issues. For this young man it ranged from gun possession, domestic violence, to his own admission of beating up homosexual. Then toss in a list of enemies he perpetuated through his volatile behavior (which he often promoted via social media), a significant portion of the internet’s reaction was “good riddance” when news came of his death. What is haunting is the reality that Onfroy is not an outlier— 20-year old black male shot dead is a common headline and a Google search will show that.

Youthism has created a self-destructive environment by giving too much tolerance to the youth and not doing our part as a society to hold them accountable for their actions. Older generations tend look at their own troubled pasts and perpetuate the belief that these artists will “grow out of their 20’s” when the right action should be to intervene, connect, and guide.