RAP MUSIC [let the ignorance stop. discover. learn.], don't click if your too lazy to read the whole thing Options

[JerzDevil]

“Rap only takes an egotistical guy who thinks he can get with anyone… You can’t even understand their words. They’re like ‘Ahhhrr!’ and are completely incomprehensible.” responded Laura A. when asked what she felt rappers had to do in order to write rhymes. The issue over how much talent it takes to be a rap artist has been disputed since its dawn. Junior Preston “Mish” D. had a completely juxtaposing view, “It takes a main idea, [it] has to be catchy… clever and original… you have to use multi-syllabic rhyme schemes and complex metaphors, while in other genres its simple rhyming.” As Preston has explained, writing rap lyrics isn’t as simple as many people may think. It has many of the same characteristics of other genres except in rap music, they’re balanced differently.

How different from other genres? When asked what where the biggest factors in country music, Meghan C. said, “It’s… about the words. The songs actually have a message and meaning… It has to have a good message; it [also] has to be upbeat and fun to listen to.” Another common favorite, Pop music is designed for anyone to be able to enjoy, with ‘happy’ lyrics and instrumentals. While the ultimate balance of all genres, traditional rock music involves all of the above, and then some depending on the song. Besides the vocalizing that all genres have in common, the stand out characteristics of rock music would have to be the guitars and drums. The musical talent it takes to perform and produce many rock songs are unparalleled by any other genre. You wouldn’t expect Jay-Z to play a mean solo on his Les Paul to be followed by Nas playing an even more complex two-minute drum solo. Don’t let that convince you that rappers don’t have their own redeeming factor. Because rapping is based on speaking to a rhythm instead of harmonizing to a melody it has a much larger range of freedom of lyrics. This causes the capacity of rap lyrics to also have more potential than that of any other genre. Just look at this excerpt from Jay-Z’s song “Renegade” featuring Eminem in which the capacity for rap is clearly demonstrated,

“Since I'm in a position to talk to these kids and they listen
I ain't no politician but I'll kick it with 'em a minute
Cause see they call me a menace; and if the shoe fits I'll wear it
But if it don't, then y'all'll swallow the truth grin and bear it
Now who's the king of these rude ludicrous lucrative lyrics
Who could inherit the title, put the youth in hysterics
Usin his music to steer it, sharin his views and his merits
But there's a huge interference - they're sayin you shouldn't hear it
Maybe it's hatred I spew, maybe it's food for the spirit
Maybe it's beautiful music I made for you to just cherish”


In less than a minute, Eminem has displayed alliterations (underlined), assonance and complex rhyme-schemes (bold), usage of an idiom, personification, while still conveying his words as if it’s an active conversation. Even with such strong examples of an intricate poetic background, there is still a ‘Pop’ element to many rap songs.

In the summer of 2007, the biggest breakthrough hit of any genre was undoubtedly Soulja Boy’s addicting dance-along Rap song, “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”. Double major in English and African and African-American studies, John Collins described the song as being “…just dance music, which is about repetitive comical things. There is no message, just ‘dance, dance, dance.’” Songs such as this distort the image of ‘good’ Rap Music, and because of the popularity of them on the radio, they distort the distribution and publicity of ‘good’ Rap all the same. Yet, this may not necessarily be a bad thing. This ‘dance, dance, dance’ element is just another plane on the nine-sided die of Rap music. When John was asked what drew him in to becoming a fan of Rap, he responded with, “Rap captures me because of the vivid imagery. Rap music is based on a struggle… It’s based in blues music which has serious undertones. There’s political, social, and economic commentary involved…Real Rap touches your soul, plus it sounds good… [The] topics are so varied. There’s booty shaking all the way to the American political system.”

An advantage that Rap music has over other genres is the freedom to write about anything, covering a wide range of songs and topics, and ways to display them. In Nas’s song “Rewind” He takes the listener from an active murder scene backwards until the time that the murder is planned out, demonstrating his creative strength. In Papoose’s “Alphabetical Manslaughter” (which took him three years to write), lyrical alliterations are taken to another level, demonstrating a powerful vocabulary and intellect which is shown in this excerpt,

[NoSex]

Radio rap f**king sucks and so do your labels
Hijacking your lexus, we turnin' the tables
the music on your radio and your tv
is built and sustained by white suburban bourgeoisie
shit man, when was the last time you watched BET
and these poor black kids got no way out
a few socio-economic classes away from boy scouts
and this shit they put on the air-waves
it's designed to keep white America supplied with slaves
cause this music was made to keep you down
poor, uneducated, sick, and out of white towns
radio rap made bitches, forties, and rims cool
like radio rock made suburban kids think being sad ruled
led to believe that this is the life
calculated, malicious, and constructed strife
poor black america has got another chance
just turn your heads away from ghetto romance
cause mainstream rap is a contagious poison
like scareface printed on a shirt holding a big f**king gun

The bling-bling era was cute but it's about to be done
I leave ya full of clips like the moon blocking the sun
my metaphors are dirty like herpes but harder to catch
like an escape tunnel in prison I started from scratch
and now these parasites wanna prosenna my asscap
trying to control perspective like an acid flashback
but here's a quotable for every single record exec
get your f**king hands out my pocket n***a like Malcolm X
but this ain't a movie, I'm not a fan or a groupie
and I'm not that type of cat, you can afford to miss if you shoot me
curse to heavens and laugh when the sky electrocutes me
Immortal Technique stuck in your thoughts darkening dreams
no ones as good as good as me, they just got better marketing schemes
I leave ya to your own destruction like sparking a fiend
cuz you got jealousy in ya voice like star scream
and that's the primary reason that I hate ya f****ts
I've been nice since niggaz got killed over 8-ball jackets
and Reebok Pumps that didn't do shit for the sneaker
I'm a heatseaker with features that'll reach through the speaker
and murder counter revolutionaries personally
break a thermometer and force feed his kids mercury
ANR's tribe jerking me thinking they call shots
offered me a deal and a blanket full of small pocks
your all getting shot, you little f**king treacherous bitches
[Hook]
This is the business, and ya'll ain't getting nothing for free
and if you devils play broke, then I'm taking your company
you can call it reparations or restitution
lock and load n***a, industrial revolution

[Verse 2]
I want fifty three million dollars for my collar stand
like the Bush administration gave to the Taliban
and f**k packing grams n***a, learn to speak and behave
you wanna spend twenty years as a government slave
two million people in prison keep the government paid
stuck in a six block eight cell alive in the grave
i was made by revolution to speak to the masses
deep in the club toast the truth, reach for the classes
I burn an orphanage just to bring heat to you bastards
innocent deep in a casket, Columbian fashion
intoxicated of the flow like thugs passion
you motherf**kers will never get me to stop blastin'
your better off asking Ariel Sharon for compassion
your better off banging for twenty points for a label
your better off battling cancer under telephone cables
Technique chemically unstable, set to explode
foretold by the dead sea scrolls written in codes
so if your message ain't shit, f**k the records you sold
cuz if you go platinum, it's got nothing to do with luck
it just means that a million people are stupid as f**k
stuck in the underground in general and rose to the limit
without distribution managers, a deal, or a gimmick
Revolutionary Volume 2, murder the critics
and leave your f**king body rotten for the roaches and crickets