Opinion of Rap

[jamestroll]

filthy garbage. disgusting and hurts my EARS.

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

filthy garbage. disgusting and hurts my EARS.

All of rap?

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

I've been getting into some experimental hip-hop and post rap bands in recent months, like CLPPNG and whokilledxix (both very NSFW btw)

I also had an oldies hip-hop phase (lots of Big Pun), Em and Ye phases

[Progressive Pessimist]

I can't say it's a genre I've ever really liked or identified with but I've understood and appreciated its place in music history more as I've gotten older. When I was a teenager and 50% of what was on the radio was rap/hip hop I thought I was cool by disliking it and denigrating it, but as I've become more mature in my adulthood I also developed more nuanced perspectives. I don't have to love it as a genre to recognize that is in fact a genuine art form. In fact there are some rap songs I do like, perhaps mostly out of nostalgia though. When Coolio died earlier in the year I went out of my way to listen to "Gangsta's Paradise."

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Good but sometimes you need to wade through a lot of uninteresting or mediocre stuff to get to the interesting stuff.

With that said, gonna drop the most lukewarm take of all time: Good Kid, m.A.A.d City is a top 10 album for me and Kendrick Lamar is one of the best high-profile American musical artists ever

[The Arizonan]

There are a few songs that I like such as Busta Rhymes songs (“Gimme Some Mo’”, etc.)

Awful. I basically never listen to it voluntarily.

How can musical taste be racist?

[jamestroll]

filthy garbage. disgusting and hurts my EARS.

All of rap?

too vulgar and crude for me.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Not my thing but to each their own.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Not my thing but to each their own.

Opinion of emo? Opinion of hardcore?

[Damocles]

Really like the genre. I used to listen to HOT 103.7 when I lived in Seattle. That station played a lot of 90s-2000s rap, R'n'B, and other "urban" music. It just hit differently when driving home on I-5 after pulling a twelve-hour shift in the warehouse. I also remember spontaneously dancing on the warehouse floor when a particularly good track hit at a slow time, which umm... got a lot of people turnt. I loved that energy.

As for the songs themselves, the subject matter concerned everything from persistence in the face of obstacles, to happiness and enjoyment of life, to the depressing reality of poverty, and even to subtly religious overtones, as if hoping for deliverance. It was far more complex, emotional, and expressive than I thought the genre was originally.

There were other subject matters as well, but the following are the ones that spoke to me the most. With that said, here's some of my favorites from that time.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Not my thing but to each their own.

Opinion of emo? Opinion of hardcore?

I'm not entirely sure because I'm not that familiar with the genre but I'm guessing my answer is probably similar.

[MasterJedi]

I think it’s pretty bad, especially after the 90s. have fun listening if you like it though.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Worse than emo or Taylor Swift

[SevenEleven]

Truly the modern language of the unheard

Timeless classic.

[Badger]

Honestly, what percentage of non-white people have referred it to rap instead of Hip Hop since the early 2000s?

[soundchaser]

Like pretty much every genre, some of it's good, some of it's less good.

I don't know how anyone can listen to Busta Rhymes and NOT be impressed:

[Progressive Pessimist]

Honestly, what percentage of non-white people have referred it to rap instead of Hip Hop since the early 2000s?

Not this dirty white boy, yo. I'm cool and down with the kids, shawty! Now let's get crunk with these sick beatz!

[Benjamin Frank]

Like most things, I have a sophisticated opinion about rap: rap is crap.

More seriously, I like a little rap music, especially the Canadian rapper k-os.  I really like Crabbuckit

The song refers to the phenomena of crabs in a bucket pulling each other down while trying to get themselves out of the bucket, ensuring that every crab remains stuck at the bottom of the bucket.

[RC (a la Frémont)]

Not my favorite but I've enjoyed a fair few songs from the genre. Maybe a basic choice but Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind is a current favorite.

[NOVA Green]

Voted FF.

Agree with some other posters on this thread that many of the "Haters" have likely never really listened to any real "Hip-Hop", but rather conflate an extremely diverse and complex musical genre into their own personal preexisting biases, based upon their own cultural backgrounds, including country of origin, race/ethnicity, socio-economic backgrounds etc...

Hip-Hop has effectively become a global musical style of communication, which arguably has even transcended Reggae as an International Musical style among the Afrikan Diaspora.

Regardless of the various musical debates regarding the origins of Hip-Hop (Boston claims some turf, plus a couple different boroughs of NYC), time to put on an initial musical interlude regarding the roots of Hip-Hop: