Is Sexxy Red Staining the Youth?
How a video of Sexxy Red and young fans singing together sparked controversy.
Photograph 1:Sexxy Red; AARON J. THORNTON/GETTY IMAGES
Blasting in the speakers of clubs and speeding cars is the song that makes girls move, Sexxy Red’s “Skeeyee”. It was the song of the summer, as Red raps about fast cars, sex and guns while divulging her sexual desires.
Skeeyee by Sexxy Red Lyrics provided by Genius.com.
The eccentric rapper describes the phrase “Skeeyee” to Montreality: “You see a cute girl or somebody with a big booty, or you’re tryin’ to holler at somebody.”
So, is this truly an appropriate song for kids? X users chastised Red following a video of her and young fans screaming “Skeeyee” in a park. @RomezWrld reacted to the video:
Is Red to blame for children’s exposure to her music, or should we be blaming the parents? I spoke to Huma Reid, a child & adolescent counselling psychotherapist, about the effects of explicit music on children’s development and behaviour.
In your field, are you seeing a correlation between indulgence in explicit music and inappropriate behaviour in children and adolescents?
“More so with the primary children because they have access to YouTube and quite a lot of them now have access to mobile phones & iPads. So, they can get on to anything and everything explicit & non-explicit by accidentally tapping onto sites that are irrelevant to them, but then they get pulled in and start watching. There has also been grandiose behaviour of a sexualised nature, which they’ve seen and then think it’s OK to do.”
She continues,
“The effect is more than just music; it’s also the culture. They start to think, I need caps on my teeth or this jacket. I’ll fight you for it. Gang-related stuff. Drugs. It’s just snowballing.”
X user @ohrelly_, stated:
Rel is not wrong; inappropriate music has constantly been exposed to children, especially during the 2000s, when songs were laced with sexual innuendos and metaphors. Milkshake and In Da Club from the 2000s explored similar themes to Red’s song.
However, it seems children are more affected by music than previous generations. Reid states that lyrics have changed over the years from sexual innuendos to straight, explicit sexual lyrics.
“Now they’re just saying it. You take Nicki Minaj, and you’ve got these young children who then potentially have older siblings that are describing it or just know what junk in your trunk means.”.
The problem is not simply that lyrics have become excessively more explicit; they are also highly accessible to children.
“Music videos in the 90s were banned because they were so graphic, but now you don’t need to have MTV to see these. You can get it from anywhere like Instagram or YouTube”
With the advancements of technology and the consistent reliability of technology to entertain children, we have isolated our children to be able to see this type of content. We cannot control what they can view online.
“You’ll have some of those children that are louder and more powerful that maybe have parents that are not the most active in their lives, and due to that, they’re then given time to sit and occupy themselves. It’s like the iPad is the new babysitter. Go and play with the worms. Go back outside, but there is a fear that if they go outside, they will be kidnapped, taken, or hurt, but using an iPad is hurting their development and growth.”
