Release Therapy

In his album revealingly titled Release Therapy, Ludacris—a lucrative, well-respected figure in the rap industry who has been prominent since the 90s—includes a hit single entitled "Slap." In this song, he chronicles all the stresses, failures, responsibilities, and disappointments of being an adult. Like Pink does in her song "Dear Mr. President", he attributes some of these to the shortcomings of the government, exemplified by his exclamation that “President Bush could give a damn about [us]!” With young adolescents religiously following his lyrics and heeding his profuse warnings about adulthood, it is no wonder why they are so scared and uncertain and unwilling to take that big leap into the distant world of adulthood livelihood and all it entails. It is hip-hop artists like him who perpetuate the emerging adulthood epidemic through their dissuading lyrics.