# RAP is the most versatile music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [April 20, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rap-is-the-most-versatile-music/240974 "2004-04-20T04:29:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rap-is-the-most-versatile-music/240974/121 "2023-08-21T22:45:38Z")
Welcome to the SDMB! The post you’re responding to is 19 years old and the poster last posted 11 years ago, so they probably won’t be seeing your feedback any time soon. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2023, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rap-is-the-most-versatile-music/240974/122 "2023-08-22T00:35:26Z")
I know this thread will be closed any minute now, but people should take a quick read through it. That should kill any argument about how the discourse on the Dope used to be better 20 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2023, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rap-is-the-most-versatile-music/240974/123 "2023-08-22T00:54:12Z")
Huh, I skimmed through it and thought “I wasn’t even _here_ back then, and I miss those days.” Everyone’s opinions are so _mild_ today. No one is willing to argue or defend hot takes like that rap isn’t music. It’s not healthy to have such a narrow and homogeneous range of opinions as we see now. ---
**Author:** ![kevisback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc8723/32.png) [@kevisback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevisback)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2023, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rap-is-the-most-versatile-music/240974/124 "2023-08-22T01:10:42Z")
I know it was just funny so I posted that comment ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2023, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rap-is-the-most-versatile-music/240974/125 "2023-08-22T01:50:37Z")
I’ll still defend the premise that rap isn’t music (but is nonetheless a legitimate art form). Or at least some rap. I’m not precisely sure of the defined boundaries of “rap”. Music can be identifiably reproduced on a piano, or trombone, or other suitable instrument (OK, some music is based on narrower intervals than a piano can play, but there are still instruments that can produce it). Much of rap, however, cannot be identifiably performed with any instrument other than the human voice. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2023, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rap-is-the-most-versatile-music/240974/126 "2023-08-22T02:22:46Z")
And who takes the blame/credit for that? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2023, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rap-is-the-most-versatile-music/240974/127 "2023-08-22T02:46:19Z")
Sometimes things change without anyone being explicitly responsible. Certainly there’s some of that here; the social media landscape has changed dramatically in the past 19 years, and that alters the kind of people that show up here. The members are also older than they were back then, and let’s not pretend that people don’t get milder as they age. But if I had to blame someone, it would be those that drew the boundaries around bannings/suspensions/etc. The goal of course is to keep out those that are a negative to the community. But even if that was completely successful, there are side effects–everyone else either manages to go right up to the line without crossing it, or they are unable to do so reliably and so eventually rack up warnings and get banned, or they decide to bite their tongue on anything remotely controversial and so never come close to crossing the line. The first one is hard to maintain, while the second kind eventually go away. So that leaves most in the third category: stay far away from the line so as not to even take a chance at a warning. It’s not even about the content, exactly (although the rules put limits on that, too). It’s just that some opinions carry “heat”, and those are exactly the ones that some people can’t help but to take personally and thus cross our various lines. But it’s also exactly those that are the most interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2023, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rap-is-the-most-versatile-music/240974/128 "2023-08-22T07:25:25Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > That should kill any argument about how the discourse on the Dope used to be better 20 years ago. I found it interesting that even 20 years ago the discussion was dominated by very angry old men yelling at clouds. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rap-is-the-most-versatile-music/240974.md?page=6)