The Rap Thread

[AboutAGirl]

I think those guys are cool.

The only one I own any albums by is Eminem. His stuff is so goddamn passionate! I love Cleaning Out My Closet, Toy Soldiers, Mockingbird.

 

[thatsfunny]

first, it should be noted that what is sold as "rap" music today is a lot different from the way it used to be. I agree that much of today's rap/hip-hop music is very packaged, seemingly obsessed with materialism and other shallow pursuits. Those of you who are offended or put off by the so-called "gangsta" aspects of rap should give a listen to older artists like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, the Roots, Mos Def, etc. (the roots being perhaps the best rebuttal to the poster who claimed that rap doesn't have drums.. Amir "?uestlove" Thompson plays drums for the roots and is a very accomplished and talented drummer). There are many musically-talented people who work in hip-hop behind the scenes as well, including a lot of session musicians who lay down basslines, drum beats, guitar tracks, sax, etc.

I think a lot of the "rap isn't music" dismissals come from people who have only heard snippets of rap music while flipping through channels. There's also a very interesting cultural element to the rejection of rap music, which some posters have been very up front about, but is still worth examining. Take for example an artist like Kelly Clarkson or Jessica Simpson. Not only do they have very little to do with the actual creation of their music aside from singing vocals that someone else has written for them, but the music itself is very over-produced, slick-sounding, and bland. Yet no one claims that pop music "isn't music," because the basic elements come from a style music that you're more famliar with. You might agree that Kelly Clarkson isn't a "musician," per se, but you don't entirely discount an entire genre because a few artists like her are putting out soulless, commerically-packaged songs... with rap music, a lot of people seem all too ready to dismiss the entire genre because some artists like Lil' Jon or whoever aren't putting out quality music.

 

[runtfan]

I know that there's exceptions in the rap/hip-hop "music" world, but my overall rejection of (alot of ) it as being "not really music" has to do with the fact that songwriting has always consisted of some basic building blocks - melody,harmony,rhythm,tempo, dynamics, lyrics, arrangement and instrumentation, counterpoint, etc. - and this has been true in the history of music. It was true before people even had names for those things (that's why they had to come up with names for those things).
Of those basic elements, melody and harmony are far and away the most distinguishable. They're what makes us recognize a Beethoven symphony, or a Beatles song, or a Burt Bacharach song, or whatever it is.
Rap/hip-hop is a style based, in the vast majority, on rhythm and lyrics. Lyrics, of course, is a completely open book - you can say a literally endless amount of things with virtually no restrictions (whether they're interesting or worthwhile or not is pretty subjective, I guess, but the words themselves can be arranged into endless combinations). With rhythm there's alot less possible combinations and even far less, considering that it needs to give people a beat they can feel and snap they're fingers to or whatever.
For some people - a lot of people obviously, given the poularity of rap/hip-hop - that's gonna be enough. For others, who like to have a melody they can hum or who enjoy the expressiveness of the music itself (regardless of the message of lyrics, or whether there's lyrics at all), we're gonna have a hard time giving rap/hip/hop the same classification as a great symphony, or a great, hooky rock/pop song, or a great John Coltrane solo, or whatever, because it doesn't have the components that can invoke any feeling in us.
To use your example of Kelly Clarkson, yeah, it's over-produced, probably, ultimately, not very memorable, and somewhat disposable, but it's got all, or at least most of the components of the stuff that I and a helluva lot of other people consider "good music" and can be judged accordingly(today's rock and pop music seems to be pretty devoid of any dynamics, but that's a separate rant).

Of course there are gonna be some exceptions ( I'll let you come up with them), but most rap/hip-hop can be considered music only in the most obtuse and forgiving definition of the word.

That's where I stand, and I know I'm not alone.

 

[Martha Washington]

of course you're not alone.
nor were Frank Sinatra and Mitch Miller and others who were outspoken against rock and roll.

it just doesn't make any difference.

rock and roll is here to stay
it will never die
it was meant to be that way
though I don't know why
I don't care what people say
rock and roll is here to stay

 

[Martha Washington]

If you REALLY want rap to go away, I have a theory.
If you and everybody who HATES it stopped hating it, I'll bet within' a year rap would be all washed up.

and would be replaced by something else you hate even more.
it's a theory!

 

[runtfan]

If you REALLY want rap to go away, I have a theory.
If you and everybody who HATES it stopped hating it, I'll bet within' a year rap would be all washed up.

and would be replaced by something else you hate even more.
it's a theory!

Good point

And really, hate is probably too strong a word for what I feel about rap. I'm very rarely forced to listen to it, so it actually doesn't bother me too much. I mostly just don't have much respect for it and I'm pretty baffled by the whole thing.
I guess it's just lucky I'm not everybody's designated program director, huh?

 

[Martha Washington]

you can be MY program director anytime!!!

 

[Shaggy]

I'm like the older stuff. Not sure why people like the newest stuff out there. Its so repeative, the same lines over and over and over and over again. Its more annoying then anything.

 

[Dude111]

Is there anyone here who gets into rap..

I like traditional rap. REAL RAP!!!!

Not this god aweful HIP HOP on the radio now...... HIP HOP IS NOT RAP!!!!!!!! (Many ppl dont know the difference)

Hip hop IS UTTER GARBAGE while RAP is quite good!! (80s hip hop was good however (ton loc,etc))

 

[Magic]

I like traditional rap. REAL RAP!!!!

Not this god aweful HIP HOP on the radio now...... HIP HOP IS NOT RAP!!!!!!!! (Many ppl dont know the difference)

Hip hop IS UTTER GARBAGE while RAP is quite good!! (80s hip hop was good however (ton loc,etc))

I'm not a fan at all of Rap. However, back in the day, I did listen to old school rap. I don't remember it being called rap back then.

Anyway, I liked The Sugarhill Gang.