February 10th, 2004

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Music
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A Rant on Rap

Rap has never really been my thing. I don’t have anything against it, but I never felt like I could relate to what all those angry, mostly black guys were talking about. That was probably because I’m white, middle-class and from Canada. There was a discussion about the Grammys and rap music in the Canucks newsgroup recently, and a regular named Bob offered this list of reasons for not liking rap:

bravado, cliche, wrestling nicknames, lack of melody, cultural
references that mean nothing to me like gun culture, money grubbing
culture, bouncy car culture, drug dealing culture, pimp/ho culture,
its buy-in to “baby momma” rasta irresponsibility, graffiti, break
dancing, gun culture and general violent bits of being human that seem
to be one of its defining catch 22s, dumbing down of language, cliche,
BAD production, its mainstreamness, its destruction of english, yo yo,
retarded handshakes, baggy pants, visible underwear, head gear, the
tough image as the norm, loose, vague and obviously misunderstood
referrences to some god, that squelchy noise and more, but i’m
tired… I like a couple tracks and some of it might actually be good
poetry… but mostly the people just bug me…

Comments: 5 Responses so far

Darren (its true)
February 10th, 2004
10:00 am

Hey Darren,
My name is also Darren and strangley enough I happen to like rap music. You are right that there is alot I can’t relate to. But there is a lot of rap\Hip-Hop music out there. They can rap about topics from drugs and guns, up to gettin clean and or livin a good life. Maybe this includes rapping about goods times they’ve had or sharing the bad.
Basicaly rap’s about there lives. Yes, rappers have large images (don’t all stars) theres being bigger then most because of there natural reputation lust and the disgust factor making him noticed.
I am also white and come from England, don’t let that fool you though England isn’t just cottages with streams and villagers sipping tea. however most decent rap comes from America Land of the Gun.
Any way gettin bored now. I’m lookin up people with the same name as me and you seem pretty inersting. Bye:)

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Stephanee
February 10th, 2004
2:07 pm

All of what Bob said may be true, but at least it gives them all a really good excuse to fondle themselves in public. ;o)

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Mel
February 10th, 2004
2:45 pm

If only rap music would help folks learn spelling and grammar. *snigger*

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gail
February 11th, 2004
3:06 am

I don’t think Bob’s heard any GOOD rap, he’s just concentrating on the *bling bling* stuff that gets the most attention. I don’t believe it deserves its reputation for dumbing down language any more than pop music (noticed any of Britney Spears’ lyrics? most of it consists of “oh baby baby baby” and “yeah”). In fact, most of the bad rap that rap gets is related to social prejudices, not linguistics at all. Rappers have a linguistic virtuosity that few people can master — do you think you could rhyme off the top of your head? I’d embarrass myself if I tried. Characteristics of Black English that people say bastardizes English is actually closer to Shakespearean times where they used, for example, double negatives for emphasis. Black English carries far more meaning in its inflections and usage of the verb “to be” than English does, so to say that it’s inferior as a language has only basis in preference rather than linguistics.

One of the best current rap artists out there is a socially conscious Canadian: K-OS. I think he’s from Ottawa. His “Exit” album is brilliant, not just for the lyrics, but there are actual melodies in his music — fancy that. His style is not angry, and his album isn’t R-rated. I wish he’d get more exposure.

It’s true much of rap is what represents the category — machismo, booty calls, whatever, but every musical category popularizes whoever sells the most, not necessarily who is the best (Yanni? Celine Dion? Shania Twain?). Rap is cashing in on its covert prestige — money from suburban tweens who are attracted to the gangster lifestyle. It was only a generation ago that that segregation was abolished in the south, so it’s a bit of a comeuppance, isn’t it?

Anyway, I’m off on a tangent, I’m here to defend rap music — by the way, I’m not black.

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Augie De Blieck Jr.
February 11th, 2004
12:50 pm

Bob missed the part about the inability to create new own music, i.e. sampling. There are no original songs anymore, just rewritten lyrics to fading pop hits.

While there are more and more remakes of old songs in pop music these days, the sampling thing in rap music outpaces pop by a large number.

-Augie

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