Hip hop is great. And I’m not going to tell you to go listen to Common or Mos Def or something (although I do like to listen to those artists). I’m going to say that, yep, rap can be violent, rap can be depressing, rap is loud and has more bass than you can shake a stick at. The lyrics can be loaded with obscenities. I’m not going to pretend this isn’t good music. In discussion such as this, people so often try to excuse hip hop, saying it’s not really violent, but you know what? It can be very violent. But that doesn’t make Nas or Outkast or NWA bad.
And all y’all who try to tell me rap isn’t music, have you ever seen those documentaries on rock n roll where they’ll drag out some old radio guy that tells the camera how the Rolling Stones are untalented, uncouth and unmusical? That’s you. You mightn’t be claiming it’s the end of the world, but you’ve lost any connection you once had to culture as an expression of contemporary society.
Hip hop isn’t always vulgar and violent, but that doesn’t make that which is, bad.
Rap videos are the sort of thing that you can catch a tiny sliver of, on a tv, high up, in a bar with lots of other stuff going on, you are not really interested but occasionally you look upwards and see something like a scantily clad female, or maybe a flash car, or perhaps some sort of slow motion explosion or a car in gas flames.
You don’t need to know what they are about, you don’t really need to hear more than two or three beats, the image can be gathered in perhaps two seconds, and any longer than four seconds its boring and you get back to your drinks and mates and plan which bar to go next, knowing that that too will be showing some eye candy .
You don’t watch rap videos, they are just visual wallpaper, and they get just as much attention as real wallpaper gets in the average nightclub or bar.
CanvasShoes: Shake Your Tailfeather** - It’s a hip hop song by Nelly, P Diddy and Murphy Lee. I haven’t heard enough of Murphy Lee to form an opinion, but Nelly and P Diddy aren’t the most talented rappers about. I’d recommend Snoop over those two, but whatever floats your boat. Sure, Snoop is fond of foul language, but as I alluded to above, so was Shakespeare. And sure, Snoop is fond of his pimp reputation, but as I alluded to above, Minnie the Moocher wasn’t too much for kids in the thirties.
I thought middle class White kids loved hip hop? f its anyone, blame them for its popularity, blame them. I hate the people who perform with well known popstars, eg Ja Rule and Ashanti…
Is it a phase? I mean I do like the genre of music, but it just seems like there is no variety, like some other people have said, isn’t there anything they can play at clubs or bars? Why does Rap have to be apitemy of cool? There of plenty of Rock and Punk who came from the gutter with a good story to tell.
P diddy wasn’t from ‘da ghetto’ he was from a middle class family and didn’t he go to Harvard? If he did it just goes to show he is one of the biggest posers around
My opnion of people who hate rap, don’t knock something down that you know nothing about…
I rather have 5 minutes of cursing and bitch slapping on my CD player, then 5 minutes of loud satan worshipping white people from the suburbs yelling because of how ugly they are.
Punk is hardly about Satan-worship. If you’re thinking about black metal, then note that most of it is recorded deep in the forests of Sweden, among the wolves and great frost-bound landscapes of yore. OK, maybe not, but there’s a lot more to it than just “yelling”; if you paid attention, you would notice some very interesting stories/myths being retold.
I don’t know a whole Lot about rap… but I know more then probably some rap listeners do about their music.
And yes, punk sucks. It has a bit more credibility of being music… because they play instruments, but they also yell about a certain topic. Rap… ghetto, ho’z, money, cars. Punk… angst, apathy, and lovesickness.
But some punk bands are talented, as is, some rap/hip-hop groups are talented… even though they dont play music…
Actually, a common response by people defending what they like is “if you really knew it, you would like it, too,” or the closely-linked, “if you don’t like it, you must be ignorant.”
People who don’t like rap/country/science fiction/fill in the blank don’t WANT to get to know it. Just as some people take an immediate like to something, others take a dislike. The likers are allowed to like. Unfortunately, they often think that anyone who has formed an opinion just as quickly must be wrong if it’s not the same opinion.
How much do I have to experience? Fish makes me literally gag. Tuna does, salmon does, walleye does, even squid and crab cause the gagging. How much more must I experience before I can be allowed to say I don’t like it?
People who like rap will tend to like it; people who don’t won’t. There isn’t much in the way of logic or argument possible here. It comes down to personal preference. That said, I will still maintain
Rappers are not engaging in much MUSICAL talent. If you are speaking the words, you may be engaging in a linguistic talent, but it’s not musicianship in the same was as a skilled instrumentalist is a musician. In other words, Snoop may have talent, but it is not very musical in its nature.
I hate rap that glorifies street thugs, just for the total ignorant ridiculousness of it. The observation that most of the people who engage in producing it have very little musical talent only makes me feel sorrier for those who like listening to it. I am particularly saddened when I hear small children who can throw words like “ho” around casually–they have no idea what kind of a statement they are making about themselves, or their parents (who probably deserve such a reputation, but anyway). DCFS, anyone?
And there’s lots of music I don’t like enough to listen to, but for most of the rest of it, I can at least detect some sense of harmony, an arrangement of structure of either music or lyrics, or (most of the time) both music and lyrics. A lot of rap I have heard just doesn’t have that at all.
~
Another reason why I hate rap [I left it out because I didn’t think of it, theres so many!] is that, in my belief, music represents who a person is. You should listen to music that relates to your lifestyle, rather than be a poser. Cowboys and people who live out in the boonies and raise cattle, listen to country. Skateboarders, people who have angst and apathy towards others, and people who generally dont like being part of the crowd, listen to punk. White boys who are trying to be cool listen to rap? That just doesn’t go…
What’s wrong with all of you? Wristy already “won” this thread. I don’t know how it’s possible to win a thread, other than to say absolutely all there is to say as he has done. I repeat his post, without permission.
I was one of those people who said rap sux. I am into metal and punk. I use to think rap was for stupid people who did not speak english correctly. I would see kids at school with there pants half way down there a$$ saying stuff like “Who you be”. “How old you is” , “Aight yo” , “Yo nigga”, “Sup dawg” and I was like wtf, but I have met actual INTELLIGENT people who listen to REAL rap and they have told me that rap is being exploited just like punk and metal is and they hate that stuff on tv and the radio because it is not real they showed me REAL rap and my opinon changed. Real rap to them was poetry to music. They didnt steal the music like most of these MTV RAPPERS they were in actual bands speaking from there heart.
Yea… But i hate people who listen to mainstream rap much more than people who listen to the pop-punk crap.
But yes, I know of people who listen to real rap and not the crap on MTV. He also listens to metal, rock, classical, some punk, and even stuff like maddonna (lol). But generally, while riding in his car, I don’t just zone out the music, because it is listenable.
lol… well some of it is. But go ahead and believe that, and I respect that you can be different and not have to conform like everyone else… I have a good friend that doesnt listen to music, he plays piano and keyboard and stuff, and will listen to rock music or classical or video game music when its on, but when asked, he just says he doesnt like music that much.
The main thing that bothers me about rap is that it’s so repetitive. It gets very old very quickly. When I first heard a rap song years ago, I felt the same way about it that I did about novelty songs like Disco Duck…“mmm, that wasn’t so bad for a change, but I sure would’t want to listen to an entire album of it.” That was what? Twenty years ago? I can’t believe the genre has lasted this long.
Rap is bad. It’s not good. There is no arguement that will convince me otherwise. My little brother unfortunately loves rap, so don’t tell me that I haven’t heard enough of it.
I love music, I play bass, and, as the guitarist on page 1 mentioned, it’s depressing to see someone with no musical talent get famous.
I’m sorry, but I really, really don’t see how anyone can listen to rap. It’s that bad.
I respect what other people listen to, but I hate rap, and I really don’t understand the appeal of it at all.
As to the arguement that punk sucks, no. Pop Punk a la Good Charlotte and Simple Plan sucks. Real punk, like the Sex Pistols, the Misfits, and the Ramones, and others, is my true love.
So if someone would be willing to explain to me why punk sucks and rap is worth even a passing glance, so to speak, be my guest.