To say that hip hop encourages or facilitates the violent behavior to which it pertains feels like an easy way out. There had to have been "urban atrocities" to begin with in order to inspire this reactionary art—thus, the anger in a lot of rap and the themes of revenge and police harassment, as well as murder, drive-bys and gang violence. People rapped about issues they felt were not being discussed in other cultural forms; they needed an outlet for urban frustration that was not being expressed. However, yes, by commodifying these events by putting them into a marketable cultural form, it does desensitize people to the idea of violence and "urban atrocities," or at least to their existence in popular culture. I mean, who is going to want to listen to a song — "oh, I'm Black but I feel White people and the police respect me, my life's pretty good." Hip hop by nature comes out of angst and anger, and therefore makes those emotions seem like the norm for those listening, yet while it presents these moods as acceptable, and violence as a frequent occurrence, placing violence within that angry context still makes it seem like a bad thing — if you commit a drive-by shooting, you'll only be unhappy.