[Matthew-Spaltro]

What do you think of the genre?

 

[tanfenton]

I'm firmly opposed to any kind of "ramp" music.

NGF

 

[neil]

Definitely pro. I like a wide variety of types, as well. From PE to the Digiable Planets.

 

[LobsterSan]

i am also pro, after being con for a long time. but dealing with my own snobbery has opened my ears and mind to some really great stuff.

rap nowadays is kind of a loose term to describe a certain genre, however. there is definitely some very good stuff out there. there is also a lot of crap (in my humblest opinion). just like any other genre.

i voted for the first option, but i feel the poll is kind of flawed -- while i am definitely pro and like the music, i listen to some rap and hip-hop but not exclusively nor overwhelmingly. there should be a "pro & listen occasionally" option.

 

[chillysalsa]

Gangsta rap really bores me. I just can't stand another song about fast cars, smokin' it up, and sexin' it up with the beeotches.

Dr. Octagon, Deltron 3030, Hive, and DJ QBert opened new worlds for me.

 

[Orpheus]

rap sucks crap. but i have to admit, the people are talented, and some lyrics are very well thought out. but whenever i hear rap, all i can think about is how the heck these uneducated dumbasses ever made it big. ....i don't let no rap touch my system. ever. if my friends want to listen, i shut everything off.

but i voted for the second option.... since rap isn't much different from poetry... i guess kinda like poetry set to music. i guess it's a combination of the idiot "artists" behind the music and their subject matter that turns me off.

and plus.... rap really isn't music in the traditional sense. unless you call drum ensembles "music."

simply doesn't move me. the words fly by.... and i'm still picturing in my head a dumbass waving his fingers around in the air and making lame gestures with his arms.......... rap videos have to be the dumbest videos possible.

perhaps if someday the rap artists would speak ENGLISH during interviews, and stop promoting their gangster attitudes, i would take them more seriously.

it's too bad that the artist that i tolerate the most is Eminem, and even he is quite the loser.

...................heh he... okay, i'm done. glad i got all this off my chest. blew off steam.

but to put this in perspective..... if Mozart or Bach heard music as it is today, and i mean ANY type of music, they would puke. one of my favorite pieces is Shostakovich Violin Concerto #1.... and for those who heard it, well, it surely doesn't sound all that "musical" either.

so, i guess the point is, i HATE rap... but i cannot condemn it. one of the greatest things about music is that its language can be spoken in so many different tongues.

so hopefully taste evolves beyond rap.... but if it stays, then so be it.

(DISCALIMER: i have only heard rap played on pop stations like Kiss, and some stuff my friends play once in a while. since this is hardly encompassing the entire genre, my views are limited. i know very intelligent rap exists... but it is hardly mainstream. people like crap for the most part.)

 

[Rizumu]

Okay...I voted for the second to the last option. Orpheus really took the words out of my mouth, I think what he said really sums up how I feel. I really don't like rap, but I don't think I can condemn the genre. There are some rap songs I've heard that are good, and probably more out there, but most is crap IMO. Really, not my thing at all, and every time I see MTV on playing rap videos back to back I want to puke.

 

[minya]

Quote:

Originally posted by Orpheus perhaps if someday the rap artists would speak ENGLISH during interviews, and stop promoting their gangster attitudes, i would take them more seriously. it's too bad that the artist that i tolerate the most is Eminem, and even he is quite the loser.

There is so ... so ... so ... so much more to rap than the mainstream ******** and gangsta-rap garbage. Really.

Hip-hop and rap are to the late eighties and nineties as rock and roll was to the fifties and sixties. Revolutionary, in other words. And just like rock is a huge, enormous genre, so is rap/hip-hop.

For some intelligent stuff, try: Anti-Pop Consortium, Jurassic 5, Techno Animal, El-P, Mr. Lif, Boom Bip & Dose One, cLOUDDEAD, Beans, etc.

It's a terrible mistake to assume Jay-Z is the alpha and the omega of rap music.

- Chris

 

[lethoso]

i personally hate anything and everything about rap.... i hope it gets buried very deeply...

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally posted by joe dick rap music is like graffitti. some of it is insightful and interesting. most of it is ugly and just further dehumanizes an already bleak urban mindscape.

Well said. That's the best description of rap I've ever read.

 

[Mr.PD]

Quote:

Originally posted by joe dick rap music is like graffitti. some of it is insightful and interesting. most of it is ugly and just further dehumanizes an already bleak urban mindscape.

I have noticed that of the young people I know, the ones who really like rap are the ones that are the most disrespectfull of other people and their property.

I don't know if this behavior is caused by rap or if it's just that disrespectful idiots tend to like rap more than the kids that have brains.

 

[chadbang]

I've always felt rap was a musical/art form that began wonderfully and quickly descended into junk. Run DMC broke it as a fun, novel form of music in the US (lifting the entire idea from Jamaican "Dub" DJs, of course) and then Public Enemy, in the course of four album, rapidly and brilliantly lifted it to this original art form. Their work, in my opinon, have never been matched for creativity. But from there, after groups like 2 Live Crews novelty hit "Me So Horny", rap became infected with smut, violence and far more stupidity. There were some fun offshoots like De La Soul, but those creative diversions were also short-lived and the ghetto coped attitude of bitches, hoes and 40s saw rap sink deeper and deeper into medicocrity. Over the past decade people like Snoop Doggy Dog and psuedo-rap style stuff like Massive Attack's trip hop (eeech) have helped it limp along with relatively limp albums. I found Rage Against the Machine and the frat boy rap attack amusing and invigorating for awhile, but soon got wearied of it. Hopefully Eminem will be finally fade out and so will the long lost spirit of rap. Most amazingly, people are still breakdancing.

 

[mtkversion]

Some people just base their opinions on what they hear on the radio and MTV and that's unfortunate that they're not open-minded enough to venture out from what's being mass fed to people and not pursue some decent artists ....

I've been a big fan of hip hop / rap and always will be.

 

[LobsterSan]

I just wish people would open their minds up a little bit. If you condemn hip-hop and rap as unsophisticated tripe (especially without hearing some of the better stuff), you are no better than the Jay-Z's of the world who most likely condemn any other form of music. Think about it. You wouldn't like it when people trash [insert your favorite orchestral composer here]'s music, which many casual music listeners would tend to do. Unfortunately, it is still true that there is a lot of crappy rap out there. But remember, this is true of all genres... there is some REAL crappy orchestral/classical music out there, as well as jazz/rock/electronica... you name it.

One of the problems I think stems from the imagery and such that comes packaged with certain genres of music -- such as violent, uneducated gangster types with rap and snobby rich uber-intellectuals with orchestral. If you can step beyond these grotesquely incorrect stereotypes and preconceptions, you will see that the music is created and intended to be enjoyed universally. I wish people would be less stuck up about their perceived only good style of music, and learn to embrace and open up to new and different things.

Besides, these days musical genres are blurring lines more and more. Elements of jazz, blues, electronica, rap, and hip-hop are all melding together and melting into something pretty unique and special. I believe several orchestral scores have been written including "scratch" parts (the use of turntables and vinyl). The more one can understand where certain influences come from, the more one can appreciate the music as a whole.

Some of my favorite rap/hip-hop influenced artists:
Beastie Boys, Del the Funky Homosapien, Digable Planets, Jurassic 5, Kid Koala, Public Enemy

I also recently started getting into French rap. Unfortunately, I do not understand French

. But the delivery of the lines is very smooth and is quite lyrical and musical in it's own right, and the French hip-hop scene likes to use a lot of jazzy and laid-back samples. A few artists I like: Les Nubiennes, Diam's, Hamed Daye.

 

[minya]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr.PD I have noticed that of the young people I know, the ones who really like rap are the ones that are the most disrespectfull of other people and their property. I don't know if this behavior is caused by rap or if it's just that disrespectful idiots tend to like rap more than the kids that have brains.

Ahh, I can just imagine your parents saying that about that evil man who tried to be a Negro, Elvis Presley.

- Chris