Lately I've been browsing the internet and I have come to notice that many fans of rock and heavy metal seem to have some unwarranted hatred for rap music. Two things about this bothers me: one is that music is all opinion and no one's taste of music is worse than anyone else's. The other is that these people usually seem to be extremely ignorant when it comes to rap music, constantly dropping names such as Soulja Boy and Lil Wayne to explain why "rap is crap". They claim that rap is only about "money, sex, bling" and other things. Now, here's the thing: I listen to a lot of rap and listen to rap everyday and I hardly ever listen to things with those topics, unless it is talking about them in a serious, deep way. I honestly don't like rap about those things, but that doesn't mean I will say that they suck. Now, back to my point. There is a wide variety (and I'd be willing to bet majority) of rap music that talks about much deeper topics and explores many more concepts. I dare one of these rap haters to listen to an Aesop Rock song, for instance, and then say that rap is meaningless. He manages to hagve so many meanigns in each line he says that his lyrics are practically open to infinite interpretation. Here's an Aesop Rock song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd_W_x... And here are explanations to the lyrics of that song: http://rapgenius.com/Aesop-rock-dayli... Aesop Rock is not the only. There are countless rappers withintricate rhyme schemes, deep meanings, interestingly composed stories, excellent use of literary devices, and much more. I have thousands of rap songs saved to my computer and a large amount of rap artists as well, and hardly any of my archive of rap music talks about how much money the artist is making, how much they have sex, and how much jewelry they wear. My point is that people are placing rap in a box, judging it based off of the content that is being foonsped to the population through the mainstream radio. Am I saying that all rap is meaningful and deep? No. In fact, I'm one of the main people you'd hear expressing my discontent with the direction mainstream rap is going these days. I almost don't blame these anti-rap people for their assumptions, but I do put them at fault for talking about something which, through their comments and statements, they obviously do not know much about. There is a vast amount of lyrically consious, original, and unique rap of the oldschool and newschool that many people are ignoring. Listen to people like Aesop Rock, MF DOOM, Eyedea, Atmosphere, Mos Def, Immortal Technique, Joey Bada$$, Earl Sweatshirt, Lupe Fiasco, Eminem, (some of) Jay-Z, (some of) Kanye West, Nas, Pharoahe Monch, Kendirck Lamar, Ghostface Killah, Action Bronson, Zeroh, Royce da 5'9, Angel Haze, Capital STEEZ, Ab-Soul, Schoolboy Q . . . I could honestly go on for a long while of amazing rap artists, many even better than the one's I just named. All I ask is that people give rap a chance, and stop judging it off of "I don't like Soulja Boy, so I don't like rap." Yes, I understand that everyone has opinions,but to say that a genre "sucks" just based off of little knowledge is not only disrespecting to fans of the genre, btu also makes you sound pretty ignorant. I am a big fan of rock, but not as big of a fan of heavy metal. That does not mean I think it "sucks". I appreciate the artists in that genre and respect them, it is just not my preferance in music. And I am not saying all rock fans feel this way about rap, or that rock fans are the only people who feel this way, it's just that I have found many rock fans who do, and the rock fans who do tend to be the most hostile towards it. I am a fan of both rap and rock, but respect all other genres of music as well. Music is music, and evryone has their own respectable preference.
And here are explanations to the lyrics of that song: http://rapgenius.com/Aesop-rock-dayli...
Aesop Rock is not the only. There are countless rappers withintricate rhyme schemes, deep meanings, interestingly composed stories, excellent use of literary devices, and much more. I have thousands of rap songs saved to my computer and a large amount of rap artists as well, and hardly any of my archive of rap music talks about how much money the artist is making, how much they have sex, and how much jewelry they wear. My point is that people are placing rap in a box, judging it based off of the content that is being foonsped to the population through the mainstream radio. Am I saying that all rap is meaningful and deep? No. In fact, I'm one of the main people you'd hear expressing my discontent with the direction mainstream rap is going these days. I almost don't blame these anti-rap people for their assumptions, but I do put them at fault for talking about something which, through their comments and statements, they obviously do not know much about. There is a vast amount of lyrically consious, original, and unique rap of the oldschool and newschool that many people are ignoring.
Listen to people like Aesop Rock, MF DOOM, Eyedea, Atmosphere, Mos Def, Immortal Technique, Joey Bada$$, Earl Sweatshirt, Lupe Fiasco, Eminem, (some of) Jay-Z, (some of) Kanye West, Nas, Pharoahe Monch, Kendirck Lamar, Ghostface Killah, Action Bronson, Zeroh, Royce da 5'9, Angel Haze, Capital STEEZ, Ab-Soul, Schoolboy Q . . .
I could honestly go on for a long while of amazing rap artists, many even better than the one's I just named. All I ask is that people give rap a chance, and stop judging it off of "I don't like Soulja Boy, so I don't like rap."
Yes, I understand that everyone has opinions,but to say that a genre "sucks" just based off of little knowledge is not only disrespecting to fans of the genre, btu also makes you sound pretty ignorant. I am a big fan of rock, but not as big of a fan of heavy metal. That does not mean I think it "sucks". I appreciate the artists in that genre and respect them, it is just not my preferance in music. And I am not saying all rock fans feel this way about rap, or that rock fans are the only people who feel this way, it's just that I have found many rock fans who do, and the rock fans who do tend to be the most hostile towards it. I am a fan of both rap and rock, but respect all other genres of music as well. Music is music, and evryone has their own respectable preference.