Rap...do you like it?

[johnnie]

I am listening to this Ludicris..or whatever.
Do people really like this stuff or do we just put up with it? I don't get it. Do you?

[shesemsmom]

1. Oh Yeah

like a tooth ache

[johnnie]

2. Lol

I know what you mean. Is that talent?

[shesemsmom]

4. NO that is not talent

that must be results of crack parents or some other drug induced stuper

[johnnie]

5. Ummm

You are being a little bit non-pc..LOL

[shesemsmom]

9. Not alittle

lol

[NightTrain]

13. And I guess folk music is created by people who've ingested...

...too much pot and granola?

[shesemsmom]

15. At least I can tolerate it

maybe we had something in common.....lol

[NightTrain]

16. Ah, the same way I can tolerate wallpaper.

I'm just a pain-in-the-ass contrarian, ain't I? ;)

[shesemsmom]

17. It seems

you are not a child of the 60's I take it:hippie:

[Kire]

3. thank God that's over

the remote with my mute button is missing

ARGGGHH!

[neebob]

6. Yes, sometimes

Fantastic Voyage type stuff, mostly. If it's got a real groove and is not too demeaning to women or self-aggrandizing or advocating some shit I don't approve of ... which narrows the play list quite a bit.

[chicagojoe]

7. Not generally. Just a couple of records over many years.

[jdj]

8. Lil' Kim is the best workout music ever.

her and Missy Elliot.

I feel so inspired when I listen to them.

[NightTrain]

10. Yes!

Next question?

[johnnie]

11. Not me

Next answer..lol

[Deja Q]

12. Public Enemy, yes. Generally, no.

There's a difference between social commentary and advocating violence. PE deals with social commentary; I don't see where/how they are advocating violence. (I have only one album to date, 'Fear of a Black Planet', but it's a very worthy album...)

And MC Hammer? :puke: Don't get me started. (though I will say the "In Living Color" spoof was spot-on in its satire...)

[Delarage]

14. Amen.

The last rap song I really liked was "Ghetto Bastard" by Naughty by Nature. I like social commentary in many forms, even rap, but most of it (rap) is complete shit.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. No, of course I don't like it. I like stuff that doesn't suck.

I find it mostly boring, quite often offensive lyrically, and totally uninteresting musicologically.

The corporatizes non-performers cost us a lot in tax money, even though they suck and even though the republicans think that any artwork that doesn't show the superiority of America, or the extesive firepower of America, or, let alone, just be neutral to our enemies, is now apparently a world crisis event.

[jobycom]

19. Hell yeah. I can barely listen to rock anymore

Not all rap, of course. Some sucks. But at its best, the rhythms and the passion remind me of what I used to like about rock before it became a glamor trip for pretty blond boys. At its absolute best, the rhythms mimic jazz.

[Moloch]

20. Love it!!!

but I mostly like early 80s rap like Sugar Hill Gang and Kurtis Blow.

Clap ya hands everybody
If you got what it takes
cause I'm Kurtis Blow
and I want you to know
that these are the breaks

ooooooooohhhhhhhh and the electro like Afrika Bambaata and The Soul Sonic Force as well as Newcleus.

Now that was music.

[DrWeird]

21. Yeah, I like it.

And I'm not just some joker who names one song he used to listen to in high school and thinks everything else is bullshit.

[TroubleMan]

22. You need to stop listening to rap on the radio.

Most the rap you hear on the radio is just the same "bling, bling" crap over and over again.

There are some really good rap artists out there that even Nighttrain would like.

I've been listening to rap for over 20 years, and I'm ashamed of what the "bling, bling" rappers have done to it.

If you want to hear some good hip hop that's new try Mos Def, Talib Kweli, The Roots, or Outkast.

[drumwolf]

23. most rap is pretty much worthless, BUT....

there's some fine stuff if you take the time to look through the dreck.... and you could say the same thing for pop music in general.

I don't listen to rap for the most part and agree that the majority of it is garbage -- but it didn't have to be that way. Hip-hop had an enormous amount of potential for social relevance that has been wasted for the most part.

There's definitely some rap that I like. Some of it is quite experimental and creative, and some of it takes the best aspects of its R&B, jazz and reggae roots. I like Company Flow, El-P, Freestyle Fellowship, Jurassic 5, Kanye West, and Souls of Mischief. And even some of the commercial rap can be compelling. Eminem, Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls all can be very poignant on certain songs.

[TroubleMan]

24. The social relevance part is not true....you're still looking at the radio

stuff


A lot of hip hop had social relevance. There are so many hip hop albums out there that hold a mirror up to society and take an honest look at it's problems. There are so many hip hop songs that speak of deep societal troubles.

The examples you mentioned and others like them were always the majority, until a few years ago. When the corporations saw big bucks in hip hop, they ruined it. It used to be a few bad apples in hip hop were made example of, and everybody who really didn't know thought that's what rap was all about. It used to be the majority of hip hop was intelligent, and told desperate, real-life struggles of survival. Rap used to so full of soul and passion.

Now it's the opposite....the shallow rap is now the majority, and it's now hard to find rap that has soul.

[proudbluestater]

25. I like some of it, like Eminem

[DainBramaged]

26. Rap- hate for everything (especially 'ho's') with a music background

Anyone without talent can be a rap star, the angrier the better. And you will never convince me it is music.

[SKKY]

27. This Cracker-ass cracker loves rap...

...from the very first chords of "Rapper's Delight", I was hooked.

[Spider Jerusalem]

28. Public Enemy, Paris, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy,

Spearhead, some of Eminem's stuff, Outkast, a few others....not my favourite genre, but there's some good rap/hip hop out there.

[Califooyah Operative]

29. I like and was raised on hip hop and rap as well as many other types of...

music. There's good and bad rap just like any other genre, and keep in mind a lot of it comes from the streets where poverty and drugs are a reality. Ludacris, and the majority of radio rap is pretty much crap. It's written and sold to white suburban kids.

[annabanana]

30. Rap 'n I

I heard it first just before it really hit the airways. I was driving a cab in Queens and we used to ferry kids to a recording studio. They were VERY excited about it. One was playing a tape in the car and I was fascinated. The words were the percussion and how they fit together was intriguing for a word freak like me.

I never listed to the kind of stations that featured that music, so I was a bystander to its ascendancy, then some of the lyrics veered into juvenile obscenity and kind of soured it for me for awhile.

Now I don't listen to it on a regular basis, and find it tiresome in excess, but I can appreciate the artistry when it's well done, and often find the politics encouraging.

(but that's just me)

[NuttyFluffers]

31. yes. but not all, just like every genre of music. n/t

[Orsino]

32. Yeah.

The cultural divide may be too great for me to understand much of it, but something in it moves me.

[China_cat]

33. The 'c' in rap is silent.

[Biased Liberal Media]

34. I was raised on hip hop/rap/R&B/Motown so yes

I like generally pretty much all genres of rap, even though most of the crap today SUCKS. (Yeah Chingy, I'm looking at you!) What's up with all these songs saying "Thurr", "herre", "Errrbody"?? I don't get that. Must be a regional thing.

If it has a good beat and makes me want to dance, I listen to it. Everything from Salt N Pepa to Ludacris to Tupac to Busta Rhymes to (some) Ja Rule to (some) Nelly to Jay-Z.

[ThorsHammer]

35. Yes and no

Yes to the talented ones like most of the older groups (Public Enemy, Tribe, etc), the 90s guys like Tupac, Biggie, Dre, Snoop, and Nas, and a few of the newer guys like Kanye and Eminem.

An emphatic no to the newer poser, bling-bling, pop sellouts like Ja Rule, Sean Combs (I respect him as a businessman though), Nelly, Kid Rock, Master P and friends, and so on.


EDIT - I am an idiot, don't know how I forgot to include Sugar Hill Gang in the list of the older groups that I like; "Rapper's Delight" has to be one of the best beats ever.

[B Calm]

36. I'll be honest with you, I hate it.