Let me see if this makes any sense at all...

The Rap music that most who dislike rap are currently hearing is, for the most part, not good. This is of course my opinion, and is my opinion due to the evidence that we all see around us that it probably does in fact have a bad influence on it's younger fans, due to it's messages being either:

A) Nonsensical, or
B) Negative to the extreme, for the simple purpose of remaining relevant (One-Upping the last guy)

Additionally, most of what is on the radio, and indeed a great majority of the records put out in total are musically weak, in that the beats are very heavily sampled, unoriginal for the most part, and the artists voices are in more and more cases modified in ways to make them not thier own.

That's not even to speak of the actual songwriting and lyrics coming from most popular artists lacking in originality or complexity or even good taste.

..There is some good news though, for anyone who is open to rap music, but has not been able to find anything worth listening to.

All you have to do is turn off your radio.

There are artists who are truely gifted songwriters, indeed poets, and who want to keep the style of Hip Hop alive.

Here's the distinction.

If you hear it called 'Rap' It's probably not as 'good' as the stuff that is called 'Hip Hop'. Hip Hop is where the true lyricists and original artists are at. It's a distinction that hasn't become mainstream, but trust me when I say that it is very real.

The following is a list of artists who are really making good Hip Hop music.

Lupe Fiasco, Common (Not his last album, though) Talib Kweli, Mos Def,

And for those who want some real music with thier Hip Hop,
Definitely check out The Roots.

The Roots are a band who play all of thier instruments, live and in the studio, and have a lead rapper, Black Thought, who is just fantastic.

The tragedy that has befallen all of these fantastic artists is that thier genre has not made a full break from manstream rap, possibly due in part to thier own opposition (for some reason(s) that I personally don't understand) to such a move.

This grouping of Rap and Hip Hop is unfortunate, because the majority of people are interested only in the (once again, my opinion) HIGHLY sub standard music that is 'Rap', therefore the 'Rap' artists get most of the radio play and promotion, while the 'Hip Hop' artists have to struggle to keep thier significantly smaller audience interested, and to try and grow this base larger with less airtime and promotion.

Overall though, in my opinion, it is music, and some of it is truly amazing.
But most of the best is largely un-heard by the majority of people, unfortunately.

Just want to close by saying once again, that this is all my opinion, and that it just isn't some people's cup of tea.

To those that are interested though, I'd go to the artists I mentioned, if what you hear on the radio or in the clubs isn't for you.

Sorry it was so long, but if you did, thanks for reading!

Rock on, everybody!

Ben

I dont like it myself but the same was said about Rock Music way back when.

That's true as well.

whatever sound you make for artistic goals is music, rap ain't music right now just as britney spears and madonna and ecc..
if you go listen to the 80's and 90's rap before it was used as a commercial product you can hear a big difference, both in sound and meaning.

'Seem to be on the same page as most of you. While it may be "music" by definition, it is not to this picker in any way appealing.

The words which have come to mind over the years, associated therewith....

...juvenile, hateful, infantile, shameful, psychologically imbalanced, wasteful, tantrum-ic, embarassing....

IMO rap is nothing more than a dreadfully repetitive drum cadence with overlying poetry. Very, very bad poetry.

Like I said, that's my opinion. You can take that and a dollar and maybe buy a soft drink from a machine.

I once saw a software tool with which you could make a rap song.
It was kind of a Wizard, like other software tools.

It went something like:

Make Rap song: Y/N <next>
How many BPM: 120-180<next>
How many chains: 1-100<next>
How many Mercedes: 1-100<next>
How many girls in bikini: 1-100<next>
Hood: Y/N <next>
How much money do you want to make:
100000-1000000000<finish>

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I like rap from back in its early days. Now it is all sort of demeaning to everyone, especially women, and is just generally stupid. But to say that it isn't a type of music is stupid. It has just changed over the years to something that isn't what it should be.

Listen to Fat Joe "We Ridin, Pitbull "Oye" and tell me you don't hear anything besides the lyrics. These guys are going somewhere but unfortunately they choose the negative aspects of rap "Gangsta". They are on the 2F2F soundtrack. I'm not a fan of rap but I do respect talent when I hear it in any music.

it's music but not my cup of tea anymore. in the 90's i heard guru and his jazzmataz project for excample. i got it over with the time.

cheers

"Rap" is a subgenre of hip hop. and hip hop is most certainly music. every style of music has its more tolerable acts. I'm in a hip hop band and we've played with acts like Flo Rida who i can't stand but he has had several chart topping hits. but then you have your truly talented acts like the roots who have never had a chart topper but they are well respected throughout the music industry.

You guitar players will appreciate this live performance of the Roots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D671znPDOCU


Inflowential:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHGNrVvEqQM

I personally can't stand rap. Rappers don't play anything, and because of this it's becomes difficult to label them as a "musician". Doesn't music require musicians?

I have to say there are some rap artists that you can at the very least credit for being talented at what they do, even though to most it probably comes off as a total waste of time.