I grew up on rap as teenager in the 90’s. Now in my 40’s, I find myself stuck on Tom Petty and classic rock lol. Something we never listened to growing up. My parents listened to salsa music which most kids that I know didn’t listen to their parents music. When I started my career in aviation I found myself surrounded by guys 20 years older than me and the shop radio stuck on classic rock 24/7. I hated it lol. It took a very long time for me to actually listen and give it a chance. We’re talking about years and years as I wouldn’t give in even if it sounded a little ok. But something in my mind clicked. I started learning that a lot of the rap songs I loved had beats sampled from classic rock songs. It was crazy to learn that. The best thing that could happen was me being open minded and wanting to learn more about music as I was depriving myself by being stuck on one genre. As my journey as an audiophile grew my listening palate grew to jazz music, country music, and now classical music. Just like I don’t like all rap music the same holds for these other genres. So I understand how difficult it is to start listening to different music to what you grew up on. Even the rap music being put out today is completely different to what I grew up on. With that being said I favor my generation of rap to what’s being put out now. If you go into it with an open mind and a willingness to learn something completely different you may find yourself enjoying something you never thought in your wildest dreams you would.
Is Rap a valid musical form?
This has been way more than the progression away from tubes to SS!
Believe the world of Hip Hop has been around and evolving for around 5 decades.
And for most of that time I have dismissed and avoided that world and its “music”.
So angry, offensive and abrasive. Just a bunch of rhythmic yelling.
I believe my former thread was titled “Why Rap?”. Through that discussion and somewhat of an understanding that this must be a new art form that engages and entertains millions if not billions. That and a long standing belief that if a type of music or a particular artist attracts many, many fans there must be substance and quality there. Even if I personally don’t particularly like it there must be something there.
Rap and the Hip Hop world was always so foreign and culturally untouchable.
Then my Rap thread and several others at that time got me rethinking my perspective and I watched a video of a group of student performance musicians at Juilliard all exclaiming their fascination with a Rap artist named Kendrick Lemar and his “masterpiece” “To Pimp a Butterfly”. I bought the double LP. Trying to listen to it turned out to be difficult because of my old view of Rap and that of the world of Hip Hop. But it was also becoming clear that this was truly something of significant interest. However, I just listened to the two discs only once-with some difficulty.
Today, after several weeks, I hesitatingly pulled the album out again. And to my surprise and actually delight hearing it with fresh ears it grabbed me and would not let go. I immediately heard the brilliance of a multi faceted, and to me, all new experience in sound. Not unlike great 20th century or progressive Jazz it evolved from section to section with a plethora of fascinating, yes musical, experiences. Tonal, atonal, percussive, rhythmic, breathing combined with incredible, energetic tongue twisting strings of mostly unintelligible words. And not merely angry yelling.
Sure, a ton of F bombs but words that don’t flow over you like lovely other genres but invade the psyche and don’t let go. Not particularly pleasant but gripping and interesting in its complexity. Words delivered with such power and drive which acted as a rhythmic counterpoint. It was impossible to turn away or turn off.
And speaking of turned off, the experience was the opposite of that. Stories of life undeniable human. Yes, driven by bitterness, anger and raw emotion. Impossible to dismiss it as not deeply felt.
I do think “To Pimp a Butterfly” is unique. But I also believe that there must be much more in this Hip Hop world that has deep musical interest. Some time ago I heard Drake on SNL perform a song that was amazing though not really Rap. Rather an advanced and unconventional musical form. I hear similar musical threads throughout “Pimp”. I did get a CD of Drake. “Scorpion”. I also could not absorb it in my first listen. I look forward to the next, fresh listen. I did try to hear several YouTubes of some very successful Rap artists. They mostly lacked the interesting musical themes threaded through. “Pure Rap” with just the rhythmic words-not my cup of tea. But a musically valid form none the less.
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Congrats to the OP for being open enough to discover something new. That’s the point of the journey. If you liked Kendrick, there are dozens of artists and hundreds of albums guaranteed to pique your interest if you take the time to search. I’ve been where you were and had friends kind enough to tolerate my narrow-mindedness and patient enough to slowly introduce me to hip hop to the extent that I will now happily swap a hip hop record in right after a bout of classical and vice versa. Much of that change comes from educating myself on the history of the genre, the same way jazz history adds so much depth to the exploration of jazz. These kinds of threads are always entertaining in the worst way because invariably you start to wonder, are some of these people cycling through the same 3 records on thousands of dollars worth of gear? Hilarious. Explore a little. Get out of your western-centric mindset for a minute and challenge yourself to appreciate a sound that might be new to you but is natural to someone else. Don’t use your age as an excuse - plenty of neuroscience out there to prove that you keep your mind sharp by exposing it to novelty. And for godsakes, let go of tired, reductive arguments about what music is and is not. All the great musical innovation in history was built on someone questioning the established definition of music. |
Just checked 2Pac… disappointed. I see that he sold 75 million records worldwide. Surely, can’t really hear what an artist is like only hearing a few minutes of 1 song. But in checking out recommendations of ones to hear, none have the creative progression of Kendrick Lamar. I understand that the world of Hip Hop is vast. Please give me a list of some artist/song suggestions that are truly sophisticated and interesting. The monotone raps just don’t do it for me. Especially when they don’t particularly pay attention to the musical threads. That is, incorporating the rap into the overall soundscape. |
....and dat's th' truoth, youth....(lisp rap) ...you heard it hear, firsth... ;) @dabel ...y'all had it comin' to ya', atcha', in your face, space, interfaced & interlaced....😏😁 Both start within & without of a ring...the 2nd a spoof of Dr. Strangelove, better lit? The opening 'gestures', both lead to strife of their type. But which violence do you prefer? Both end with a 'take out the trash' downer, one for Debbie & one for ma... @sonic79 ...and Thank You for that....*G* I'm in need of a 'loud fix' on a snow isolation sort of daze... ; ) and @rixthetrick...and they're getting to look a bit better while doing just that... ;) I, and I'll assume that a number of us have had the 'mixed mas of music' absorbed in our lifeform spans... I know I have...survived them all, so far ("...Death Metal doesn't stop him! Nothing! He finds 'beauty' in the chirping of a modem! We're doomed....and confused..." All genres have their peaks and valleys. |
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