Rap

rap can be: a) a solid genre of music that has artistic merit and lyrics with message and deeper meaning than the lyrics themselves (see eminem, 2pac, jedi mind tricks, nas, mos def) b) a cliche genre that has really half assed lyrics about materialism (which seems to be going on more and more these days), girls, how better you are than other people. its basically all shit talking and things that you wouldnt have to really think about the lyrical content, or comprehend any kind of musical complexity (ie tempo, tone, mood of the song, different movements of the song) other than the rappers flow to the beat. im not saying its easy to rap (flow wise that is) but theres so many rappers out there that just couldnt care less about their art (ie 50 cent, Nelly, a shitload of others i cant name at the top of my head rite now) and just write a bunch of lyrics that have no meaning and nobody will ever remember in 20-25 years. the list can keep going on and on and it gives people the wrong impression about rap. dont get me wrong, i am a rocker and a musician myself, and i listen to just about any genre out there (except country or opera, everything else is fair game) but i listen to rap, just nothing that i listed above. dont diss rap until you have listened to artists who use their rap as an expression of their artistic concepts and views.