why the hate for rap?

I've noticed that apparently a lot of people here dislike rap and I've never understood that u personly love it, a lot of people say well its only about money hos and guns but that's a lot like calling rock satanic sure some of it is but that isn't all there is I will admit that I do listen to rap like that too but I listen to black metal which IS generally satanic. But anyway who here doesn't like rap and why?

Hi Violaman,

Hot topic! thanks for the post.

GT Admin

Personally, I've nothing against "Rap" per se. It's generally RapPERS and the subject matter of the so called rap music. Ego stroking and the whole "gangsta" thing is just .... well I can't say what I wanna say without no doubt insulting someone - but needless to say I'm sure you understand my point.
Rapping itself is fine imho, I enjoy Linkin Park, Run DMC, Rage Against the Machine.

Oldschool rap was the only stuff I could ever tolerate listening to. All this new "club music" and rap like Meth3rlence was talking about is complete garbage to me. It bothers me that people like this stuff and the performers more than REAL musicians. I could get into a whole rant, but I'll hold my tongue :D

Originally Posted by: Meth3rlencePersonally, I've nothing against "Rap" per se. It's generally RapPERS and the subject matter of the so called rap music. Ego stroking and the whole "gangsta" thing is just .... well I can't say what I wanna say without no doubt insulting someone - but needless to say I'm sure you understand my point.

Yup, Meth3rlence about sums it up. I dislike the image that it portrays. Plus, I'm just not into the music. I'm a rocker. Having said that, I'm sure that some would say that rock has it's negative images as well. That's fine but for me personally, most the rock I listen to is more up beat party rock from the 80's.

Long live the 80's metal scene! :cool:

There's often a negative culture associated with rap music, but it doesn't have to be. As the OP suggests, that is only part of what constitutes "rap" music. So putting that aside, I think the original question is moot and the title inflammatory. Why the hate for Country? Why the hate for Baroque Harpsichord? Why the hate for Gregorian Chant music? Its not "hate" just because someone doesn't like a particular style or type music.

Originally Posted by: hunter1801 I could get into a whole rant, but I'll hold my tongue :D

No man, let it rip! :cool:

Originally Posted by: Guitar Tricks AdminHi Violaman,

Hot topic! thanks for the post
GT Admin

Gee...I dunno. The above was the first response to the OP after four days! :)

As for me, I don't think much of rap but I can listen to more of it in one sitting than I can Christian rock, house music or opera. :)

As for what I like...I listen to a local adult alternative station that also plays a lot from the past three decades and am continually amazed by the playlist/music of the online radio station, KXZI http://montanaradiocafe.com/ and that on Little Steven's Underground Garage http://undergroundgarage.com/shows-599-500/

I don't be hatin' nobody.

Well for me most of the rappers cant sing so they rap. Most of them cant play an instrument so they make some weird sound with there mouths. They cant dance so they hop around like frogs on acid. They cant write well so they put "ya huh hmmm yeah, alright, huh huh huh" everywhere (especially live). I'm generalising here.

Also, instead of being different by bringing new ideas and inspiration to the scene, they try to be different by putting there hats or pants in a total new way that nobody never did. I gess the 80s rock band started that with there crazy hair and the make ups and all those weird pants :p

Thinking about it, rap is like most of the music being shown in the media and played on the radio in the past 15 years. No talent musically, poor artists but very "entertaining" to watch.

I think the best word to describe all the "media bands/rappers/singers" is .... clown :D Where in a big circus of music right now. The "artist" (I shouldnt even use that word :)) that gets to be the most popular in the world, for a couple of months, is the "artist" that will do the most provocative thing.

To come back to rappers.....personally I see the rappers as the leaders of that entire bunch of clowns.

Now there are exceptions, but they dont sell as much because the radio wont play them and the cd company wont give them big contracts. Everything is marketing now.

And that is what each and every one of you are, Artist. You all have come here because you all deal with the playing of the guitar, so in essence you like some form of music or you wouldn't be playing it.
In getting a degree in music, or even a degree, you have to take some form of "Cultural" education such as Art Appreciation or Music Appreciation. In both of these, you learn to look for what the artist is trying to tell you. "Feel" the emotion that they are trying to get into you. Each of you do that each time you strum those strings when you create or play a song from someone else. You want that emotion to get into your audience.
Rap is no different in that aspect than any other form of music. The only difference is, it has what none of that which people that are not from the inner cities, ghettos, slum and yes, even gangs, want to know or experience. It has hate, racial attitudes, love of crime, love of sex, lust and all of that. Most everything that people that aren't from those areas are taught from early parts of life to dislike.
Just like when Punk started to make it big in the 70s, like the Sex Pistols, people outside of Punk despised that style of music and their lifestyles as well. Same for Rock when it started. Look at Elvis and how they thought that he was pervert with his hip swing.
Rap is NOTHING new. Bing Crosby and others, Hell even George Burns and Bob Hope did a few rap songs waaaaay back in the early 1950s!! The Hip Hop and Gangsta stuff started coming out in the public as protests and such. And that is why people "Hate" it so much. The negative stuff in it.
Do I hate rap? No. Do I listen to rap... not really. I do like some of the "Fun" stuff, like The Beasty Boyz, Run DMC, Aerosmith's rap and so on.. the Fun Stuff. The late 70s and early 80s had a LOT of rap that wasn't so bad.
Look at this for example:
Have you ever gawn to a friens haws where da food ain no good?
Potato Salad is nasty
Peas are musty
And da chicken tastes like wood!
This is one of those "Fun" raps. I heard this rap WAY back in the late 70s when I was in the 6th grade.. There is a POSITIVE and NEGATIVE to all aspects of music.. we just can't "Hate" automatically what an artist puts out there because of a "Style" we can "Hate" the messages that they send.. but we as artists should respect what the artists have created... just as they should respect what you create...
And I do "Hate" those negative messages like abusing women, killing cops, promoting racism, and even promoting illegal activities in general. But I still respect the artists work in being creative in the forming of the music.. EVERYONE will find a following from people that have some common interests in them.. Rap has the inner cities, slums and ghettos..
Hope that you all find your inner creativity! Peace.

Howard

I think it's easy to judge a music or style by the small window through which we are exposed to it. If you are a hard rocker, would you like every judgement of the music to be based in Poison? Not that Poison is a bad thing but is it the band you would choose to best represent hard rock? Probably not.

Yet rock folks judge hip hop based on the most cartoonish aspects. I'm not sure that's fair.

We say that sampling is not music. Stealing small bits of music to assemble a song. Yet Jimmy page lifted many, many licks from his influences...and we call him a genius. We say that hip hop is not singing because it's not melodic. Yet we call the drummer a musician even though definitionally a rhythm instrument is not melodic.

We find many excuses to justify the opinion when, in the simplest terms, why not just say; it's not to my taste.

There are hard rock bands that are not to my taste either. Do I need a justification? No. Nor should anyone if they don't enjoy hip hop.

However, I think the justifications are more than about a personal opinion. It seems that such a thing might be used to denigrate the medium, the music style.

It's not up to me to be the arbiter of what is good or music. It's up to the listener. I may not be the target audience for hip hop so I shouldn't really insert an opinion in to something that does not communicate to me.

I will admit that I do like some old school hip hop but I'm old and I like old school rock and metal too...Stopped caring about much new hard rock music a while ago. Part of aging.

I like the originators of hip hop or NWA and LL Cool J. They take up a small portion of my MP3 player but they are there.

I'm sure that my point is crystal clear but to put a sharper point on it; I'm not sure it's valid to categorically dismiss a popular music with the pretense that it doesn't agree with you. It's entertainment and it doesn't have to agree with you.

Wow nothing for days then a flood of replies! Anyway I guess I either misunderstood the people on here when they said rap they meant the crap they push these days that or no radical metal nationalists joined in, I'm glad you guys are musical moderates so to speak, you guys all have some good perspectives only thing I might disagree with is the idea of not liking a genre because of what it portrays I listen to cannibal corpse and it portrays some pretty twisted stuff which is pretty objectivly negative BUT its often used as a positive outlet for negative emotions like if I'm pretty pissed it feels nice to hear hit em up by 2pac and prevents me from being jerk if I'm angry. I guess what I'm saying is we need to consider how and why the music is used and also the sincerity of the music 2pac was a gangster that's what he rapped about the problem is that he made that the norm in rap and now its insincere because its not true so I love 2pac but hate his influence on the genre but people like KRS-ONE who rap about politics and spiritual mitt I love sadly they get no widespread success anyway you have the patience of a saint if you read all that

I don't hate rap. I love all music, everying from classial, bluegrass and eveything in between, it's about expression. I don't base my oppinion on the music alone, but I do have some problems with the lyrics. But then again that is my oppinion.
I prefer southern, classic rock and blues, which my 17 yold son laughs at. But when I asked him about the attraction of RAP he had only one thing to say. "It has flow" I reminded him that the toliet has flow also, but that does not mean I want to listen to it! He does not discuss music with me anymore :)

LOL now everytime I use the word flow to describe a rapper ill be stuck hearing a toilet flushing, anyway I describe flow as a combination of interesting rhyming patterns and good rhythms, God a kid has to hate justifying his music to his dad I never had that problem because my dad listens to most of what I do

wow even if a lot of people here say they're open to any form of music I still see a lot of generalizations. To get some perspective on my opinion I personally enjoy any style from simple bass-pounding house or hip hop to progressive rock or classical music. At the moment I'm listening to the Gladiator-soundtrack.

If I had to put it simple I'd say; music represents emotion. Whether you understand or can accept that 'representation' of emotion or can connect with it is an entirely different matter. What's often the problem is that you judge it based on associations, with the genre or other aspects in your life. Although I consider myself to be open to all forms of music; I'm no saint, I can be judgmental even on my best days. It just depends on what you do with it.

1 - I don't see the same "musicianship" in Rap music.

I recently got a copy of Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler - Neck and Neck. I don't claim to be an expert in all things guitar but I feel like I have learned a lot in the time I have been playing(learning). But there are a couple of different points on the album where I can't begin to visualize what they are doing. I don't know how I would ever have the same experience when listening to Rap.

It just seems to me that the music is too often computer generated.

2 - And it seems that there is a lot of celebration of anti-social/criminal behavior. Most of the best songs, lyrically, are those that we can all relate to. If most rap fans can relate to most of the subject matter in rap songs then we better start building some more prisons.

Many forms of music will include some questionable subject matter but when I completely stopped listening to rap, it see that every song was just filled with vile material. It was all cop-killin, B$%^h slappin, cap poppin' BS. At first, I think this style was called "gangsta-rap" but then it ALL seemed to turn into the same style.

Prior to the gangster-rap, I found a fair amount of it entertaining, But I think we'd all be better off if the gangsta stuff was still a fringe element. My guess is that this opinion is shared my many and THAT is a big part of why it is as popular as it is. The same things could be said about some of the dark metal but that has remained a fringe element, IMO.

Having said all of that, I would listen to all but the hardest, darkest rap over most non-rap that my oldest daughter(13) listens to.

Rap is a way for peolpe to get into the music business when they cant sing or play an instrument.....If it wasnt for the drums................I dont think I would listen..............I just dont see rap as entertainment..............There is so much good music out there I would rather be listening to........good luck to all the people in rap!!!!!

wow what a thread... i read all of the posts!
I struggle with rap. but then I struggle with why I struggle with it.

Similar to what KFS1972 was saying about the content...

My kids get all this rap music from itunes and it all says "explicit". that's my first problem. it seems like the lyrics can be so negative... but is it really anymore negative than other genres? I'm not against the F-word in music, it usually has so much emotion and energy tied to it, and if I hear my favorite band use it (see below), I love it, but if I hear it in rap, it sounds so different and really turns me off. Its like there is a different kind of energy there.

I can get into the beat and the rhythm and even think how the energy would be great to go jogging to, then I hear the lyrics and it really brings me down. I tried to like emiem (spelling?) but just couldn't hang with it.

remember some of the first rap songs... double dutch bus.. that was fun...

a great quote from lee008: "... "It has flow" I reminded him that the toliet has flow also, but that does not mean I want to listen to it! He does not discuss music with me anymore ... " I'll never forget that

I have to say I really hate rap (and house, and hiphop etc.) too.
It's not the lyrics, the musicality (or lack thereof, although in fact I doubt that's true, there are bound to be great musicians in any style), the anger or the gangsta image or whatever...

It's just the music itself really gets on my nerves! Something in the rhythms just makes me irksome and irritable, and I have lost friends that way...

What I really hate is when they do this manic rapping over a laid-back, slow-handclap type backing...I just can't stand that.

There are lots of other music styles I don't like, but most I can ignore. Rap just drives me up the wall.

It sounds kind of monotonous to me too, and there appears to be little variety in the genre-it all sounds very similar and repetitive. Sure, the fans will see all kinds of subtle or not-so-subtle differences and sub-genres but it's lost on me.

Having said all that, the kind of music that I do like (Rock'n'Roll) once had the very same effects on the older generation (to which I now belong) too... ;-)

P.S./Edit:
I'm really curious about the kind of music that will, eventually, be driving the rap generation up the wall!

Many (most) people really lock into 'their' music...and that's usually the music that was popular with themselves and their peers at about the time they hit puberty, high school, etc. At least two things come out of this...the youth/younger generation is into music that drives the older generation up the wall (if for no other reason than it is different) and, the younger generation eventually ages but holds on to and looks favorably back to that music they loved.

I think that might be why we saw such a surge of oldies (50's - 70's) radio stations the past couple decades. The boomer generation not only still held dear their music but they were now one of the largest and most affluent demographic groups in the country. In turn, the oldies stations were followed by 80's and 90's stations and so it goes.

All of this might be at its end. With all the sub-genres of music, and sub-genres of sub-genres, it's hard for me to see the continuation of the same kind of patterns with the same broad coverage. Maybe certain sub-genres will become the new oldies...