I love rap. Rap uses deep words, deep thoughts, deep meaning. I am an emotional person. I see rap as an escape, from the real world. The new world is described as a reformation in the Renaissance of Europe – its rebirth. I use rap as an escape. I escape from feelings; it numbs the happiness, the energy, the excitement, the pain. Rap does not teach hate. I walk around with my headphones blaring, I do not idolize rappers because they talk about shooting each other, or because I think “swearing” is “cool”, I don’t like it because I can relate, or because they say music alters moves, and talks to you. I like rap because it tells you a real story. It blatantly tells you the truth, not cushioning each word with love, but stabbing away at the emotion that flies with each word. Rap is a poem, the flow of passion. Rappers are not screaming lyrics, just so you can’t understand what their saying. They are releasing all the hate, the love, the grief, and the sorrow. Spewing word dedicated to their true feelings, trying to get it out within their three minutes of recording time in the smoky sound booth. That’s commitment.
On a broader level, a lot of people do not like rap. After interviewing and researching the three main reasons rap is disliked is because, it explicit, disrespectful, and cultureless. Rap is not about “bagging” on someone you hate or dislike. It’s hardly hate at all, it’s about the struggle faced within the slums or ghetto. Many think that as soon as Tupac was shot, rap became vulgar and disrespectful. The words used in rap are just expressive ways for rappers to heal the various emotions. Mainly women think these words are rude and directed towards them, yet the rapper who wrote them was expressing their own feelings. Rather than running around shooting each other rap is another way to heal. Heal the pain, the stress, the drama – not drowning. Rap may have “lost its culture” to some people, but Tupac and Biggie were just the beginning of greatness, they paved the road. Now we’re all walking down it. Day by day. Night by night. Rap is most definitely explicit, but in the end it adds a flare to the song and it would not be rap without its explicitly thriving words.
I also think that at the end of the day no matter what genre of music you like it will always depend on who you are. Nothing defines you other than the way you simply are. The songs on your ipod represent the sounds and lyrics that you enjoy or could even relate you. When I have a crappy day I head home and put my headphones on, I don’t only do it to tune out everything else, but so I can listen to the message the writer, instrumentalist, and artist is trying to get across. The musical bar is set high and will continue to expand.
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