Ray Charles - "Rap is not music"

I get along fine with friends and co-workers. I'm as much intitaled to my opinion as either you or Ray. I am not required to conform to your opinion. If you can't handle different responses than your own then I'm not the one with a problem. 

@simao +1000 for calling out the racism.

An item of interest might be "monogenre-ism" vs "multigenre-ism"? Which is my way of asking how broad is the musical interest of an individual, or group?

One CAN be a Mozart fan.  AND, an Elvis fan.  AND, a Beatles fan.  There are no conflicts here.  A little SRV tossed in on a good day might be okay, too.  Is this a typical "profile" of the musical diverse?

That being said, have we explored some of the music we "don't like", and before passing judgement, determined if there are other music interests of that individual?  And, is this the typical group dynamic for those supporting the genre?   Perhaps, they are musically "diverse.  Or, perhaps, locked into one genre, thus marooned from other musical experiences?

And, are some of us "monogenre-ic" with the music WE love as well?

I was about to post this very sentiment when I read your post @acman3 .

*** Why is it insulting to consider Rap poetry instesd of music? ***

Feeling and saying that rap is not music is not an insult at all when it simply doesn’t meet one’s definition of such. There is plenty of poetry that is on an artistic level far higher than a lot of what undeniably is music. So what is the problem? Seems to me that the problem is that those who bristle at the expressed notion that it is not music, but is poetry instead have a bias against poetry. It is THEY who need to be more open minded.

The argument ought not to be whether or not it is music, but whether or not it is art, which it most certainly is, and a highly marketable art form at that, having gained and maintained a place of prominence in entertainment media for some 45 years.