Syko Sam

Twenty-two year old Richard McCroskey plead guilty to brutally murdering his girlfriend, her friend and the parents of his girlfriend. What brought the couple together was their love for Horrorcore music. Horrorcore is a sub genre of hip hop music but resembles a combination of hardcore rap and death metal. The lyrical focus of this genre is predominantly on Satanism, cannibalism, suicide, mutilation, murder, and rape. These popular themes are put together with a catchy rap beat and is affectionately known as death rap. Richard McCroskey or Syko Sam as was his horrorcore rap artist name; brutally bludgeoned these four people with a splitting tool, looking suspiciously like one of these Horrorcore songs. Syko Sam's song The Voices is a perfect picture of what was going on in his head and what was driving him. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman is a expert on the psychology of killing. Lt. Col. Dave Gossman specializes in the influential effects that the media violence has on children. This media violence is a significant factor in contributing to the real-world violence that has become rampant among youths. Recently in Lynchburg a man was senselessly beaten and he ended up dying for no better reason than to impress a couple of girls. These boys did not care who it was they just wanted to beat someone up. To connect all of this Lt. Col. Grossman has overwhelming evidence that media violence is a significant contributing factor to the influx of violence the American youth are perpetuating. If this is true it stands to reason that other media outlets like Horrorcore will similarly effect other rapt audiences. What begs the question is, are these killings a result of nature or nurture. If the latter is true America is in for some trouble unless we change because we are raising a generation of youth with a propensity for violence. The Bible would seem to implicate both nature and nurture. Luke 11:34 says, "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good your whole body is filled with Light. But when they are bad your body is also filled with darkness." Luke 6:45 says, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings out evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks." These two verses mainly deal with the nurture aspect as mentioned above. If all things are equal, besides mans overwhelming need for God, because of our sin nature, the nature part. What determines a good person verses an evil person in large part has to do with what they are feeding into their heart. Media and music are major sources of information that are going directly into the eyes, ears, and end up in the heart. Following this line of reasoning, these horrendous actions of Syko Sam were just following the normal chain of events. Garbage in, Garbage out. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Above all else, guard your heart, because it is the wellspring of life." What we take in has consequences, even if they are only rarely seen.