By Shayla Reaves LOUISVILLE (WAVE) — The crackdown on gang violence means cracking the code in rap music for Metro Council members. Now they re sponsoring a workshop to help understand the messages behind the lyrics your kids might be hearing. WAVE 3 s Shayla Reaves investigates. Everybody s got something to say, but not everybody is getting the message. It s the messages in hip-hop music that some council members just don t get.

“I don t understand the message, I don t listen to rap music,” said District 2 Councilwoman Barbara Shanklin. “The children understand these message, we don t.” But, Shanklin and supporters are convinced that what s in the music can lead to gang violence. That s why they re sponsoring a two-day workshop called “Rap Music s Influence on Youth” to address the issue. “It s the gangsta rap that s really the enemy of the community,” Pastor John Crittendon said. Students aren t all convinced.

“I don t think rap has anything to do with gangs,” Braea Tilford, a Central High School sophomore told us. Of course lots of things influence kids — like, for example, television cameras. “Let us know that it s not okay,” said Jemiah Nash of listening to rap music. “A lot of people listen to it and they re like it must be good because he got money singing about so I m gonna do it and try to get money.

” So the music that seems so dangerous is the same music they re listening to when they re just being kids. “I think kids get more caught up in the beat or the rhyme of it and not listen to the words of what it really means,” said parent Erikka Woods. “Without a cure to take out some of the toxin of the music of the culture that they re in, they re going to be plagued with an illness that s going to affect us all,” said Roosevelt Lightsy Jr., who is a member of the Newburg Youth Council.