RAP MUSIC - do you hate it also?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Yes, I hate rap music, but then I despise 97.8 percent of popular music recorded after 1970. I think Ray Charles said it best when he commented of rap: “I could do that at age 11.”

And if anyone thinks I am a racist, I will state that I am white and adore: Jimi Hendrix, most of the Motown stable, the Duke, the Count, Billie Holliday, Teddie Wilson, Lester Young, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Muddy Waters, Bird, Trane, Tony Williams, Les McCann, Wes Montgomery, Soul Brother No. 1, Nat King Cole, Sam & Dave, the Stylistics, the Rev. Al Green and Earth, Wind & Fire.

Armed, dangerous…
and off my medication.

42

Oh, so a black person is okay if they obey your arbitrary stardards, eh?

Yep. I’ll bet there was a time a plantation owner might have said, “I don’t mind a nigger plowing my fields, but once he is a free man, I have no time for him.”

I hate that shit… Chris Rock says it and it’s funny, admittedly, but you know, I’ll bet he’s not so quick to judge a person using this wonderful criteria as a white person either.

Yer pal,
Satan

43

I agree with Doctor J, the majority of any kind of music is bad. When people ask me what kind of music I listen to, I say “good music”. Well put!

Here are some artists that haven’t been mentioned above, that I would recommend for people who aren’t sure about rap/hip-hop music.

Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. An oldie but goodie! You probably can’t find the album, but the song can be found on compilations.

Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days …

The Fugees - The Score

and finally, my top recommendation:

Rage Against the Machine - anything from their excellent discography. Zack de la Rocha sings with a wonderful passion and enthusiasm. See them in concert if you can!

La franchise ne consiste pas à dire tout ce que l’on pense, mais à penser tout ce que l’on dit.
H. de Livry

44

I submit the following, to add fuel to the fire:

Bad News by Latyrx and produced by DJ Shadow. This has rhythm, harmony, and melody, and at the same time is definately rap.

A lot of people here say that rap was good before it became all about violence and objectifying of women. This old-school music has evolved into its own form, but it’s no longer mainstream, and isn’t called rap any more. It’s become “underground hip-hop” and is very melodic, insightful, and entertaining.

If you care at all, read this article from Playboy. It explains the rise of “gangsta” rap and the fall of hip-hop.

I do agree, though. The music that’s on the radio today, Puff Daddy, Jay-z, and the rest of them could not be considered music, and much less art.

That’s the end of my rant.

45

Sealemon: I still like a lot of the stuff Public Enemy put out when they first came out . I don’t have any hip-hop albums at all but there are many songs I will sit down and listen to that I hear on the radio occasionally (On a local station they play lots of old school, and have been playing the Humpty Dance quite a bit). I thought that US3 when they came out were very inventive. I think theyr’e one of the few groups i have heard to use Jazz samples on their songs. My brother had their “Hand on the Torch” CD (it’s with him at his AFBase).

Hah, and I LOVE Freaks of the Industry (me and a co-worker a while ago used to say a few lines from that song at work almost every day). I find Digital Underground to be quite inventive.

Personally, hip-hop has given a lot of influence to the music I listen to. I’m really into house, and though it’s inspired by Disco, R&B mostly, there are a lot of hip-hop influences in the music. In fact, one of the best House Music producers, Armand Van Helden has a CD out that are hip-hop samples. It’s called “Sampleslaya”. A couple of my favorite songs on there is “Crooklyn Anthem”, and “Reservoir Dogs”. In fact, in the intro he gives props to the “house side of hip-hop”.

Another genre that owes big time to hip-hop is Freestyle. In fact I hear many hip-hop DJ’s reminisce how they used to always play it whenever they did parties. The biggest influence in that genre is the “Planet Rock” beat (a bit over used though). Also, for a time it was called “Latin Hip-Hop”. That genre is very vocal (some songs are crap but there are gems).

Also, personally just because I don’t like heavy metal or punk doesn’t mean i’m going to start saying it’s “not music”. To each his own…

46

I, like Satan, Doobieous, and a few other in this thread enjoy and appreciate rap music. My first exposure to rap was the album that Satan mentioned by NWA, Straight Outta Compton, back in the mid-80’s. The old-school gansta rap was the best, but I still enjoy some (but not all) of the newer rap music.

One great benefit of my appreciation and tolerance for rap music has been that it’s helped me relate to my teenagers and their friends, some of whom are “blown-away” by the fact that “Big-Daddy” (as I’m sometimes affectionately called) “bumps”.

…doin’ it doggie-style,

Krispy Orginal

47

I, like Satan, Doobieous, and a few other in this thread enjoy and appreciate rap music. My first exposure to rap was the album that Satan mentioned by NWA, Straight Outta Compton, back in the mid-80’s. The old-school gansta rap was the best, but I still enjoy some (but not all) of the newer rap music.

One great benefit of my appreciation and tolerance for rap music has been that it’s helped me relate to my teenagers and their friends, some of whom are “blown-away” by the fact that “Big-Daddy” (as I’m sometimes affectionately called) “bumps”.

…doin’ it doggie-style,

Krispy Original

48

Doobieous –

Freestyling is when the rapper makes up his lyrics as he goes along, over the beat the DJ makes, or a beat-box (beats made from the mouth, like a percussion humming. Sounds stupid but is incredibly difficult to pull off, and sounds really cool if done well). A good rapper’s freestyles can sound as good as a mainstream rapper’s written stuff.

A variation of freestyling is “battling”. This is when two people go up to the mic and alternate freestyle verses, joking each other. It’s generally clear who’s the better MC, but if one is far better than the other, he might just be singing pre-written rhymes – an enormous faux pas.

DJ-ing is a genre in its own right, but a lot of that music is more a display of skill and mastery of the turntables than artistic expression.
Setting it straight,
Mike Chinigo

49

Ghetto D killed rap as music. Stabbed it right in the fucking eye.

Master P is a soulless, greedy, sell-out bastard.

No Limit Records was the last shovel full of dirt on the coffin of rap.

No Limit. Master P. Ghetto D. Rap is dead.

Rap was doing good. We had our light-pop type rap, with Puffy, Mase, Biggie, and such. We had our harder rap, with Snoop, 2Pac, and Busta, then we had our hard core gangsta shit, with Ice T, Ice Cube, etc.

Master P murdered them, and doing so, took the genre back, past the beginning. Back, so far back, it may never recover.

Look at rap. Look how it was doing. It was branching out. It was thriving. We had Bad Boyz topping the charts. We had Death Row layin down phat beatz. We had some good shit running.

Ghetto D comes out.

Master P makes it big.

Six months later, rap is dead. You can hear it. You can feel it. You can smell it.

Look at the cover art. Puffy had some emotional art, dark, sad, shadowy. Mase was happy, giving props to his town, Harlem. Snoop was doing comics.

Six months later, all we have is some black guy sitting on a red leather couch, pooching out his lips, with one hand on a golden, diamond encrusted scepter, and the other hand making an unidentifiable gang sign, with a ridiculously large golden, diamond encrusted ring on his middle finger. The picture is taken with a fish eye lens, and the name of the album is done in half-round at the top and bottom, with golden, diamond encrusted letters.

Fuck rap. You fucked us.

Sellout bastards.

Rap was true to itself. Now, it’s all about the benjamins. Even Will Smith says so in his Willennium song, “Same resolution, get the money”. Sure, who doesn’t want money. But it used to be more than that. Sprite. Fuck Sprite. I got me a Sprite contract! Nike. I got me a fucking Nike contract. Here’s a hint. You haven’t “made it big”, you’ve fucking SOLD OUT. You sold out on your fans. You fucked them over. You fucking suck.

Good fucking riddance, rap. RIP. Maybe one day you’ll come again. Maybe this time, you’ll maintain your dignity. You’ll respect yourself. And you won’t sell us out. Your fans. That’s what it’s about. Not the money.

50

I’m derailing this train here!

Chinigogo - Follow me here if you will. Let me clarify what I mean since you seem to be thinking something else. Please don’t be offended by anything I say (and dont think I’m offended. I just feel the need to clarify).

Yes, I know that. I used to hang out on the #hip-hop channel on IRC for a couple of years, several years ago. I’m well versed in what freestying is.

Yes, of course I know that. Any fan of DJ’ing should know that.

Setting you straight on what freestyle (notice ‘ing’ is not attached to the end) is. Freestyle, also known as “heart throb”, “Latin hip-hop” came out of NYC in the early 80’s (most freestyle fans attribute Shannon and her song “Let The Music Play” as the first example of this new sound).

It was influenced greatly by hip-hop, as well as R&B. Many of the first performers in the style were Latino, and it often is inspired by latin rhythms and melodies. It’s songs focused mostly on gaining love, losing love (the NYC style is often very depressing, while Miami style tends to be more upbeat), and missing love(kind of like R&B).

It gained a large following in the 80’s (and many artists became popular, like Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, as well as acts like Expose, The Cover Girls, etc.).

Like rap today, a lot of immitators came out and overall the genre became cheesy and often horrible (check the Rios Sisters if you have time :)), so it declined rapidly. Many fans of freestyle blame those producers who jumped on the bandwagon thinking they would make a quick buck. There is still a fairly good following of fans, from NYC, to San Francisco (even some fans in Germany).

In fact, in my small area, freestyle is often requested on the radio, and the DJ’s here know it well. In fact, one of the hip-hop DJ’s on the radio here does a show every other week where he often plays nothing but old school freestyle.

Some of my faorite songs from freestyle are:

-Don’t Take your Love Away - Lydia Lee Love
-Together Forever - Lisette Melendez
-My Heart Skips a Beat - The Cover Girls
-Touch Me With Your Heart - Eileen Flores
-Won’t Stop Loving you - C-bank
-Can you Feel The Beat - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force
-They’re Playing Our Song - Trinere

Granted these are just a few of the many I love.

Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam’s stuff has a very heavy hip-hop beat to most of their songs. Especially in “Can you Feel The Beat?”

I understand why when I mention freestyle music people think I mean freestyling. in the IRC channel, #freestyle, we often get rappers and BMX bikers come in.

51

I don’t like rap. It is not music, it is ear pollution. There have been a few exceptions, diamonds in the rough, but they are out weighed by the gansta crapola.

My rule of thumb is: If you cannot sing the lyrics in the shower or in your car are full tonsil, then it is not music.

I ask myself this: WWFSD. What would Frank Sinatra Do?

52

I just don’t like it. It’s apparantly here to stay though.

53

I am sick of seeing people who say “rap isn’t music.” That’s so fucking elitist!

I don’t think classical music to be music because there are no words, except opera, which is predominantly in foreign languages, and I can’t sing that in a shower. What kind of stupid anti-logic is that?

When rock-n-roll came out, people said IT wasn’t music either!

Oh, and for those who don’t like gangsta rap, let me say that NWA predicted the L.A. Riots and told of the police treatment of black people in L.A. years before it happened, and certainly years before the mainstream media got a hold of it.

Sorry if in your big castle, you can’t get the fact that a lot of people DO live that way, and heaven forbid they express the way they live.

Some gangsta rappers glorify the existance of this lifestyle, but most were merely talking about it, and wanting it to get better. Heaven forbid they use some bad language whilest doing so.

Seeing what some of the “enlightened” people said here about rap really dissappoints me.

It’s one thing to not like something. But it’s obvious to me that most here simply do not UNDERSTAND it, and choose to remain ignorant.

Yer pal,
Satan

54

Satan: Exactly my thoughts. Anyway I have noticed when people dont like some form of music (for some reason or another) they say “it’s not music”. For some reason it has to have lyrics or be all nice and sweet. I’ve heard people say “All electronic music is crap, that isn’t music because there’s no lyrics”. What kind of shit logic is that? People, just because you dislike a genre of music doesn’t mean it is not music.

55

Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed: the best music ever :wink:

56

Doobieous:

I disagree. The forms of music that I can recall as being labelled “not music” by holier than thou folks can be constrained to two categories: Black, or Machine-enhanced. Is it no surprise then that, the two genres that got most of the “that’s not music” commentary are Disco and Rap, two forms that involve BOTH categories?

I mean, a lot of people hate country music, but I can’t recall anyone making the accertion that it somehow “wasn’t music.”

Yer pal,
Satan

57

Hey, my opening line was a JOKE! Rap is a form of music. So is what the group STOMP does. All I’m saying is that I, personally, don’t like it. As I said: Whatever you or anyone else wants to listen to is fine with me. Difference is the spice of life.

However, I do object to ANYONE baring ANY type of music such that it rattles my windows and makes it difficult for me to enjoy what I am doing. Your rights end where my privacy begins. Okay? I’m sure that if I lived in a different neighborhood the choice of music being blared would be something other than Rap. Like, in Texas, my sister says she gets the same thing only it’s county music. I don’t hate the music for this reason. Actually hate is the wrong word altogether. I just don’t care for it. If you do, great!

I’m not trashing the genre as a whole or trying to obliquely trash people of color. I’m sure there are some good lyrics and good messages within the genre; I just don’t care for the music itself. That doesn’t make me an elitist or a racist or anything else. That makes me a person with an opinion.

Best!
Byz

58

Satan: Hmm, you do have a point there. I guess I didn’t think about that one hard enough. Anyway, I agree, it’s either rap or machine enhanced music that gets the “it’s not music” label from the elitist folks.

59

Oh, fer cryin’ out loud…

Listen, I ain’t elitist, and rap isn’t music. Period. Moving on: the fact that rap isn’t music doesn’t prevent it from being art, or important social commentary, or whatever label you wish to apply. It’s its own thing; it AIN’T music.

And, like opera, I don’t want to listen to it.

60

If it is music, we’re going to have to be fair.
Playing the spoons, kazoo and comb and paper is also music.

It’s not about racism, it’s about an assault on the senses, which is how I perceive it.

It’s true. I don’t understand it. How do you understand something you can’t bear to listen to?

This space for rent.