Every year Congressional Quarterly, and independent publishing and communication organization publishes a report based on crime statistics compiled from the FBI.
This report becomes the annual listing of America’s most dangerous cities. Their formula for ranking the cities is pretty simple. The amount of felony crime reported in the city is divided by the population size of the city. The same amount of crime might take place in Camden that does in Atlanta, but since there are way more people in Atlanta the city does not rank as high as the depressed New Jersey township.
The controversy that this report generates is based on how the perception of a city might rise or fall in their ability to secure bonds for capital construction. The idea of the dangerous aspect of the city becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when resources are withheld and the city declines even further. Look no farther than Flint, Michigan for that example. What comes first? Poverty, or the report on the effects of poverty?
You might think that a report like this could help some music executives to find where the next greatest ghetto poets might emerge from. Rap music’s in need of another Tupac, or at least another Nelly. Here’s a look at the top five dead or alive (mostly dead) most dangerous cities in America…
1. St. Louis, MO
2. Camden, NJ
3. Detroit, MI
4. Flint, MI
5. Oakland, CA
Real talk is that it’s a myth that rappers come from impoverished backgrounds. The top rappers in the game right now are all rich kids. Drake? He was rich even before he started rapping from acting and also from having mulatto hair. Drake might as well call his crew The Silver Spoons. None of these cities on this expanded list makes for good rappers because the people that come from these towns are honestly just better at producing criminals.
