Tell me what you think. Personally, I think what people hear on MTV is nonsense now. I mean, come on. You can only talk about a girl’s buttocks for so long… :rolleyes: It’s a shame when there has to be SOMEONE out there including issues in their songs. Maybe I’m using stereotypes, but on the radio at least, rap songs are like this compared to other genres of music.
Yeah, a lot of it it asinine, repetitive, and bordering on just plain noise. There have been some pretty good acts like MC Hammer and Run-D.M.C. but old school rap doesn’t have the draw it once did.
Rap used to be good. Then everybody thought, hey, it’s only talking, I bet I could rap if I tried. They were wrong. SO they started rapping about things that they thought would sound cool no matter who did it. They were wrong.
By the way, welcome to the boards, wildcat.
Most rap is crap. Most pop is crap, most rock is crap, most of the books on the bookshelf at my neighborhood bookstore are crap. Most of everything is crap.
But I do think rap is a legitimate form, and at its best, it combines the best elements of music and poetry.
Try the Typical Cats, Outkast, Jurassic 5, N.E.R.D. and such. Like any genre, there’s some good stuff out there.
For the record, I hate all the MTV “YEAH! I GOT MILLIONS OF DOLLAS AND NO SOCIAL CONSCIENCE! I DO DRUGS AND I KILL PEOPLE! YEAH! BITCH HO! YEAH!” garbage that seems to get some airplay. Same reason I hate AC/DC, really.
Oh, I absolutely agree. It’s a shame too, being from this generation and all (i’m 18). I think every genre is going downhill. Why? Because stations and companies are trying to make an easy buck. Let’s see… Ass lyrics sells, straighforward you’re a jerk, i’m dumping you songs sells, Oh and for films and movies: any sequel (and there were a lot of them this year alone) in general. And most “original” ones are current uninspired rip offs.
If I ever consider taking your opinion on rap music to heart, please refer me back to this statement so I can stop myself. 
Yes, most rap you hear on the radio is horrible. Same goes for rock. Same goes for most forms of popular music.
If you dig, you can find some good stuff.
I would side with Jeff Olsen. The earlier stuff seamed to have more talent, less attitude and BS.
I wouldn’t call rap music because the words are not sung, more like rythmic poetry. Reminds me of Lou Reed.
I’m passed the rap age so I take into account the age gap but I liked MC when he started out. Not sure what that makes me. I have to believe that when I was a teenager I wouldn’t have worn my pants halfway down my ass because it would be uncomfortable.
One more thing. YOUTH OF OUR GENERATION TAKE NOTE! If music videos are the minority, even in a music video countdown… (TRL) then it’s not music television. If you want good music, search the internet and listen to “nameless”. thank you.
I think the question is not so much whether rap is crap, it’s whether it appeals to you. If it does, but you aren’t hearing anything that you really like on the radio or TV, there are other places to check out music in that genre by less-famous or even non-famous rappers that may be more to your liking.
I’m a musician and collector of music, and over the period of my life, it has become apparent that great music starts out in basements and clubs, and builds in popularity until it becomes mainstream. At that time, it gets co-opted by those who are in the business of fads and making money off current trends. Then the public is treated to all kinds of imitations, usually watered-down versions of the real thing made by people who don’t really understand it. That real thing is out there, but take it from someone who works in radio - it is not going to be heard on JAMZ 97.
I can’t recommend any to you, as I am well outside the demographic. They aren’t marketing it to me, and I’m not a consumer of that type of entertainment. I hope you don’t mind that I wanted to put my two cents in, because it’s easy to say, “yeah, it sucks” or “no, it’s the greatest” but those are not objective answers. For any kind of entertainment, you are bound to be able to find some you like. The chances are that you may not find it in the usual places.
Yeah, I agree with your viewpoint. When I was in college, a group of guys in the dorm next door dedicated their lives to playing rap. Their favorite time to do so was about four in the morning. And they apparently felt that everybody in a radius of at least a block wanted to listen to the same thing. I found it a little bit curious that noe of their rappers had a vocabulary that extended beyond “fuck” and “nigger”. Of course it’s true that the vast majority of rock and any other popular type of music is crap, but the majority of rock music doesn’t set out with the sole intention of being unpleasant, and people who play it don’t go out of their way to make other people miserable.
It’s very simple. P-Diddy sucks, but not all rap sucks.
Toby Keith sucks, but not all country sucks.
Linkin Park sucks, but not all rock sucks.
Popular music is born and bred for your poorly exposed enjoyment. Do your own research and figure out what is truly original and interesting.
Example:
Jurassic 5-Sell out sound with Power in Numbers
Outkast-Now on the money making express.
N.E.R.D.-Can be found at Target (and that happens…naturally?)
Feel bad if you like something on the radio that you think is “your” sound. It’s not. Even college radio is in the vernacular of MTV (CTN) and the Big Five Record Labels underlings.
Linkin Park isn’t rock. It’s just garbage.
Ah, so if a band becomes successful, monetarily speaking, they automatically are not “original and interesting”?
FTR, I can’t stand most rap, for the reasons that ITR mentions, so I’m not defending that genre. It seems to me as if most people who listen to it believe that it’s their duty to “treat” everyone within a 5 mile radius to their stereo with full bass, regardless of time of day (or night).
Also because of its frequently violent and hateful nature. But I’ve occasionally run across Outkast on MTv (or is it VH1??), and they’re not what I’d consider your average rap, the couple of songs I’ve seen them do, I actually like, and I’m a middle aged white chick. What? They have to be unpleasant in order to be rap?
Like other posters here, I feel that the “old” days of rap were their prime, and the true “meaning” if you will, and most stuff that’s come after has been 1.) following on the coattails of the early successes, and 2.) paid for by the teen angst and hatred that seems to be overwhelming in this day and age.
This is only my personal experience, but I frequently buy used CDs in pawn shops from which to pull singles to add to compilations for my dance classes, most of the CDs that have ended up there are rap. My theory is that the kids buy the stuff, grow up and realize what garbage it is, and get rid of it.
While decent stuff (of other genres) gets bought and kept by the consumer.
Anyway, sorry I got offtrack. My point, regarding the snide “sellouts” comments is…
Why is it that a band has to be obscure and living on breadcrusts for the music snobs to consider that they have artistic worth, but the moment they start becoming successful they’re suddenly “sellouts” and so on?
Yes it is.
It’s ‘music’ for people who can’t be bothered to learn to play a musical instrument (hence prefer to faff around with machines), can’t write riffs (hence steal other people’s creativity via sampling) and can’t write melodies (hence no tunes except, sometimes, for the hook, which is usually just parasitic on whatever was sampled). In short, aim-low non-music for people who haven’t learned or been shown how to aim higher and try to achieve something that’s actually musical. Why bother when you can just be an uncouth lout shouting and swearing into a microphone and there’s a chance some record exec will make you rich?
The usual defence is that ‘there’s a market for it’. Yep, there is. Which means some people will make it, and others will sell and distribute it. Where there are people waiting or willing to be conned, there will always be others willing to make a quick buck by participating in the con. There’s also a market for dodgy second-hand re-clocked cars. That doesn’t make the selling of them any less of a con, or mean the cars are any good.
Can’t write melodies?
Seriously, I challenge you to listen to any Outkast or Jurassic 5 album and still say (honestly) that they can’t write melodies…
Say what you will about Hammer but his act was hot in the late-80s and early-90s. I never particularly cared for the genre but even I could see his draw.
But are they what could honestly be called “rap”?
I’ve only seen a couple of outkast songs on one of the music tv stations, but their songs are certainly not what I would define as “rap”.
Granted, I have no CDs of theirs, so I don’t have very much basis with which to compare them to what I DO hear and consider rap, but if their two current hits on MTv are any example, that’s not really “rap”.
This is about as fatuous as saying “P. Diddy isn’t rap, it’s just garbage”. Linkin Park fit into the rock genre, not rap/country/dance etc.