Poll: Do you like rap music?

I don't truly like it. But there is some old skool stuff that sticks with me and I can't help busting into every once in a while. George knows what I'm sayin'. :)

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�-= george =-

I'm putting that into two different songs.� Is that Snow or Tribe Called Quest?

neither, actually.� it was ... umm ... wreckx-n-effect i believe.

�-= george =-

Right!� Thanks. I ended up placing it to the song about an hour ago, but still couldn't come up with the artist.

Usually, if someone asks whether I like rap, I say "No." But there will always be a few old school things that I can't help but get into if I hear them playing. A few old Beastie Boys tracks come to mind... ( Intergalactic, planetary, planetary, intergalactic...)

~FT McD

I like a lot of the old school, especially the Beasties. Dre and Snoop were great back in the day. Doggystyle is still one of the best albums ever, every track is top-notch. Eminem is great, but the rest of the new wave hasn't done much for me.

yeah, my main thing is the beasties. Love 'em.

especially the Beasties. Dre and Snoop

When I placed my vote for old school, those were exactly who I was thinking of... your exact examples. I haven't listened to enough new stuff to know what I think of it, not even Eminem, though I've heard a little, not living in a cave and all.

Am I the only one who thinks of old school as Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash, and Kool Moe Dee?�

To me old skool mostly boils down to stuff I heard growing up that soaked into my brain in spite of myself. :)

nope!

Run DMC is in there too. :)

That was the first tape I ever owned... Raising Hell.
heheh

nah. Rap doesn't cut it for me. I only like rap Andrew Kerr style ;-)

We love you Special K!

andrew kerr style, or bernie muller-thym style. :)

i also can't help but dig some of the old-school stuff.

Yeah...who doesn't bust into Baby's Got Back once in awhile?

Or, for that matter, the Bobby Brown Ghostbusters II song. :)

too hot to handle, too cold to hold, the call the ghostbusters and it's in control...

you realize what you're doing to me andrea... :D

�-= george =-

and me. i'm so earwormed right now, it isn't even funny.

I have yet to hear any rap that I like. a good portion of what I do hear sounds more like screaming, and I pretty much can't stand music that sounds loud even when the volume is turned down.

sounds like you need to broaden your horizons.� or at least explore some of the mid to late 80's stuff.� maybe even delve into the late 70's.� you're stuck with the most prevalent stuff of nowadays which is predominantly pure crap. /:

�-= george =-

lawrence needs a copy of millennium hip-hop party.

(and so do i, actually...i keep forgetting to burn one from my brother's copy.)

no, I really don't. I'll take something with an actual melody over rap any day.

Rapper's Delight used the melody from Good Times. :-)

"White Lines" by Grandmaster Flash

Classic!

"The Message" by Grandmaster Flash.� Better than most rap being released today. :-)

And I have a line from "8th Wonder" by the Sugarhill Gang that I use often, just for fun.

"I don't think I'm bad... don't box and no karate.� Just an MC to put the boogie in your body."

One of my favorite lyrics ever.� Especially since Big Bank Hank does it.

a good portion of what I do hear sounds more like screaming

Well, you certainly couldn't say that of someone like Ma$e. I have trouble understanding him, because he's often so quiet and muttery.�There is a lot of screaming on the other end of the spectrum. ODB and Onyx come to mind. But I'm no expert on any of them, so what I said here is based on only a few examples from the songs I do know.

and mystikal. he sounds perpetually pissed off :D

Mystikal makes me laugh.� Sure, he sounds pissed off... but it's a good kind of pissed off. :-)

I don't like it enough to own any, but it's cool atmosphere or background music in some contexts. And it's good energy music if I want to get something physical done.

Also, seeing my great-aunts get down to Baby Got Back at a wedding was just too freakin' funny.

I like rap with a message. . . and as much as I abhor Eminem's anger and sexism, I really really like the way he plays with lyrics and rhythms.

I like early 90's rap like No Diggity, which I suppose is more hip-hop. Now, here's the question. you know the song "Butterfly" by Crazytown? 'Come my lady, come come my lady.' I consider that rap. other people don't. what do you think?

Butterfly isn't rap.� Unless Linkin Park is rap.� Then it's still not rap.

Rap Music. That's an oxymoron. Rap is NOT music.

In your opinion.

ditto.

-= george =-

Uh, that was what the poll was asking me, my OPINION.

The difference being that most people phrased their answers with some form of "I like" or "I don't like". You stated yours as though it was fact. When you state your opinion as fact it implies, in my view, that there is no room for the opinions of others, or that you are unwilling to consider others' opinions. I, personally, find it off-putting. I guess you could say I have a "thing" about it. That's all.

How is it not music? (pulls up m-w.com)
Music is -
1 a : the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity b : vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony

If I can expand on what was just said... rap music is basically just folk music... with the melody removed... and profanity added...

(just paraphrasing Harry Shearer in the press conference deleted scene from A Mighty Wind. Tee hee)

Most rap music is mono-tonal, and beyond the lyrical rhyming (which in alot of cases are pretty simplistic, although Eminem definitely gets props for doing some true rhyming), there isn't much musical about the vocal portions. As for the "instrumental or mechanical sounds", most are repetitive syncopated beats which are usually programmed as part of a beat box, so most rap "groups" have little to no instrumental ability.

It has more in common with sung poetry or beat poetry than it does with music. I feel that it can only be considered music by using the most liberal and open definition of music in which case anything other than a normal speaking tone would be considered music (anyone want to claim that an auctioneer's spiel is music?)

anyone want to claim that an auctioneer's spiel is music?

Sure.

LEROY VAN DYKE
had a multi-million record seller on his self-composed song, "Auctioneer"...

> Most rap music is mono-tonal

Huh? Most of the lyrics don't follow a melody, right. But there's this thing called the instrumentation of the track? If that was monotonal, it'd be pretty boring. That's what I like most about rap, the beats and bass and such.

By your line of reasoning, is classical music not "music", since it doesn't have a sung melody line?

No, you're confusing what I said about vocal aspects vs instrumental aspects. Classical music requires proficiency in an instrument and playing a melody, therefore it is music.

Rap's vocals are mono-tonal and not much above beat poetry. And most of the rhymes are completely simplistic.

You can play a Grade 1 (state grading system) classical piece with just learning a few notes. You don't need to be proficient on the instrument.

I believe "Ode to Joy" aka Beethoven's 9th Symphony theme is a grade one for solos or ensembles.

Right, and Pachebel's Canon. Now there's a complex piece of music. Let's walk up and down a scale. Simplicity doesn't make music any less musical.

And rap music doesn't require a proficiency in instruments? They may not be instruments in a traditional sense, but let's see you create beats that sound any good. I find it much easier to write and record songs with acoustic instruments than to go the hip-hop route of programming them. It takes just as much talent to do it well. Just because you say that it's not an instrument or that it's not much doesn't make it so.

> And most of the rhymes are completely simplistic.

Now you're just showing your ignorance. Modern rap music has some of the most advanced rhyming and rhythmic structure in musical history. Take a listen to any Eminem song and tell me how the rhyming is anything resembling simplistic.

I'm not addressing the rest of this argument, since I don't know much about rap...but, to be fair, he did mention Eminem as an exception to the simplistic rhymes comment.

"As for the 'instrumental or mechanical sounds', most are repetitive syncopated beats which are usually programmed as part of a beat box, so most rap 'groups' have little to no instrumental ability. "

And the same can be said for most pop singers/teen bands. They're still music though. Maybe not good music, but music.
And then look at a group like The Roots who do play their own stuff. One thing I noticed in an interview with them, and another with Run DMC, is that they always mention how little rap they themselves listen to. Pretty much, so long as you have a wide-range of influences, and some tallent, good music can come, regardless of the style.

Yes, but pop bands actually have melody to their lyrics. Alot of them actually know how to sing.

Just last Saturday, my cousin said that to me.

We were having an argument about what music�sucks most, and my vote went to the suburban angry white boys music. He said rap, and he said that the suburban angry white�boy musis is better because it at least requires them to play instruments and to write and sing melodies.

I was annoyed. {g}

I like some Rap music. The kind made my musicians. P. Ditty, not a musician. Bran Van 3000, musicians. The problem is when sampling goes to far. Lets look at say, Ice Ice Baby. ok, we know where he got the hook from, but the beat, and lyrics are all his, so there is something respectable to what Vanella Ice did. However, Puff Daddy's song about Biggie Smalls where he *REWROTE* the Polices beuitiful yet creepy love song isn't music. It's plagerism.

There are good rap groups. Bran Van 3000 is my favorate. They releaced arguably the best pop album in recent years. Besides, anyone who can use a line in referance to Kermit the Frog like "Lilly pad jumpin' miss piggy bumpin'" is alright my me!

I've heard the wrong Bran Van 3000 song.

I really like your examples with Vanilla Ice and P Diddy. I agree.

And I dislike how every one of Will Smiff's new songs (pretty much "Men in Black" and onward) is sampled from something. At least every one that finds its way onto the radio. I find his older songs fun, though.

I must say that Old school rap, you actually did have different voices, different styles, and diffenerent subjects. Now it's really just all the same, sound, subjects, etc... well except for Outkast, they are at least trying to change the sound back. but I guess being a crotchety old man, I tend to think that the old way is far superior to the generic music produced nowadays.

I seem to study my best when I'm blaring�Ludacris, OutKast and the like on my discman.

I know every word to Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang. And Ice Cube Rules. As does MC Paul Barman.

Now what you hear is not a test... I'm rappin' to the beat

I would probably find rap ok if it weren't for some of the listeners of it. I like the fact that it is easy to dance to, but most of the time, the lyrics aren't that great. Anyways, most of the guys in my school who listen to rap are complete jerks and I try not to associate with them in any way. BTW, they listen to bad rap, not the quality. Personally, I don't like rap that much, but I respect it for its strong points.

-Alex

I used to listen to rap music all the time, growing up in the 80s and 90s. But I didn't really listen to the rap stations on the radio. I listened to the pop stations that would play some rap songs mixed in. So I came to like songs that I thought were fun or funny like things by MC Hammer or Young MC or Will Smiff. And I liked RUN DMC, Salt N Pepa, and the like.

Around '94 or so I saw the merit in Snoop Dogg and Dre, but by the time Puffy was really big I didn't really like what was on the radio. I still don't like Puffy, but I do like Outkast, Black Eyed Peas, and Ludacris among others. Oh and Busta Rhymes. I like the last two, because they have a lot of songs that I think are fun.

Okay, so basically I'm saying I like rap songs that I think are fun or serious or have a message, but don't so much like the hip hop stuff like Mo' Money Mo' Problems kind of things. I bet that made sense only to me. {g}

And I miss Yo MTV Raps.

the other night on 'sex & the city', when carrie was in paris at some restaurant, they had this French pop/rap on.

i was like 'o...............k...........'

me no laika ze rap.

wildbill sent me some french rap when he was living in germany.
mostly mc solaar (sp?). i find it really fun to listen to, even though i know no french. same goes for some german rap (acquired at the same time), although they do like their shouty in german. & that freaks me out in an ancestral-memory sort of way.

oh oh oh, i love french rap. everything sounds so much cooler in french.

I've heard a lot of semi-obscure stuff I like. I can't remember any names, but I get the impression that they are kinda on the same popularity level as a lot of the stuff well known around here (Fr�vous, Peter Mulvey, EFO, etc).

I know there was one album that had one song filled with Back to the Future refrences, and another with Laser Tag Acadamy mentioned :-D

I can like rap when I hear it, but I dont' know much that I like enough to own. It can be quite good, and quite bad, just like any style of music. In general it's not my thing, but a few years ago I said the same of country, and suddenly half of what I'm listening to has been relabled "alt-country" instead of "folk" or "singer songwriter" .

There's a lot of really good rap music out and about now if you look for it. Swollen Members (once you get past their name) have really good beats and lyrics. Spek from the Dream Warriors put out a fantastic solo album last year. Maestro is always a fave as is K-OS. The rap and hip-hop I really like these days could be considered urban folk music. Jian had Spek on his show when the cd was coming out and he made a comment about how he thought he was making a folk album when he was recording which I could totally see when I listened to it.

I do like a lot of the old-school Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash though too.

Yeah, that was one of the episodes of >Play I managed to catch, and I liked his set. Is the rest of his stuff any good?

*laugh* on a totally unrelated note we've been talking about Swollen Members a lot at my house lately because I'm on an SSX3 kick and there's a DJ who plays songs and there's a Swollen Members track on the playlist. The name just freaks us out. Sorta like Moxy Fruvous once did. Heee. :)

"It can be quite good, and quite bad, just like any style of music."
That just about raps it up for me. Thank you.

Am I the only one who thought of Eddie Murphy asking "Do you like rap music?" in Beverly Hills Cop?

no, but i did think of the part in Sealab 2021's episode "Chickmate" where Stormy asks "Black Debbie" if she likes rap :D

i love this show.

well, I did now.

*movie geek* and it was Beverly Hills Cop II, outside the warehouse next to the weapons-laden semi truck.

"Say 'yo, baby, yo, baby, yo!"
"Yo, baby, yo, baby, yo!"
"Say 'owwwwwww!'"
"Owwwwwwww!"
*WHACK* *thud*

-- Pauley

What can I say?

I like big butts. And I cannot lie.

O:)

oh.... my....

-- Pauley ;)