Is rap music really music?

[Sikander]

IMO 98% of rap is beyond all redemption. It's amusical crap. Thank god I can't understand most of the lyrics.

[Provost Harrison]

Never seen the appeal myself either.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Aw, come on. Massive Attack? Just about the best active British band.

[Brtndr4u]

Originally posted by Asher

Nonsense. My definition includes instrumentals.

My definition doesn't include rap because rap is poetry. Rap set to music is not music in the same way music videos are not music but rather videos.

I agree,500 years from now they will be teaching students about the great American poetry era 85'-05'May it rest in Peace.

[Solly]

Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny
Aw, come on. Massive Attack? Just about the best active British band.

Ahem

Idlewild?

[Juggernaut]

Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny
Aw, come on. Massive Attack? Just about the best active British band.

Good band, unfortunately not Hip-hop.

Some rap is very good, try "Beneath The Surface" by Gza, but Missy Elliot makes me develop a$$ tumors. Like in the annoying Molin Rogue song, she's just utter piece of sh1t, IMO.

Wouldn't class her as rap anyway.

[Caesar the Great]

heres a pratical anti-rap arguement...

Any rap that has meaning is generally about racism and the ghettos and social injustices. There is nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately it does create attitudes in the black communities that are problematic. First of all, nearly all if not all rap uses socially unacceptable language and hardly ever even resembles proper english. In general blacks who listen to this music are not upper class and live in poorer neighborhoods. At home they are not exposed to proper english, at school and everywhere the same is true. Thus the only manner in which they know how to speak is the kind all around them, and in particular in rap music. Yes, this is partly due to a failure by schools and parents but nonetheless music's influence cannot be denied here. Without knowledge of proper speech nor writing skills it becomes very hard for lower class blacks to advance in society, rather they become caught in a cycle from which they can never escape.

All this brews the attitude that they can only become successful either by becoming a rapper or an athelete. Clearly the chances of entering one of these professions is very small. And once they are unable to advance in society in these ways, a significant number turn to crime. By discouraging such a lifestyle in both music and at schools many more opportunities will open up for blacks in poorer communities. If all kids are ever exposed to is a bunch of guys cursing every few seconds and never learn what they should and shouldn't say (particularly when trying to find work) social advancement would result.

[Juggernaut]

3/10

[Az]

Clutch
Careful with that Mic

Generally, I think Rap is music. The important things for me are the hiphop beats ,I like it mixed real nice with techno.

[Buck Birdseed]

I love Americans and their inability to accept a living language...

I'm vaguely wondering what it is about Hip-Hop exactly that drives the non-musical public nuts. It seems that the standard answer for taste-exempted sports stars, TV personalities, etc. in interviews when asked about their music tastes is turns out to be "I litsen to a bit of everything, except Rap". What they mean, of course, is that they litsen to cheese and ****e eighties classic rock, but still. What makes Rap, by all accounts one of the cutting edges of contemporary music, so vehemently objectionable? All I know is, it must be doing something right... The beat construction, maybe? Polyrhythms, which of course is the starting point for any African-American musical form, have their fullest extension in Hip-Hop today. Is it the production? Because today the edge of musical production lies within suprisingly commerical hip-hop. Oh well, at least one can rest assured that Hip-Hop is the broader musical style and that the non-musical public are simply limiting their scope...

[reds4ever]

you can 'rap' over metal, soul, reggae or whatever. Hip Hop is the music, there is a difference.

[Solly]

Originally posted by Snapcase
I love Americans and their inability to accept a living language...

I'm vaguely wondering what it is about Hip-Hop exactly that drives the non-musical public nuts. It seems that the standard answer for taste-exempted sports stars, TV personalities, etc. in interviews when asked about their music tastes is turns out to be "I litsen to a bit of everything, except Rap". What they mean, of course, is that they litsen to cheese and ****e eighties classic rock, but still. What makes Rap, by all accounts one of the cutting edges of contemporary music, so vehemently objectionable? All I know is, it must be doing something right... The beat construction, maybe? Polyrhythms, which of course is the starting point for any African-American musical form, have their fullest extension in Hip-Hop today. Is it the production? Because today the edge of musical production lies within suprisingly commerical hip-hop. Oh well, at least one can rest assured that Hip-Hop is the broader musical style and that the non-musical public are simply limiting their scope...

I like most stuff apart from rap. Punk, rock, 60s, a bit of panpipes, you name it.

Of course, sorry for not being rebellious...

[Al B. Sure!]

good job, snapcase. Personally, I don't know what to say in favour of rap and hip hop. Living in THE rap city, I don't encounter too many people who don't like rap. Even people who like rock listen to some rap.

but I got a question for yall...

Is R&B music? The beats are just the same as in rap. And R&B singers don't necessarily write notes for their songs. Is that not music?

[reds4ever]

Bod, ready for the semi's?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Snapcase
I love Americans and their inability to accept a living language...

I'm vaguely wondering what it is about Hip-Hop exactly that drives the non-musical public nuts. It seems that the standard answer for taste-exempted sports stars, TV personalities, etc. in interviews when asked about their music tastes is turns out to be "I litsen to a bit of everything, except Rap". What they mean, of course, is that they litsen to cheese and ****e eighties classic rock, but still. What makes Rap, by all accounts one of the cutting edges of contemporary music, so vehemently objectionable? All I know is, it must be doing something right... The beat construction, maybe? Polyrhythms, which of course is the starting point for any African-American musical form, have their fullest extension in Hip-Hop today. Is it the production? Because today the edge of musical production lies within suprisingly commerical hip-hop. Oh well, at least one can rest assured that Hip-Hop is the broader musical style and that the non-musical public are simply limiting their scope...

The answer is quite simple: The majority of famous rappers are complete *******s. Many of them are even borderline racists.

Much of the more famous songs are nothing but profanity and about violence and "gangsta warfare". There is some good rap out there, but it's overshadowed by mountains of crap.

Then there's the "elite" factor of it. If you're white and you listen to rap everyone automatically calls you a "whigger" and you earn the reputation of a poser.

I wouldn't mind rap if there was more of it that was good, rather than preying off the violent youth who like outlets for their anger and dream they're "ganstas".