Ray Charles - "Rap is not music"

You simply cannot expect a bunch of white people to understand rap, which grew out of backlash against racism. Remember the Reagan administration? Or when the CIA knowingly introduced crack into Los Angeles? Those were the times rap was addressing. I wasn’t into Tupac, but even I understood what he spoke of. These were sad times, and the youth today understand the struggle the country faces. Ray Charles was from a generation when being black was a huge handicap. But what do I know I’m a jazz nut.

@coltrane1 For someone who says, “what do I know, I’m a jazz nut,” you sure are quick to speak with a strong sense of authority on lots of things un-jazz.  
I hope you could understand how silly a sentence like, “you simply cannot expect a bunch of white people to understand rap” is.  
Rap is not some alien language. It’s music.  
Obviously the historical context of both peoples’ position in the world is far, far different, and white people are the perpetrators of egregious injustice and people of color have been their victims for centuries.  
We’re talking about art here.  
Art is a human language.  
Just as saying, “white people are less inclined to really ‘get’ rap music than black people” may have a hint of truth but is still overall a dumb statement, so would be saying, “black people are less inclined to really ‘get’ classical music or country music.”

@tylermunns, not this black person. My first instrument was Cello, then bass, then sax, then piano, and now archtop guitar. I get it, not everyone can fit into a box. But in general, this thread is evidence of the fact that white people can’t be expected to get rap. Otherwise, this entire thread wouldn’t exist.

Rap music crossed over to white audiences in the mid to late 80s.  I'm thinking about the Beastie Boys, Aerosmith/Run DMC and Yo! MTV Raps.  At that point young white males were the biggest consumers of rap.  In many ways rap music has morphed and evolved well beyond its origins in the streets and clubs of the Bronx and Brooklyn to the point where its originating blackness is irrelevant.  The Indian sub continent has a decades old history of rap music that is unique to Indian/Pakistan.  The music was originally inspired by what came out of America, but its cultural significance is vastly different.

Here’s something tangentially related:

There is a YouTube video (made and posted by Adan Neely, a very knowledgeable, intelligent, and articulate young man) entitled "Music Theory And White Supremacy", in which an interesting topic is explored: the conflating of the concepts of "music theory" (as it is taught) and "the harmonic style of 18th century European musicians", and how "race" is related to that conflating.

The video was posted two years ago, and has been viewed 2.3 million times! It’s 44 minutes long, and believe me is VERY worthy of your time. I’m going to watch it again right now.