A lot of rappers have profanity in their songs because they are rapping what’s on their mind even if it means to use explicit lyrics. Eminem is a perfect example of what I am saying.

Shock value Dec.04.2023

To show their level of intelligence, which is very low.

Well...first: I want to point out that not all rap is profane or full of profanity. *** That being said: I think there are three significant reasons for rap frequently being rife with profanity. ** #1 ** - Fad. Probably partially for the reason that one answer gave, "shock value", and for other reasons such as "rebellion against society's view of what is right and decent", profanity in rap is widely desired by fans of rap. Rappers typically fill their lyrics with profanity because that is what "sells". It makes a song more popular - or more likely to become popular - than it would otherwise be. ** #2 ** The second reason is that, for many rappers, the rapper typically uses such language, and so the song does in fact mirror their thoughts and words. Their song lyrics are, for them, "regular speech". ** #3 ** I think the last reason is: the popularity of street-gang image in rap music. I separate this from the first matter because this involves the rapper's personal image rather than the content of the music itself. The rapper - again for reasons of popularity and sales - attempts to "look bad", to "appear to be an authentic member of a dangerous and criminal street gang". The popularity of the music depends not only on the "image" of the music's content, but also on the rapper's personal image - which often is that of a dangerous street criminal, and often is faked.

Profanity is just part of how people speak. It's dialectical. To people who grew up around a lot of profanity, the language doesn't seem shocking. I grew up in the midwest, and, even in the cities, certain words were considered offensive to speak in mixed company. Moving to the East Coast, the culture here is much different, even in rural areas, no one really takes offense at certain words I'm accustomed to being offensive, yet other words still are offensive. Since so many rappers came from the East Coast, the colloquial language must have had an effect on the lyrical content of the music.

Shocking lyrics draw attention.

They are a bunch of assholes who don't know any better.