AIBU to think rap is crap?

[JoanThursday1972]

I just heard In My Hood by Ice Spice on the radio with absolutely stupid lyrics.

Go back to the late 70s and up to mid 80s and it's good. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Sugarhill Gang etc.

Now it's rap mixed with grime and stupid lyrics that we'd be disciplined about if we said this in the workplace. Bitches, hoes, drugs and knives aren't art, they're a quick fix for talentless people to get attention by thinking it's oh so clever to be a gangster's moll.

And it's dreary and boring too.

There is rap that doesn’t have such things at all, but what does that matter when that is what most people who don’t even care for it choose to see.

Give me some examples then? This is what a discussion is about.

Some examples... Question Time by Dave

I'm 48 and have no idea what modern rap is like. I absolutely loved rap in my teens. Rap from my era was De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, Public Enemy to name but a few. All excellent in my opinion.

Agree with you there.

Lots of rap is fantastic. Stormzy, Dave, ....

Dave and AJ Tracey are good. It's when you get dreadful lyrics mixed with a boring rap beat like the example I gave, and Kanye West is guilty of this, that it ceases to be an art form.

Aitch's song about his sister - My G
(I just googled to get the song title correct - didn't know he was white till then.)

I don’t enjoy rap but I appreciate it. You need poetic and musical talent to pull it off, which I don’t have.

I love rap. Been listening to Shotty Horroh alot lately, as I'm from Manchester it clicks.

I used to love the stuff that @SallyWD mentions.

It's a cliche but listen to Akala's fire in the booth and tell me it's shit.

I think it can be poetic but I find the delivery boring unless its quite aggressive.

Amazing

I agree that some rap is pretty awful and has little meaning but there’s also some great rap out there.I don’t really listen to much on the radio but am a fan of Dave.

If you want to listen to something more deep and meaningful look up ‘Ren’.

There is a lot of shit rap, and a lot of really good, deeper rap. But you also have to remember, it was not ever written for you. I'm assuming that you are both British and white, and a vast majority of rap is written both by and for African American men and women. Context is huge here

I don't think anyone would argue about Dave.

On a separate but slightly related note Radio 1 Anthems aren't anthems at all!

This.

Plus, a lot of every genre of music is crap. It doesn't make the genre itself bad.

Try listening to Akala. Especially “The Fall”… I haven’t heard such intelligent rap since Wu Tang Clan. There is good rap out there, it’s just rarely played on mainstream radio.

I think if you don't like it then it's probably serving it's purpose. I really enjoy reading critiques in the Guardian among others about rap music. I love it when a certain type of white person gets worked up about rap and how it's the reason with everything wrong in the world today. It warms my cold cold heart right up!

There's entire genres of music of old white men fantasising about little girls but it's the black men shouting about hoes and guns which crosses the line! I love this discourse!!!

There's entire genres of music of old white men fantasising about little girls but it's the black men shouting about hoes and guns which crosses the line! I love this discourse

Well it is possible to dislike both genres. I don't like rap music because it's just not my thing. I think some of the lyrics appear to be disrespectful to women but then I like rock music and a lot of their lyrics are disrespectful to women too.
Some rap does glamorise gun violence and this needs to change since young people are influenced by the culture around rap music.

Yeah you’re right. And all country music is crap too - I know this because I heard ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ once, so that’s how I know every country song is shit.

Maybe you should try listening to several different albums and artists before you make a sweeping judgment on the whole genre? It makes you sound a bit ignorant to insist all rap/grime is only about ‘bitches, knives, drugs, and hoes’ when there are fantastic pieces out there like Dave’s ‘Three Rivers’ and ‘Lesley’ or some of Stormzy’s songs (not all) and lots of classic American rap.

And I don’t think it is a place for the ‘talentless’ at all. It’s often a place for the self made or self taught - those who come from difficult backgrounds and don’t have the opportunity that many musically talented people have had. One of the interesting things about rap is that traditionally it has been ‘porch music.’ You don’t need to have any expensive instruments, inaccessible music classes, not even singing lessons. Just a quick mind and something to say.

Also a lot of the classic 90s/00s American stuff is great for storytelling and tone. Lost Boyz doing ‘Renee’ a lot of the OutKast stuff. Tupac of course. Yes he talked about drugs and gang violence - but why shouldn’t he? He was reflecting a societal problem at the time he was writing. Keep Ya Head Up was a favourite of mine when I was a young mum. Basically there’s tons of stuff, but if you’re so ignorant that you write the whole genre off, you will never be able to appreciate it.

Maybe as an entry song for people who are genre illiterate, we like Snoop Dogg doing the Affirmation Song too.