SMF

I loathe it. I'm forced to listen to it as a house guest, as background wherever I go, and even headphones with Mozart can't drown it out. I hate the degradation, the attitude and everything about it. I'm aware of the counterarguments -- but to me it's not music nor poetry and it has become the voice of this generation, which is doomed. Language can be rich; this is bankruptcy.

I promise to cut my future swearing to a minimum.

Ron,

There has been the occasional song that was catchy ("Can't Touch This" comes to mind), but for the most part I agree with you.

Strongly.

Can't have crap without rap.

+3

And at the risk of sounding very old and curmudgeonly, I put hip-hop and most grunge in the same category. Oh for the supergroups of the 70s that played instruments --- Yes comes to mind, as does Emerson Lake and Palmer ...... and early Supertramp (pre Breakfast in America --- Crime is still my all-time favourite from them).

It can't even keep to its (expanding) niche. Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" was covered, which was mildly amusing, but then Sting allowed "Every Breath You Take" and the Doors pubco "Riders On The Storm" get ruined. Vanilla Ice got caught using Bowie's "Under Pressure" beat without credit. I'll stop the rant here and go for a walk 'cause I'm still under assault. I will be listening to "Street Fighting Man," "Gimme Shelter," and some Glenn Gould on phones and attempt to chill.

I have to say I don't like the rap/hip-hop that degrades women, and I'm particularly skeeved out to see fresh-faced blond kids acting "the gangsta" because they think rap music is "cool"/"sick"/whatever the current phrase is. But some rap and hip-hop isn't bad. Some of it is catchy (I defy anyone who loves music to listen to Outkast's "Hey Ya" and not be smiling at the end). Some of it is a surprisingly poetic (though vernacular) rendition of a story (with which, I'll admit, I don't often identify). The really good stuff (as an example, I'll nominate Eminem's "Lose Yourself") is catchy and poetic. I also like the way rappers/hip-hop artists borrow lines and riffs from other songs and weave them in to their work. At the risk of committing sacrilege to some of the gents here, I tend to think of rap as a kind of opera. Opera is not my favorite genre of music, either, but, like rap and hip-hop, it will have its place in musical history.

i agree with all thats has been mentioned above

i hate rap. its not music or musical to me

marc

rsp1202 wrote:I loathe it. I'm forced to listen to it as a house guest, as background wherever I go, and even headphones with Mozart can't drown it out. I hate the degradation, the attitude and everything about it. I'm aware of the counterarguments -- but to me it's not music nor poetry and it has become the voice of this generation, which is doomed. Language can be rich; this is bankruptcy.

I promise to cut my future swearing to a minimum.

Ditto

I never knew it was music. I always considered it merely noise from folks who don't know the waist of their pants is supposed to be above their hips. Or am I confusing the noisemakers?

I spent a very nice night on utube a month or so ago with the Moody Blues and Enya and the one song that Sinead O'Connor made. Very enjoyable music and lyrics you wouldn't mind sharing with a child to make one think. And not sung like a tryout for starsearch.

We're doomed if those people don't kill themselves off by drugs or something else.

I believe everyone should be able to scratch their fleas their own way. But Rap? Uh, no way. It hurts my ears.

Regards,
David

I'm agnostic on the issue but I do like steve's comments

clive

I am in almost total agreement but also recognize the irony that our comments are no doubt very similar to those of my parents' generation circa 1968. Happily, my children are not big fans, but they love my classic rock.

The "C" in rap is silent.

Promotes misogyny,mayhem, and murder.

m3m0ryleak wrote:The "C" in rap is silent.

Promotes misogyny,mayhem, and murder.

In general I try to avoid blanket statements, as I'm sure there are some songs in the genre that don't promote such things. The problem is that nobody hears those songs blasting out of someone's car or, in our case last night, out of a house. On our evening bike ride my wife and I could hear something blasting out of a house from at least a block away; the lyrics I heard were extremely disturbing, as the song was about nothing but killing, in graphic terms, those who would dare disrespect the "artist."

Have a listen to Professor Elemental and Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer.

Yes it's rap . . . but NOT as you know it.

VERY English, and very tongue-in-cheek. I'm sure some of you will love it.

We call it CHAP HOP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chap_hop

I may get some heavy duty speakers installed in my Jeep so when I pull up next to a boomer at the stoplight I can crank up Mozart full tilt.

Squire wrote:I may get some heavy duty speakers installed in my Jeep so when I pull up next to a boomer at the stoplight I can crank up Mozart full tilt.

I got 99 problems but rap ain't one.

Rap and dance music get my goat.
Some guy's playing his boombox with all these new dance songs and I could swear they all sound the same. Auto-tuned to death voices and the same boom boom boom beat. It drives me nuts and makes me nauseous. Arghhhhhh.
The old musicians are a dying breed literally, and at least could play their own instruments and sing naturally without going through some frigging voice filter.

I remember chuckling twenty years ago to Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson.

Would that be considered rap? If so, then I could theoretically like the art form; but the bad neighborhood vibe of what I hear coming from cars passing by will never appeal to me.