Money, Power and Respect... and Marriage?

If anyone is familiar with the hip/hop genre, who could forget the infamous hook that rap artist Lil' Kim performed on the L.O.X.'s song. It goes something like this:

See I believe in Money, Power, and Respect
First you get the money, then you get the power
After you get the power, then [people] will respect you
It's the key to life
Money, power, respect
What you need in life...
When you eatin' right...
You'll see the light...

The chorus goes on, stressing the importance of money, power, and respect in life. But what if a rapper decided to include among the list of essentials, marriage being one?

My brother sent me an article the other day on www.theroot.com, where a writer by the name of Joe Cummings described rap artist Jay-Z as "clever, creative—and cagey—enough to rap about marriage without rapping about his own." He went into details to discuss the influence that Jay-Z has on young males and their perceptions of the world; therefore,if Jay-Z decided to put a positive spin on marriage and rap about it, shouldn't it have the same influential effect?

In 2008, CNN (stated during the "Black In America: Part 2)found that 45 percent of successful black women have never been married.

Although there are many reasons behind this number, I think that if Black men were taught at a young age the importance of an education, family, respect,and being able to provide a good life for themself, the marriage rate among blacks wouldn't be so low. And if the young man can't be fed this information at home, what better way to hear it than from those whom you admire on television?

So, for rap artists like Jay-Z who have been successful, think about it... In your music, you talk about the money, the power, and the respect, so let's add a fourth lug to the wheel-- marriage. Now this could be the complete package.