When will rap music be less mainstream?

Whoa...the music industry is GETTING cheesy?

No, Bong-futility runs the music business now, a 50 plus year old loser furiously holding onto a youth past who owns a few gentlman's clubs in the San Fernando valley makes him what we need.

You know the dude, the loser next to you college kid backstage passing stories about Jimmy and the good old day, then hanging trying to hang out on the fringe of the rap community by letting them have free lap-dances at his club.

Dude, I pity you, give it up, your not cool or hip, your a loser, grow up.

01-10-10: Sit
Most rap I've heard comes off much too angry, misguided, uninformed, full of predujice, rather rote/uncreative/repeticious and the like for my tastes.

That is a common misconception by those not experienced with rap/hip-hop. While most popular rap is gangsta or hardcore, the actual genre covers a wide universe that fuses almost every known other musical style within it, including country music. Classical and bluegrass might be the exception.

I usually suggest that the uninitiated and curious start out with the jazz-infused rap/hip-hop as an introduction.

One thing people have to take into consideration is that some hip-hop/rap is made simply for the flow of the rhythm and rhyme, where the lyrics will mean nothing at all. This isn't unheard of in rock & roll, either. There are plenty of great, classic, rock songs with utter, nonsensical, crap for lyrics.

A great example of this is 1993's "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" and "Nickel Bags" by Digable Planets from their cd "Reachin (A New Refutation of Time and Space)" which reached the Top 15 on the Billboard Charts and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 1994. They were one of the early hip-hop acts to fuse jazz samples with funk and vocal delivery which mirrored the style of jazz musicians. Groups like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and others approached music from a 180 degree opposite direction of the hardcore gangsta rap of NWA, Ice-t, etc. that was so big at the time. Their movement was about peaceful intellectualism, raps equivalent of Flower Power.

Guru's Jazzmatazz Vols 1-4 are considered definitive collections where he collaborated with jazz artists like Branford Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, along with soul vocalists like Chaka Khan on "Watch What You Say".

Across the Pond, French artists like MC Solaar were forging their own style jazz and funk infused hip-hop. Solaar's Nouveau Western(from Prose Combat) is one of the classic examples from that period. Solaar ended up collaborating with Guru's original band Gangstarr on Le Tempto

At the same time, groups like Arrested Development were taking hip-hop's peaceful intellectualism in a slightly different direction by fusing funky backbeat with more traditional soul & reggae music flourishes. Their lyrics specifically preached non-violence, education, and respect for women. Their cd "3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of..." broke new ground with it's simplistic, funky, positive style. The songs "Everyday People" and "Tennessee" both reached #1 on the charts, "Mr Wendel" reeached #6, and earned them won two Grammy Awards in 1993 for Best New Artist and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, and were also named Band of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine.

Other styles of hip-hop/rap exist simply for the lyrics and the music on provides a backbeat for the cadence of delivery. Personally, I consider a lot of Dylan's early works to be like this since I don't like his voice or music. Not saying that a lot of rap artists are on Dylan's level songwriting wise, but neither are a lot of rock artists, either. Although, I do think quite a few early rappers like Public Enemy wrote equally as powerful social commentary at their height.

Then, there is whole 'nother segment that simply about self-mocking humor. Just good old funtime party music - rap's equivalent of the B-52's or Van Halen.

I'm not suggesting that you, or others that dislike rap, will enjoy or even appreciate the musical styles of these groups, just that the genre is not entirely violence and misogyny-laden. There is tons of highly regarded, well selling, artistic and flat-out funny acts that refute that mindset.

I, personally, am not a huge rap/hip-hop fan(more of jazz, rock, hard rock, & alternative guy), but there is lots of stuff that i do enjoy and I always keep an open ear for something new.

If anyone likes they style of stuff sampled above, I'm sure there a few of us around here that put together a list of quality songs/cd's to groove to.

Dark.,

The Arrested Devolpment work you sight is on my all-time favs list. Also dc Talk and PM Dawn. What other rap today has this musical flavor to it?

The others you shared above just don't do it for me.

Any of you like Maroon 5 - this is a rap hip hop influenced pop group. Kind of Jamiroquai meets a rap beat like Eminem?

Anyway, just to say that those who dismiss rap out of hand simply don't get it.