50 years of Hip Hop- How Come?

Not a fan at all.

But my dislike is based purely on the music itself.

I tend to only like music that has most or all of the following attributes:

Very high levels of musicianship, musical complexity, deep and broad range of emotional and/or intellectual content, sophisticated compositions and arrangements, avoidance of verse>chorus>bridge>repeat song structure.

Hip hop has none of the above. But neither does most pop or country, which I dislike about as much.

Early on, rap was much more political in nature. It was one of the only outlets repressed people had to make their reality known. From that perspective, I can respect it. 

But musically, it sucks, IMO.

@ghasley 

You want to hear an almost perfect belnding of all of these genres (soul, r&b, jazz, blues, funk, rap, hip-hop) then listen to Robert Glasper’s “Black Radio” albums. His latest “Black Radio III” is brilliant. The musicianship is exceptional. To those who haven’t ever heard someone rap melodically, it exists on this album. To those who swear those creating hip-hop or rap aren’t musicians, this album dispels the stupidity of that myth.

But the parts of Glsaper's recordings that display musicianship, is the jazz influenced portions. 

Steve Coleman, Andrew Milne, and others in the M-Base subgenre of jazz have been utilizing rap vocals for decades. Yet, they are not hip hop or rap recordings.

Steve Coleman is a near genius of contemporary jazz, and I own almost all of his 20+ recordings. Quite a few have hip hop type vocals, yet, I would argue that none of them are hip hop.

Old white guys discussing rap and hip hop.

Hilarious.

What’s the problem with that?

Just because I am white, does not mean I can not criticize music based on the things I don’t like about it, musically. I dislike country about as much as rap and hip hop.

You do all realize, it was born out of jazz?

So what? Doesn’t make it any where near as good. That is what is known as a ’genetic fallacy’.

By the way, I have a large collection of jazz, from the late 50's up through the contemporary era. You do understand that a very high percentage is made by black musicians, right? 

So, when this 'old white guy' discusses rap and hip hop, I am a racist. But when I discuss jazz, I am not? Please explain how that works.

It is the urban music of our time and is a reflection of the disenfranchised of large groups of people.

I can completely respect it for that aspect. Some of the early, more politically oriented rap had a lot of truth in it. I have zero problems with that aspect.

@ghasley 

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to adjust the eyeholes on their hood and see this thread…..

I wonder how many people on this thread who don't like rap or hip hop, love jazz?

Do believe those of us who dislike hip hop, but love jazz, put our 'hoods on' to disparage hip hop, then take them off when we listen to jazz?

Please...

There are not hard trends like in the past because there is not such limited sources to hear new music. If you look in the old days about how we became aware of non-live music, the channel were limited - radio mostly, then TV. They controlled the content that was pushed. Now there are hundreds of sources of music and even millions of songs in streaming format that WE or I get to pick myself, not the radio DJ or the late night show, or SNL. IMO, there is more amazing music available now then ever from the older stuff to new non-radio bands that I can access. It is an amazing time to be a music listener (same with TV shows, documentaries, and movies if that is your thing - all in 4K - WOW), and that is just from the content side - the hardware is amazing and sound wonderful, even at an average price point.