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Monday, May 9, 2011

Rap.

"There's a drumming noise inside my head, that starts when you're around. I swear that you could hear it, it makes such an almighty sound. There's a drumming noise inside my head, that throws me to the ground. I swear that you should hear it, it makes such an almighty sound. Louder than sirens, louder than bells, sweeter than Heaven, and hotter than Hell." - Florence and the Machine Drumming Song



Over the years I've noticed that rap music's reputation has gone down the crapper. It has been ripped to shreds, torn apart, and annihilated to it's bitter end.

No one likes rap music anymore. R&B sure, but rap? Forget it. It's only about sex, money, skanks, jail and hoes. Rap music has no meaning behind it, no rapper actually puts thought into their lyrics, it's all the same thing with all the same beats.

Most people will say all of that about today's rap, or last years rap, or the rap played 5 years ago, whenever. That it sucks, and always will and has no meaning.

Wrong.
And if you think all of that about rap, then you're just ignorant. Honestly, whenever someone hears a rap song start on the radio or wherever, they roll their eyes, say "ugh!" and change the station. They automatically assume that what that artist has to say means nothing, and that it will be about sex, money, or hoes.

If that's not ignorant, I don't know what is. But maybe if some of you would take a minute to listen (and decipher the artists probable terrible grammar) to what they have to say, you may just find out that rap music isn't all that bad, and yes, a lot does have meaning behind their lyrics. It may have been the same meaning as the last 10 rap songs, but same goes for every other genre.

Sure it's not for some people, but really, it's gotten better.

I don't really know why it's only rap music that has this reputation. There's a bunch of rock songs out there about sex and drugs (and if anyone is a true 60s-90s kid, you'd know this), hell most of the classics revolve around this! Led Zeppelin, Motley Crue, AC/DC, some Guns N' Roses, RHCP, Ozzy Ozbourne, Greatfull Dead.. Hell, even The Beatles, they did drugs (who didn't in the 60s?)

So why is it different than rap? Why don't people hate on rock as much as they do rap?

I guess the other thing would be the "disrespectful to women," argument. Honestly, I've only heard about 5 songs where they were disrespectful to women, otherwise the only thing near "offensive" was saying "bitch" and talking about boobies.

Who doesn't like boobies?!

Also, any song that is offensive to women enough isn't played much past it's release date, so I still don't get the big deal.

Rap is just as offensive as rock music, as pop music, or any other music. It just usually has some bad grammar.

11 comments:

  1. I personally don't like rap that much, because hit as the least amount of actual singing in all of the music genres.
    It's just words to a beat.

    But I have heard a few rap songs where there are meaningful lyrics.

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  2. Haha, I agree with the rap thing. I barely listen to it, and I'm black so I'm "whitewashed". Yeah, okay whatever. Just because I don't feel like listening to people talk really fast about stupidness, I'm whitewashed. Anyways, some rap music though is actually pretty good. Like some of Tupac's songs are really sweet. Even though there's lots of swearing, it's kind of poetic. But that's TUPAC. Not every rapper. Most of them are horrible. XD

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  3. How is it not offensive to women to use "bitch" and "hoe" as a synonymous term FOR "woman"? I don't listen to any goddamned music that plays off misogyny as some cultural idiosyncrasy. It's crass, and pathetic.

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  4. Yeah, because that's the point I was making.

    Not.

    The point is, nobody in the public sphere uses "dick" AS A SYNONYM for the word "guy" or "man". Rap does. THAT is the misogynistic part, not the fact that some people are bitches.

    There is some rap/hip hop that I do like, Australian hip hop for example has meaning, and substance, without needing to be derogatory. Ghetto black rap IS largely (note how largely =/= all) about money, and "bitches". It's fucking ridiculous. These people are the bottom-feeders of society.

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  5. Maybe not where you're from, but in LA, "dick" is pretty much always a guy. I'm not saying either is okay, but there's derogatory remarks made about guys just as there are girls. That sort of music I am not fond of, and it's in more than just rap.

    Lol and yeah, that's the point I was trying to make. Not ALL rap talks about that, and I find it ignorant of those who do think it does, since there's plenty of "meaningful" rap.

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  6. I think the reason most people don't like rap is really simple, some of it is total crap and you know its someone just out to make as much cash as they can with the Hoe n the biatch references but good luck to them if they can make money out of crap I say well done, but I digress my simple point is most people can not sing along to rap its just to many words spoken very quickly and if you don't know all the words then you end up tongue tied and frustrated, I might be out of touch with some of todays rappers but I do like some of it even though I can't keep up with the lyrics they are just that! lyrics, the same as the lyrics to the favourite song you sing along to, to call them bottom feeders is a bit harsh! they have a a point to get across and choose rap to do it, more power to their elbow :)sorry if I babbled amp.

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  7. Rap music so depends on the lyrics!

    :)

    http://fashionista-marika.blogspot.com/

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  8. That's actually why I like rap Kiki, because of how fast it is, and when I do get the lyrics right, I feel like a fucking PRO! lolxD

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  9. You have misunderstood my point.

    There is a difference between gendered insults, and using these gendered insults SYNONYMOUSLY with gendered pronouns or with people of that gender. Saying that some women are bitches, for example, is different to using the word "bitch" in daily conversation instead of 'woman'. Maybe you should look up the word 'synonymous'?

    Frankly, I don't see this kind of misogyny in other music. No other music has so popularised the derogation of women through making insults synonymous with 'woman'.

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  10. Again , I don't see how it's any different than using "dick" in relation to a guy. Same thing, different gender.

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  11. Hey, Angela. I used to be into rap when I was younger, though I grew out of it when I was about 18 because it was basically the same concept over and over again. The entire industry is creatively inept. 99% of it is about sex, money and oh being tough. If I hear a rap track on the radio, I can already envisage the video; expensive cars, half naked women dancing around and all the rest. You know what I'm talking about :).

    There are a few exceptions, a few artists like Lupe Fiasco that write meaningful lyrics. But most of them just do the same thing over and over again. It's like me writing the same book over and over again.

    And being black, when I come out with this, it's as though I'm a lion that just said he was a vegetarian :).

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