i played in a band & jazz ensemble in elementary school. i grew up listening to a lot of r&b with a mother who grew up on jazz.

when i really started paying attention to samples in the early-mid 90s, i recognized quite a few. i know what "real singers" sound like. i know what a voice can do outside of a lot of slick production.

when ppl know the basics of instrumentation, they become more wary of the b.s. plus, numerous studies have been done linking the learning of musical fundamentals to other higher brain functions in kids & young adolescents.

that said, parenting is definitely an issue. there is much less of a generation gap, and i think that contributes a LOT to what these kids are facing. they aren't exposed to anything outside themselves & their street. their parents (and, in some cases, grandparents) haven't lived their lives fully....how can they be expected to see a wider world? everyone's caught up in their own situation.

on the other hand, a great deal of that is the culture as a whole. western culture flourished under the banners of individualism and capatalism. to see something "wrong" with that is to deprogram in a way many people are going to find difficult.

black people, traditionally, have held on to the communal aspects more than many other immigrants--for various reasons. however, now that slavery and (obvious) jim crow-ism are out of the way, we're seeing "our" kids take on the more negative aspects of the dominant culture. it's always happened (see: house nigs vs. field nigs), now it's just more prominent.

but you also have to factor in the environmental issues:
the affects of diseases like asthma & lead poisioning
drug addiction
malnutrition (don't sleep)
etc.

it's really complex.