Posted on 08/21/2013 6:54:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I listen to rap. I grew up listening to rap. Since I was old enough to enjoy music, rap has been one of my favorite genres. It remains so to this day.
I'm not just talking about mainstream or party-mix rap. I am talking about hard-core rap, underground rap, and rap performed by artists that nine out of ten rap fans have never heard of.
So given that I am a genuine rap aficionado, how can it be that I largely agree with liberals like the late anti-rap activist Delores Tucker and conservatives like Bill O'Reilly who argue that rap is a destructive influence on underprivileged black youths?
Rap music has been targeted to middle-class suburbia almost since the genre's inception. Millions of white people listen to rap, which means that characterizing rap as "black" music or music intended predominately for a black audience is inaccurate.
Yet there is a fundamental difference between how rap -- and "gangsta" rap in particular -- resonates with suburban middle-class males (who are predominately white) and urban lower-class males (who are predominately black).
Growing up in a middle-class Boston suburb, for me the themes of violence, gang life, and drug dealing woven into the lyrics of songs by NWA, Mobb Deep, and the Wu Tang Clan were abstract and foreign. It was akin to watching a movie about a fantastical adventure, like Rambo or Indiana Jones. I did not live in an environment depicted by these rappers, and had no opportunities (and no need) to engage in the destructive behavior --robbing, selling crack cocaine, joining a gang, etc. -- that they were glorifying.
Moreover, I grew up in a stable two-parent household, in which my parents disciplined me and regulated my behavior.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
‘Fernando’ could easily be a European folk song. DQ is just a great pop record any way one looks at it. What qualities of great pop music does it lack? It’s catchy and exuberant but with an underlying sense of melancholy - not to mention that it’s quite musical when looked at on the page.
If you can regard “Dancing Queen” as anything but an abomination of the lowest order, there is no point continuing this discussion. I wonder if years of treacle overdoses have affected your auditory center.
Success in achieving pop music perfection hardly qualifies one as an artist. Boy George and Tiny Tim have had pop hits. It’s not a particularly high esthetic bar.
Dancing Queen pops up on lists of the Greatest pop records of all time. No one remembers those artists you mentioned except as campy indulgences. ABBA is still hugely popular all over the world. Everyone from Bono to Elvis Costello to Kurt Cobain was a huge fan.
Rap is the worst expression of the (un)human spirit that I have ever had the misfortune to suffer hearing. It is racist, misogynistic hate speech that is chanted. There is nothing musical about it.
Slap that bitch,
Pop a cap,
Kill a white pig.
No socially redeeming value, whatsoever.
RE: No socially redeeming value, whatsoever.
OK, here’s an interesting thought — Is it possible to REDEEM rap to make the lyrics more helpful and inspirational?
Take away the references to the urban thug life style, and what are you left with as far as the "musical" value goes? At best, you get Dr. Seuss set to a background beat.
You do know that not all Rap is Gangsta Rap right?
Sam Kinison said it best about rap.
Regardless of words, most rap is still only monotonic chanting, not music. Also, forget the lewd theatrics, hand gestures and materialistic bling - close your eyes and what do you hear?
Music typically has melodies, chords, harmonies, rhythms, dynamics and some kind of structure. Close your eyes, and what do you hear?
Good music will stand the test of time — rap won’t. In 200 years, Beethoven will be remembered, Fiddy Cent won’t.
It was garbage from the get-go in the ‘80s. Don Cornelius of “Soul Train” refused to have that crap on his show — he knew what it meant for (Black) culture.
Rap SUCKS
Hip Hop SUCKS
ALL new music seems to SUCK
Only good stuff on the radio is 20+ yrs old.
sad....
RE: You do know that not all Rap is Gangsta Rap right?
Yes, that’s why I asked my question in Post #67.
“I thought it was supposed to be enjoyed not painful”
Funny. My uncles are 40 years old and they played everything from the Ramones to Metallica in their youth, even until now. So if you are 41 as you claim to be, then you should have listened to Motley at least...yet you think this is “painful”, meaning may be I;m wrong, but you must be in your 60’s as you sound like an old prune.
rap is cRap.
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